Who are Super Speeders? Glad you asked:

This pattern of someone being killed and the response from a Public Works department being: we just need one more consultant led study is so maddening. “(We) need the data from the speed study and the volume study to let us know kind of what we’re looking at” www.opb.org/article/2026...

These jackets are great! Get one while you can.

San Francisco is showing that speed cameras actually change driver behavior and make streets safer. This is what effective safety policy looks like. More cities, including San Mateo, should get on board.

Raleigh, NC rolled out an interesting e-bike voucher program last year. When cost barriers were reduced, e-bike adoption surged and new owners rode far more often. The biggest barrier to further impact: unsafe streets, gaps in networks, and routes that didn’t feel comfortable.

There's a short, straight line from excellent journalism to a functioning democracy. @calmatters.org may well be the best in the business. Their series on California's deadly drivers caught the attention of the state legislature, and will ultimately save lives. calmatters.org/investigatio...

Modal filters are some of my favorite things when cycling in urban areas. I'd like to make a tour of all the modal filters in London. Tell me your favorites.

Winter cities: build bike networks anyway. California: perfect weather, somehow still stuck.

I'm attending a @transbaycoalition.bsky.social Peninsula Car-Free Happy Hour. Join me! actionnetwork.org/events/penin...

For folks who don't want to read the million skeets in this thread, the bike lanes are safe (for now) while the city contemplates a new alternative: an extremely expensive $10,000,000 project to create a one way street that would include parking and bike lanes.

Storing lots of cars is an equity issue mostly for people with the money to afford lots of cars. I should update this graphic to highlight the census tracts the Humboldt bike lanes runs through. www.carlitesanmateo.com/blog/car-acc...

At this intersection drivers are effectively given a wide, sweeping turn (~40–45 ft), closer to a freeway-style on-ramp curve than a cautious neighborhood corner. The design of this intersection invites speed, prioritizing driver convenience over the safety of people who aren’t in cars.

I missed this reporting over the summer but the success of the two blocks of pedestrian mall in San Mateo are incredible: "Foot traffic within parts of downtown San Mateo increased nearly 20% from last year and a whopping 120% since 2023" bit.ly/4kgXovq

Traffic diverters are one of those rare wins where everyone benefits. Eliminate cut-through traffic, keep local access, and suddenly a street becomes quieter, safer, and actually pleasant to walk or bike on. Extra bonus: your city can try them out with temporary materials and very little cost!

Cities completely underutilize traffic calming and modal filters on local sidestreets. not only do they make local streets safer to bike and walk along, but they also make the neighborhood look better too!

It’s common sense to proactively address/mitigate climate change. It’s common sense to reduce pollution, emissions and particulates in cities. It’s common sense to proactively cool cities, quiet cities, clean cities. It’s common sense to move more people in less space and with lower public costs.

A real world example of why it is important to include younger residents in how we plan our cities. This parent has enabled their 14 year old to get around independently and that enables them to make ends meet in our high cost of living area.

Latest San Mateo Daily Journal poll on speed limits shows strong support for street safety! This roughly matches the yearly polling the city does as well. Things often fall apart when we get down to specific streets and specific solutions.

About 1 in 5 San Mateo residents can’t rely on a personal car for daily trips. In many neighborhoods, it’s closer to 1 in 3. Limited car access shows up most in lower-income areas. www.carlitesanmateo.com/blog/car-acc...

More than 2/3rds of San Mateo County driving commuters don’t want to drive.

San Mateo is putting out a $6.5 million project to bid and it is just maddening how bad some of these planned intersections are for pedestrians. One well-designed example and two poorly designed ones for reference.

Setup my whole morning to make it to work for a 9 AM meeting in person. Meeting was canceled just after getting on my Caltrain 😤. I did get to learn that these earlier trains are packed! @caltrain.com is getting too popular! Tell your friends the train sucks.

Quick stop to drop off some mail. Errands by bike are the best!

Priorities.

Entitled residents of San Mateo protest for the ripping out a bike lane so they can recover free public storage of their private vehicles nearby school students be damned.

In more civilized countries this liability is flipped. This is is a shameful law passed in New Jersey. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strict_...

@carlitesanmateo.bsky.social I think you'll love this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxGY...

I grew up in MN and have been in touch with friends that live in the middle of this madness. Check in on your friends if they live in MN (especially Minneapolis). Even with everything shared online I’ve been assured it’s 10x worse in person.

I wish my morning bike photos had scenery this awesome!

Love days I can commute by bike and Caltrain. I did forget a jacket but with all the folks in MN battling ice, snow, and ICE in much worse weather I can’t complain.

"Segregated cycle lanes – those physically separated from cars – were popular with both regular cyclists and regular drivers. Painted lanes on the road were far less liked, while the option of having no cycle lanes at all was the least popular with both groups." Score one for #PaintIsNotProtection

There are so many hard decisions to make right now. Keeping parking mandates is not one of them. Literally one of the easiest things policymakers can do to support their economy and make government more efficient.

I think it's pretty remarkable how, despite the trillions of dollars we've spent and the century of constant campaigning we've been subjected to in order convince us otherwise, some part of us *still knows* that car dependency is a terrible way to live, and most people still don't want it.

Ran into the best kind of traffic on the way to the train this morning.

"Why not let people operate cafes out of their homes or allow new cafes in residential areas?" Yes, please. I wish my neighborhood had more local and interesting cafes. Closest is a Starbucks on ECR which is not fun to walk to because of its location. darrellowens.substack.com/p/legalize-c...

Where I'm located e-bikes *insanely* outperform buses, and often beat driving (due to congestion, parking). E-bike easily beats bus by 2x on any given point-to-point trip. The reasons to forego e-bike are: lack of safe infrastructure, rider ability, bike maintenance, theft risk, more than 1 person.

The best way to discourages ppl from riding a bike is to make the infrastructure so dangerous you just give up. I can’t fathom a reason why my elected municipal rep would tolerate placing vulnerable road users in this much harm other than to stop people from choosing a bike to move equitably #BikeTO

Ran into two neighbors on my train/shuttle commute yesterday. Would have never run into them if I decided to drive to work instead. Also got to chat with a previous coworker that I haven't seen in a while. My non-car commute takes a bit longer but is overall way healthier in so many ways!

Still in surprisingly solid shape over here. I'm impressed we are approaching three months with these still standing.

It’s apparently not a crime to hit two children on bikes and kill a third in San Mateo County using those-darn-e-bikes defense. www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/n...

Great read and love the framing of investing in the traffic we want. "..more than half the trips that we take are less than 3 miles and can be easily taken by bicycles..." www.davisenterprise.com/forum/commen...

As a result of hard-hitting reporting from @calmatters.org, legislators in California are proposing new laws to discourage drunk driving. As happy as I am to see this, it's amazing how many times you have to be caught drunk behind the wheel before we take your license away.

I wish California would do this. Oh, wait, we did but it got vetoed. www.kcra.com/article/gov-...

Every sidewalk bicyclist is a vote for protected bike lanes.

Took the @samtrans.com ECR bus to Little League evaluations this weekend. It was a fun outing with our younger kiddo and we had nice walks on both ends of the trip to chat. Glad to have so many great transit options in our neighborhood!

Over half of San Mateo County drivers would prefer not to drive alone--but the county's transportation infrastructure does not deliver that for them.

Can you imagine the outrage if this type of penalty was even possible in the US? First offense was 7 mph over the speed limit, second was 9 mph. Neither of these are even a ticket in the current CA speed camera trials 🤯. Fined ~$3,000 and can't drive for 6 months. www.goal.com/en/lists/ars...

Next weekend, we're visiting Austin, Texas for an inspiring afternoon centered on our new book, 'Women Changing Cities'. This is a special opportunity to hear how women leaders—mayors, planners, advocates, and policymakers—are reshaping cities to be more equitable, sustainable, and people-centered.

It's cool seeing other smaller cities in CA taking on some interesting street safety projects. We need more of these projects that engage students in making their streets safer. midvalleytimes.com/article/news...