*ahem*
img.sfbabc.org/2026-01-18_s...

Plus 1 to the questions of:
-Cars are California's largest source of emissions, if elected what would he do to get more transit, bike lanes, e-bikes, HSR out faster and boost infill housing construction
-Some question around making state agencies (CPUC/Caltrans) do better
-future of utilities/DG

Oofta

And yeah, Chapter 6 talks about that a bit more specifically -- but there are so many places on the "inside" of transportation issues that are for show rather than substance and making change often takes seeing things very clearly

Agreed!

There is a time and a place for studies, but as many great activists say in Chapter 1 -- lack of studies aren't the reason our movement loses fights.

Air Canada suspends 6 routes 'no longer economically feasible' amid jet fuel cost crisis | CBC News Air Canada has suspended service on six different routes, both domestic and cross-border, as the war in the Middle East drives up fuel costs.

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

See you there!

Map of the West Oakland project with all of the trees that can be saved marked with a green check "There are 39 trees outside of building footprints. It may be possible to save most of them!" "Stone Pines (#16 and #17) at the BART entrance are the largest trees and are no where near a building"

39 out of the 63 trees are outside of a building footprint and could be saved

Especially important to save the large Stone Pines at entrance to BART. They are in the future plaza area anyway

No need to kill mature tree in a plaza where you were just going to plant a new tree anyway!

Bay Area transit agencies are seeing ridership climb as gas prices rise, weather improves Bay Area transit agencies are seeing ridership climb, with some systems now getting close to pre-pandemic levels. But is it sustainable?

Significant increases in transit ridership when gas prices rise means the cost of transit was chasing riders away

abc7news.com/post/bay-are...

Also shout out to the podcast Normal Gossip for having all sorts of stories showcasing a range of early-COVID era experiences.

Would love to see more art/short stories depicting that.

I think it'd be so useful to have more shared understanding and common archetypes around people's different early COVID experiences.

Mine was the "podding up with a few friends & lots of online socializing/zoom events" type, not the "my close ones died or became disabled" type.

Fun fact: public transit, bikes, walking, and personal mobility devices exist AND can be quickly scaled up with local and state government support so as to help even more people.

Every gallon of gas consumption avoided by helping people get around w/out a car helps lower prices for everyone else

My take is that generally available car share is a tough sell in most cities without VC or public subsidy.

It’s a shame we spent all that money on private EV car/charger subsidies instead of plowing it all into public EV car share subsidies.

Sucks.

I liked the idea of the neighborhood based peer-to-peer car sharing thing - I feel like there are a lot of spots in Oakland/Emeryville/Berkeley where that'd work well

I feel like I haven't seen much talk about car-sharing as a transportation solution/a system that helps support car-lite density lately....

Did car-sharing end up being more hype than impact or is it something still chugging along and helping make communities more accessible or something else?

Think Carter's hat is peak style? Well, you're right!

And the only way to get such a stylish hat is to volunteer and help us reach the November ballot!

luma.com/connectbayarea

Also, the next one is June 14th! Mark your calendar www.vivacallesj.org

Carter in a green hat that says "fund the bus" while wearing a poster that says "fund the bus sign here" in a green floral shir, holding clipboards at the Viva Calle street festival in San Jose

Amazing time being one of a whole bunch of folks at Viva Calle collecting signatures to help save BART, Caltrain and drastically expand bus service in Santa Clara County!

Get involved & join the fun www.transbaycoalition.org/regional-tra...

Interesting!

Exactly-- as someone who's heart rate spikes when I get on the highway, it'd be interesting to see how common or uncommon that is

Would be interesting to see a heart rate monitor study of people using different methods of commuting

(social engineering in the political science sense, not in the information security sense)

I suppose. Though, in a way political/community organizers are a sort of scientist/practitioners of the social science.

But yes, when it comes to solving lots of issues, we've already got the stuff from the labs and r&d departments we need. It's a deployment and "social engineering" question

(except we do know how to overcome selfishness, greed, and apathy -- it takes work, but it's work we can all do and learn to do better. Chapters 1,3,4, 5, and 6 have more press.princeton.edu/books/paperb... cc @princetonupress.bsky.social )

Signature Gathering at Car-Free Telegraph Rally · Luma Join us to start gathering signatures for Connect Bay Area, the five-county regional transit funding measure at the Car-Free Telegraph for People Rally. We…

Ok -- that's enough computer/scrolling time for today. Gonna go get signatures to help save & improve the Bay Area's transit! (I'll be at the Car-Free Telegraph Rally luma.com/7blum6k4. Lots of events throughout the region to check out here luma.com/connectbayar...)

That's the fun and easy part!

Although an increasing number of my friends *ahem @harry-n.bsky.social * have taken to saying "oh, you wrote a book?" whenever it comes up. Seems like some people may have gotten the message once or twice already?

Big if true

Preparing a presentation on activism and thinking about how 80% of my book writing process was editing and distilling

Plus it'll make Sacramento to LA via Gold Runner, CAHSR, and Amtrak bus about as fast as driving. Potentially faster than driving depending on traffic & schedules.

Not bad considering that's not exactly the main use case for the system

Will be interesting to see what happens with it once the initial spine of high speed rail comes online! Gold Runner + HSR = Sacramento to Bakersfield in ~4 (probably less depending on how soon you switch from Amtrak to CAHSR).

googlemap showing that taking the train from Sacramento to Fresno is nearly identical as the time it takes to drive from Sacramento to Fresno

TIL that train travel time between Sacramento (pop ~530k) and Fresno (pop ~550k) is comparable to driving time between the two cities

I wonder what other pairings of cities of over 500k in the US are in a similar situation

A photo of papers that together say "Fund the bus" The top set of papers has the letters colored in in orange and yellow. The second set of papers are yet to be colored in. Paint pens are also laying on the table

Sometimes transit activism is about metaphorically coloring outside the lines and dreaming up new possibilities...

Sometimes it's literally coloring in the lines

My book doesn't talk much about the importance of paint pens but there's other good stuff there!
press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...