As NYC's emergency response times rise and the bus lane network grows, these lanes could serve as a traffic relief valve for emergency vehicles. But so far, city officials have barely considered how first responders can make use of this resource. www.remappingdebate.org/node/2492

Here at the launch of the Transit Priority Atlas for the Transit Costs Project. @chittimarco.bsky.social has done amazing work (using incredibly gorgeous diagrams); this is an unbelievable resource for North America! tpa.transitcosts.com

Houston is a living townhome laboratory with a huge range of styles and quality. As other cities re-embrace townhomes, they should take the best from Houston (street-fronting, engaging designs) and reject the worst (blank walls and fences facing the street.) www.planetizen.com/features/137...

4th and 5th tallest towers in LA, with 2,500 units, just proposed next to the new D Line subway extension. The project would also include 2,100 parking spaces.

This outlines Toronto Model of transit that I’ve been talking about for many years (and am working on a book about!). Basically, principle is that universal network of frequent, all-day, every day bus service is essential ingredient for genuinely useful transit. open.substack.com/pub/infrasto...

Whhhhyyy this color palette??? sfyimby.com/2026/05/form...

WMATA casually announcing plans for a transformative BRT project

I don't hate this. Downtown data centers are an interesting land use, especially if they can be incorporated into existing office towers. Clean energy sources, really good sound proofing and a vertical layout can help fix a lot of the externalities of data centers and other industrial buildings.

Check out this excerpt of @benschneider.bsky.social's The Unfinished Metropolis: Igniting the City-Building Revolution in @terrainorg.bsky.social: www.terrain.org/2026/nonfict...

Some of the benefits of automating rail lines: "[A]utomation has enabled the three Paris Metro lines to accommodate 30% more passengers than before, thanks to a reduction in minimum headways from 105 seconds to 85 seconds and the reallocation of train car space that was used by human operators."

Could the rise of robotaxis help normalize the idea of automated trains? www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

One of the biggest deficiencies of the free buses idea is the fact that it would push low-income riders off of the subway and on to slower, less reliable buses. The City Council's new Fair Fares proposal corrects for this.

With the City Council coalescing around an expanded free fares program for low-income riders, Mamdani has a golden opportunity to claim victory and walk back his free buses pledge. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/07/n...

Glad this study on America's "transit moonshot" is getting more attention. I still think it's important to look more specifically at the projects, technologies, and operational practices that would actually give the US world-class transit. benjaminschneider.substack.com/p/what-shoul...

Great @conordougherty.bsky.social piece on housing production funds, which really could be the next big thing in affordable housing development. The concept is very elegant, but it will be important to track how different programs perform in practice. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/04/b...

The MTA is preparing to make like Fleetwood Mac and go their own way to pay for the Interborough Express, given the way Trump Republicans are treating New York transit projects nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/05/01/m...

If the MTA is in fact moving toward instituting all-door boarding on buses, that would be very big news. This is one of the most effective — and cheapest — ways to improve bus speeds and reliability. It's one of the main reasons behind SFMuni's bus success. www.amny.com/news/fare-ev...

Revolving loan funds for housing can be hard to define. At once public and private; a radically new approach and a straightforward extension of state capacity. Whatever they are, they could be a powerful tool to supercharge housing production: www.remappingdebate.org/article/revo...

New "Unfinished Metropolis" excerpt now up on @terrainorg.bsky.social. In this section, I grapple with industry's mixed legacy in American cities, and explore how the trade-offs inherent to urban industry are a microcosm of the broader challenges of city-building. www.terrain.org/2026/nonfict...

Interesting: The MTA has dropped the Sutter Ave. stop from its latest IBX maps. (See before and after pics.) This was probably the line's most redundant station, making it an easy cut as the agency looks for cost reductions and travel time savings.

Montgomery County’s revolving loan fund has garnered a lot of attention in the housing world. But much less has been written about the larger movement it set in motion. I took a deep dive into this housing innovation: Its spread, its potential, and the political debates surrounding it.

This is the first project in the U.S. to fully automate an existing transit line — something several European cities have already done. Automated metros come with big operational, economic and safety benefits: benjaminschneider.substack.com/p/why-automa...

Astonishing levels of hypocrisy from the "free speech" social network. Half of the content on X is more incendiary than this! Ironically, this will only bring more visibility to Gil's work.

Huge ridership jump for Brightline Florida in March

This gets at an underrated benefit of the Grand Army Plaza redesign or any major pedestrianization. All of a sudden, these become much more appealing venues for community life, whether it be protests, festivals or just hanging out outside. It's very Mamdanian. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/n...

SB 9 is taking off in LA the way ADUs did 7 years before.

This is a very helpful article about inclusionary zoning. Seattle passed IZ in 2017 as part of a "grand bargain" that tied affordable housing mandates to upzonings. In its first few years, it was a big success... www.theurbanist.org/builders-pu...

Seattle Social Housing is really happening

Seattle Social Housing — the closest approximation of a Vienna-style municipal housing developer in the US — has over $100m on hand and is moving ahead with its first acquisitions. I spoke with interim CEO Tiffani McCoy about where things stand🧵: www.remappingdebate.org/article/soc...

I feel like the inclusionary zoning bashing on here is getting out of hand. It's a housing tool that needs to be used judiciously, but it doesn't need to be thrown out of the toolbox. In dense, wealthy neighborhoods, it's a mistake not to have some sort of IZ. You're leaving value on the table.

Seems important for this project to be built as concurrently as possible with the Flatbush bus lanes. Better to minimize the confusion and disruption along this corridor.

Exclusive: Mayor Mamdani's DOT is planning to eliminate car traffic on one end of Grand Army Plaza, reconnecting its famous arch to Prospect Park. free link: www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/n...

Flatbush BRT is really happening. This might be the most transformative transit project in Brooklyn in living memory. (Not a very high bar, but still.) It will also have major pedestrian safety benefits, and it'll give Flatbush a fresh, modern look. gothamist.com/news/nyc-to-...

The development plan for Country Club Plaza in KC is a great example of a mall-to-midtown transition. A crucial ingredient, which this article overlooks, is the recent extension of the KC Streetcar to this area. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/05/b...

Excited to announce that I've joined Remapping Debate as an investigative and policy reporter! My objective, and that of the outlet, is to bring attention to under-discussed policy issues in NYC and nationally. Send tips to: [email protected] www.remappingdebate.org/stay-updated...

For @usa.streetsblog.org, I wrote about how zoning has always been intertwined with transportation policy. As zoning increasingly comes into question, it’s essential that the transportation side of the equation is not forgotten: usa.streetsblog.org/2026/04/01/e...

Townhouses are great, but too many new townhouse developments in the US are set in a horrible urban design context. Townhouses ought to be on street grids. If a site can't accommodate that, then it should probably be a multifamily building. www.slowboring.com/p/make-townh...

TOMORROW, I'm excited to be talking with author @benschneider.bsky.social at Cleveo Books! Join us if you're in the Cleveland area! luma.com/1zq3kmfw

I can be convinced that the top priority for an LGA transit connection is a one-seat ride to Manhattan. It's still worth studying difficulty/expense of bringing IBX trains to the airport campus vs. traditional subway trains. The geometry of IBX track and stations could be superior for the last mile

The Washington Metro was only made possible by the District's freeway revolt. In the 1950s, insane federal officials wanted to 450 miles of freeways through DC, destroying 200K homes. Freeway fighters stopped the plan, and diverted $2b in fwy funds to construct Metro.

The IBX was initially envisioned as part of a grand regional rail network for the Tri-State. The current plan will be useful for Brooklyn and Queens, but nowhere beyond. With a few complimentary projects, the IBX can live up to its original promise: benjaminschneider.substack.com/p/unlocking...

Happy birthday to the Washington Metro, which opened 50 years ago today with service on 4.6 mi of Red Line between Rhode Is. Ave & Farragut N. System now serves 130 mi. The DC Metro shows that, with good planning & enough investment, the public sector can succeed & build something extraordinary.

SF's Marina Safeway development is one step closer to reality sfyimby.com/2026/03/san-...

The @seattletimes-rss.bsky.social puts this week's Crosslake Connection opening into context. This is a hugely important project that will finally give the Seattle area a formidable regional transit system. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

"City transportation officials also say they’re finalizing plans to redesign traffic patterns at Grand Army Plaza on the park's northern end. The transportation department plans a new round of public outreach for this spring." gothamist.com/news/constru...

IRS staffing is down 28% from 2024 levels. Fewer audits and auditors will likely translate to less federal tax revenue over time. But IRS cuts could also trickle down to states and cities — an eventuality that does not appear to be on officials' radar. www.remappingdebate.org/article/irs-...

I’ll be discussing “The Unfinished Metropolis” with @schmangee.bsky.social at Clevo Books in downtown Cleveland the evening of Tuesday, 3/31. Clevelanders, come through! luma.com/1zq3kmfw

And here is the pretty map, illustrating how the IBX will improve access to places it doesn't directly hit, including Midtown, Lower Manhattan, downtown Brooklyn, and JFK.

The IBX, a proposed transit line linking Brooklyn and Queens, will have an impact far beyond the neighborhoods it travels through. As the NYC's first orbital transit line, the project will shift travel patterns across subway network. benjaminschneider.substack.com/p/the-ibx-c...

There's more to Silicon Valley's bland architecture than suburban sprawl or the design sensibilities of nerdy engineers. Its architecture also reflects "a self-conscious aversion to architectural representations of hierarchy, stability, and technological permanence."