Peak road, peak automobile

The US Spends More Time and Money Building Transit Than Most Countries. Inefficient Community Engagement May Help Explain Why. Public participation remains essential, and policymakers can take steps to ensure engagement processes reflect the entire community’s needs without increasin…

Transit construction costs in the US keep rising, and projects keep taking longer and longer to build.

One possible explanation? Ineffective, inefficient community engagement processes, we argue @urbaninstitute.bsky.social ⏬

The event is accessible by subway from the W 4th St-Wash Sq station. Come chat and enjoy some cookies : D

At Northwestern, a flashback to a time when government reports were works of art The Transportation Library at Northwestern is a repository of old state and federal reports with creative graphic art on their covers.

I'm beyond thrilled to see Watermelon Truck in the @chicagotribune.com. Thanks @ninametz.bsky.social for highlighting this really special part of our collection. www.chicagotribune.com/2026/04/08/t...

Anything to avoid fixed-guideway long term capacity improvement investements : D

The (7)'s problems are on the other side : D
yet these ideas keeps on dragging it on the other side :C

“This legislation would prevent the MTA from adopting the industry standard and realizing operational efficiencies as it deploys new trains designed to work with the billions of dollars of advanced signal technology being installed throughout the subway system,” the letter reads.

Groups urge Albany to reject NYC transit union’s 2-person subway crew push An alliance of business groups, government watchdogs and transit advocates is calling on state lawmakers to reject the Transport Workers Union’s renewed push to enshrine two-person subway crews in sta...

“...Reinvent Albany, the Partnership for New York, the Regional Plan Association, the Citizens Budget Commission, the Effective Transit Alliance and NYU’s Marron Institute voiced their opposition to a pair of bills working their way through Albany."

www.nydailynews.com/2026/04/01/g...

Earlier NYCT plans gives a constructivist vibe of throwing optimistically copius amount of manpower and civil materials at a capacity problem none at the time would have predicted that smarter trains would have made it largely irrelevant.

Nowadays the system is bogged down by its vestiges.

Happy Open Data Week!

Our latest report was built on Open Data, and the data says NYC has WAYYY too much to lose if QueensWay is built.

Tell Mayor Mamdani, Listen to the Data: NO WAY to QueensWAY!

actionnetwork.org/letters/it-a...

Thank you, Janno, for the recognition of QueensLink's Initial Business Case and Ridership Report! We look forward to the MTA's review of our findings on this transformative project. #BuildtheQueensLink

QueensWay should not come at the expense of QueensLink. For those who haven't been following this years-long debate, a translation:

A linear park is great — but not if it blocks future public transit on a rare existing right-of-way. Queens needs both rails and trails!

QueensLink Fast Facts 🚈💨

- 75,000 daily riders, or nearly double the ridership-per-mile of IBX
- 50% more service on Queens Boulevard and 165% more through-service to the Rockaways
- 60-70% faster travel through Queens and into Brooklyn resulting in $4.9 billion in time savings for New Yorkers

Opinion: Turning Headlines Into Housing at Sunnyside Yard - City Limits "By focusing on two key areas within the Yard, a significant part of the benefit can be achieved without the same level of complication and cost."

"Since the goal is to deliver housing as soon as possible, the city should start with something smaller, faster, and more achievable, built literally on more solid ground." citylimits.org/opinion-turn...

For Zhongshan whose city econometrics disqualifies it from building a metro by itself (and LRTs too complex to run successfully), Guangzhou Line 18 is their curveball toward having fixed-guideway rapid transit in the city. All platforms are 8-cars long.

Zhongshan's 4-car sets terminate at one of the platforms in Xiangshan (top right corner) while 8 Car services continues to and from Guangzhou. Xiangshan also contains provisions to Shenzhen for Shenzhen Metro's Line 33 (Shenzhen-Dapeng Intercity) to through-run into Zhongshan.

The immediate Chinese Local-Express Metro comes into mind is Guangzhou Line 18 Zhuhai/Zhongshan Section. Zhongshan bought a bunch of 4-Car Type-D rolling stock to run their local services like a city metro. Guangzhou Metro continue to run the entire line as part of their network.

Reposting for the weekend crowds :7

This is not serious stuff. We haven’t had an infrastructure bill with a pay-for in ~50 years.

LMAO

The Portal Bridge going out as a total dumpster fire. You gotta salute it. 🫡

would be interesting to have some asian examples (colonial era oldbuilds like Hankou/Harbin/Osaka/Qingdao) sprinkled in too :D

Also Toronto Union currently sees a big problem with a very narrow throat that hampers futher improvements

The Carnot Cycle of State Capacity

NYC School of Data 2026: A Better Billion: The Math, the Map, and... View more about this event at NYC School of Data 2026

I will be going over the cost and housing models, data sources, all the maps, and the more interesting decisions into making the final product. The format will be a short presentation + longer Q&A session.

If you are interested, please RSVP for my event at sched.co/2I0nb. See you there!

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At the 10th annual NYC School of Data Conference on March 29th, 2026, I will be presenting A Better Billion: The Math, the Map, and the Methods for Expanding Transit and Housing Affordability in New York City. The session is scheduled for 3:45pm - 4:45pm at CUNY School of Law.

2/🧵

If you are interested in learning more about the technics and behind the scenes on how we have produced our transit housing expansion report, A Better Billion, then I have an event that might interest you very soon.

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The proofs are in and the publication date is set! “Transportation and the Shape of Cities” will be available this August from @islandpress.bsky.social, an imprint of . @princetonupress.bsky.social.
press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

Something something US exceptionalism

Wait...this time its US Generalism

US-based researcher: does a study, use some obscure US place as a study case, generalizes the finding as universally relevant.

Reviewers: ✅️

--

Non US researcher: does a study, use non US place as a study case, present findings as context-bound.

Reviewers: HoW iS tHis RelEVaNT for tHE DeBATe?

Table from URL showing scheduled streetcars in service versus the total fleet size.

50+ TTC streetcars sitting unused in a yard each day seems like a huge missed opportunity. (And should probably really annoy the federal and provincial govs who helped pay for them?) stevemunro.ca/2026/03/06/t...

LISTEN: Reviving the Missing Link in Queens

"When this is built, I want New Yorkers to take it for granted”

Thank you to @thecity.nyc @amysohn.bsky.social and Harry Siegel for having my on the podcast to discuss QueensLink!

www.thecity.nyc/2026/03/07/q...