It's disheartening seeing the almost inevitable GoFundMe links after pedestrian deaths or serious injuries. So many systems failing people all at once.

We are proud to announce our 2026 bill package to make our communities more walkable, bikeable, and transit-oriented. Here’s what we’ve got going on in Sacramento this year:

San Mateo is poised to add lots of new housing. The housing we add near transit shouldn't force parking costs on renters. Save ~$2,400/year AND be able to walk to Caltrain! www.carlitesanmateo.com/blog/unbundl...

California watching yet another state successfully roll out e-bike rebates. They are iterating on their rebate program before we can even roll one out!

This crosswalk in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes NP is so comfortable because of the short crossing distance. Two 9ft lanes and that's it. It feels tiny compared to the 35-40ft crossings back home. The Big Island also has these raised crosswalks/speed tables on the highway. Great pedestrian infrastructure! 🤙🏼🌺

"No parent should ever have to bury their child because someone decided to drive recklessly. Niyell was her parents’ whole world — but she was only one of 16 children killed on NYC’s streets that year. Sixteen families lost a child, a universe, a hope." amsterdamnews.com/news/2026/03...

This is a great case study and I love the flow chart in the Toronto Bikeway Design Guide. Also, diverters to the rescue again!

Local paper: San Mateo is hitting its housing goals Local residents: When are we expanding all our roads and adding more bars All I can think about now is the dril drunk driving meme The people want traffic and drunk driving!

City leaders will see stories like this and decide to ban the e bikes, not the cars

Ugh nevermind, Papan's AB 1557 has now been amended to reduce the speed cap to 16 mph for both Class 1 (pedal assist, currently 20 mph speed cap) & Class 2 (throttle assist, currently 20 mph cap) e-bikes. Imagine if legislators cared this much about 4 mph speed differences for driver of 2 ton+ cars

"What can we install this week?" should come before "What can we build in two years?" Two pedestrians have been killed by left-turning drivers in San Mateo since September 2024. Quick builds provide proven fixes that can go in within days. www.carlitesanmateo.com/blog/ecr-cen...

The Top 10 vehicles sold today are on average 10% longer than ones sold ~20 years ago. We are losing ~10% of street parking just to the bloat of vehicles. I deleted a previous version of this post because I misread my previous numbers and mixed up some census plus vehicle size data growth data

The noise difference between stopped traffic and six lanes of traffic. This bus stop is so loud! 20 dBA louder is about 4x louder

It always surprises me how low cycling mode share is even in cities with huge wins: Paris 11%, Amsterdam 30%, Munich 20%. Amsterdam and Munich still have more private vehicle trips than bikes. Making space for bikes makes cycling safer and more accessible, and makes driving safer for everyone too.

This cat is living its best life observing the B St pedestrian mall

This isn't even radical. This is just 'what if we designed one street for people who aren't in a 4,000 lb vehicle. More please!

I am a parking reformer because I live in a country where self-professed environmentalists, like this @sierraclub.org leader, oppose affordable housing because it ”doesn’t have enough parking.”

These headlines drive me nuts. Why the obsessive focus on the revenues? Some alternatives: "L.A. Installs 125 Speed Cameras to Reduce Traffic Deaths on Its Most Dangerous Streets" "L.A. Installs 125 Speed Cameras as Traffic Deaths Top 300 for Third Straight Year" hoodline.com/2026/03/l-a-...

The 1700 El Camino housing proposal in San Mateo cuts parking by 45% thanks to AB 2097. This saves ~$15M in construction costs, or ~$200/mo per unit. The city should also require unbundled parking so car-free/lite residents near the ECR & Caltrain aren't subsidizing stalls they don't need.

The other day it dawned on me that I'd passed my third anniversary of being a non-car owner. Here are some reflections on what works and what doesn't. www.terrainfirma.co.uk/car-free-exp...

From the front lines of proposed housing in San Mateo. Many people are wondering: “Will there be a "Wind Study" to determine how a 6 story building affects the environment of the established neighborhoods?” “Where will their smoking areas be?” “Couldn't it just be a 3 or 4 story building?”

I absolutely utilize my Class 3 e-bike to enable some of the streets without safe infrastructure to be rideable. All of these streets would be safer with proper protected infrastructure but that isn’t happening anytime soon.

Spotted on our ped mall. The indicator species of an up and coming bikeable city.

“Ever found yourself driving to the grocery store or coffee shop even tho it’s a 10-minute walk & perfectly nice day? New research suggests the reason isn’t just distance—it’s how the walk feels…it’s the sights, street life & amenities along the way that strongly shape whether people decide to walk”

It keeps amazing me how effective this rollout is going. The small number of drivers that pose a huge risk to other drivers and pedestrians/cyclists is so so small but without automated enforcement it seems like they just keep putting everyone at risk. I wish San Mateo was ready to get on board!

I was just looking at the City of San Mateo numbers recently and curious what to compare them to. I guess we're in a better place than Oakland but even 50% seems like a lower than ideal number.

Car dependency is an extremely inequitable way to structure society. In places where car ownership is optional, low and high income households spend roughly an equal % of income on transportation. In car dependent places, transportation costs are 4x higher for low income households.

The eternal neighborhood conversation

I would love to get access to data on vacancies and sales tax revenue on the two pedestrianized blocks in Downtown San Mateo vs. the rest of downtown. I’m guessing it would tell a similar story. Anyone have ideas on how to get that data?

This book has found me at just the right time (in my 40s and realizing I should take birds more seriously)

This person is going to be so pissed when they hear about AB 2097! cayimby.org/legislation/... (I should really not be spending time on Nextdoor threads about housing at my local Safeway)

Fun fact: My proposed headline for this one was "The Road Safety Metric That Needs to Die." I'm really, really tired of traffic engineers sealioning about US crash deaths being (slightly) less horrific if you divide them by VMT instead of population.

This is more interesting than I originally realized. Long Beach is part of the original state pilot but that excluded PCH. This add on bill would allow the inclusion of PCH. Long Beach is getting serious about speed cameras!

Some good coverage of the frustrations of working with any city on traffic safety. So many solutions are dependent on crashes rather than proactively making things safe. I'm also impressed that Long Beach provides "20 is plenty" signs for free! lbpost.com/news/why-is-...

"I have always said that it was the suburbs that killed him. It was the systemically violent and hostile way that we design our cities that killed him. It was the egotistical and patriarchal culture of entitlement to The Road that killed him."

Over 50% of trips in San Mateo are less than 3 miles! Get an e-bike and save some money folks.

What's your sign?

Maddening to see such obfuscation from the author of a bill that will criminalize people biking while doing nothing to address unsafe driving. The cause of the vast majority of deaths while biking or e-biking is drivers in CARS. If the Assemblymember truly cared about safety, she’d regulate cars.

This is what everyone in CA should be telling their state reps or city council if they come up with some whacky e-bike safety proposal.

San Mateo put in new barriers on their ped-mall. They had a plan for retractable bollards but the cost was projected to be too high so these were the alternative. Not loving how industrial/hostile they look compared to the previous solution but maybe it will grow on me.

American hero!

Working on it... but only for repeat dangerous drivers #StopSupSpeeders www.familiesforsafestreets.org/stop-super-s...

Motor vehicles make places less scenic and trains make them more scenic. This is why we need more trains (and fewer cars)! Also, why do people hate reservoirs so much?

I couldn't agree more Governor Meskill

Alternative cover art for The Pacific Circuit by @alexis-madrigal.bsky.social

> Goodbye, Tesla-style giant touchscreens: cars return to physical buttons

I went to the SJ Earthquakes game on Sat and overheard a conversation that could only happen in a Caltrain bike car: • Comparing Caltrain vs. BART wheel profiles (with illustrations) • Why BART is louder • The BART non-standard gauge origin story • Why BART never made it to Marin or SM County

One must love how free, unbounded public parking is used & abused by local entrepreneurs. Truly the highest land use we can do with this!