From Australia:
"New research has found public transport fares have not been a decisive factor in pushing people to shift from car to public transport."
"Better public transport access, coverage, reliability, and travel time have a greater impact than price in changing long-term commuting habits."
They are talking like traffic engineers haven't been trying - and failing - to fix traffic congestion for the last 70+ years
It's the wrong question to ask
And a good part of the reason we're in the mess that we're in
Is USDOT launching a national congestion pricing program?
If not, any campaign to “eliminate traffic bottlenecks across America” is doomed to fail.
Behavioral science has a lot to teach us about transportation.
Here’s a related story I wrote a couple years ago.
A simple way to expand toward transit/biking trips in your city: Offer new arrivals a welcome package including a transit pass and free bikeshare trips.
These are the moments when people form new travel habits, so it's a great time for nudges!
Shoutout to RPA's Rachel Weinberger, @norton.bsky.social, and "Gridlock" Sam Schwartz for a fantastic discussion courtesy of Hunter College's urban planning program.
My takeaways ⤵️
www.linkedin.com/posts/david-...
Last week I joined a spicy panel asking whether/how AVs fit into NYC. Here's a summary.
Me: "It’s just too inefficient to have individuals inside a big box of a car. I don’t care how it’s operated. That’s just not how what you scale to make New York City a faster, more-efficient and safer place."
Interesting discussion starting around 38:40 about the impact of liability laws on safety
"In most European jurisdictions, an injured cyclist does not need to establish fault on the part of the motorist" www.slatergordon.co.uk/newsroom/cyc...
But in the Anglosphere, presumed liability is rare
Hey Denver—let's get drinks and nerd out on transportation!
This Tuesday, join @wesmars.bsky.social, @jlocantore.bsky.social, and yours truly for a reception + live recording of @lookbothwayspod.bsky.social.
All proceeds support Denver Streets Partnership.
I have not. And that doesn't seem like a ringing endorsement.
What I really want is another Winds of Change. I was absolutely obsessed with that one.
Looks like Waymos are now driving past stopped school buses in Nashville, as well as in Austin and Atlanta.
This has been happening for months, and it's been generating a ton of bad publicity. Waymo doesn't seem to know how to fix it.
OK, I clearly need to be asking you for recs, and not the other way around
"all textbooks placed a greater emphasis on accommodating demand rather than managing it"
This feels like a version of Upton Sinclair's idea that "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it"
Tomorrow's engineers aren't learning about induced demand.
"3 [of 7] textbooks omitted the idea entirely, whereas the others offered only partial coverage."
"The engineering textbooks reviewed here leave students unprepared to understand induced travel."
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
My most frigid NYC take is that Central Park is a masterpiece that reveals something new every time you visit
Despite the hype around Paris's investments in bike infrastructure for the 2024 Olympics, new research finds that they "failed to maintain usage or drive behavioral shifts, confirming their role as temporary event solutions rather than transformative urban mobility assets."
doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...
Three months after Ottawa removed its automatic safety cameras, the share of drivers following the speed limit plunged from 87% to 41%(!). "High-end speeding" is up 10x.
Automatic enforcement saves lives. If you remove it, people will die.
Not to be That Guy, but on this EOY podcast episode I named More and More More as the 2025 book I most hoped listeners read
Strong agree
A snippet from the new episode, out later this week:
What happens when car companies exaggerate what their driver assistance systems can do?
Misled consumers take dangerous risks, assuming their car will keep them safe.
NHTSA and the FTC never should’ve allowed this to happen.
Not an easy read, but an enlightening one!
Don't overlook:
- Crossings by @bengoldfarb.bsky.social
- Fighting Traffic by @norton.bsky.social
- Killed by a Traffic Engineer by @wesmars.bsky.social
yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/04/the-...
This is a perfect summation of why the constant finger wagging and victim blaming infuriates me. We simply shouldn't have a road system where pedestrians can so easily get killed. Individual choices will *never* make up for systemic flaws.
This ain’t it, boss
This is a big problem. Lumping together deaths among peds/cyclists and car occupants obscures the extent to which the US fails to protect people outside of cars.
Congress & safety advocates should push NHTSA to stop doing it.
If you're in Denver next Tuesday morning, this will be a fun one!
