In 1909, the Globe ran a parody of car-centric policies By Alan Wirzbicki Globe Staff,Updated April 20, 2026, 5:26 p.m. While searching through the Globe’s archives recently, I ran across this list published in March 1909, purporting to be a new set of rules for pedestrians: It was, safe to assume, an unlabeled parody: the author, George Fitch, was “widely known as a humorist,” Rules are in a screenshot and include "Pedestrians must register and pay a $5 fee"

Thx Alan Wirzbicki at @bostonglobe.com for unearthing this early parody of the ridiculous hoops that car-centric retrofitting of cities has pushed on to anyone traveling outside of cars @tomflood.bsky.social

Boston: RETVRN to the city you were #CarLiteBoston

www.bostonglobe.com/2026/04/20/o...

I grew up in what today would be called a 15-minute city, except that back then we just called it a neighborhood.

European Citizens' Initiative Give your support !

eci.ec.europa.eu/055/public/#...

European Citizens' Initiative Give your support !

The EU must suspend the EU-Israel Trade Agreement and stop enabling apartheid Israel's genocide of Palestinians. You can sign the European Citizens Initiative calling for that here ➡️ eci.ec.europa.eu/055/public/#...

people walking on a sidewalk

WEBINAR TOMORROW: Join More Than A Sidewalk – How Great Places Encourage Walking, hosted by @urbaninstitute.bsky.social + America Walks, to explore strategies that transform streets into dynamic places. #ActivePeople

🗓️ April 21
⏰️ 2 pm ET / 11 am PT
Register: buff.ly/89B5ZpB

Cognition might emerge from embodied "grip" with the world rather than abstract mental processes A new paper challenges the traditional idea that the brain is simply a computer. Instead, it argues that human cognition and personality are built on embodied perception, relying on our ability to mai...

Cognition might emerge from embodied “grip” with the world rather than abstract mental processes
www.psypost.org/cognition-mi...

How to Revive the Art of Hanging Out Modern life makes it harder to seek out places to just be, but it’s not impossible.

www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

In a nutshell. 😊

“2 thirds of ute trips took place in urban areas – that’s according to where drivers lived and the duration of the trips.

Most were short, which produce disproportionately higher rates of emissions than longer trips, and mostly not for work purposes. Usually, there’s only 1 occupant, the driver.”

“Famine and widening food insecurity are the foreseeable consequences of military aggression in the Gulf.”

Can Sponge Cities Save Us from the Coming Floods? As the planet gets warmer and the rains fall harder, the future of flood control is looking less like a wall and something more like a park.

As the planet gets hotter, cities around the world are experiencing rain storms with record-smashing intensity.

I spent the last few months visiting places -Copenhagen, Hoboken, & NYC- that have adopted a counterintuitive idea: the safest city is one that can take water in. In @newyorker.com

The soul of the great Milanese apartment Milan’s postwar apartments were built for all. But the city is changing

The soul of the great Milanese apartment
www.ft.com/content/e6a2...

The soul of the great Milanese apartment Milan’s postwar apartments were built for all. But the city is changing

The soul of the great Milanese apartment
www.ft.com/content/e6a2...

Mamdani: "To be honest, I don't think too much about how Republicans portray me. The power of an ideology is judged in the worth of its delivery-to be told a city-run grocery store is implausible but $500 MILLION per day to kill people in Iran and Lebanon is necessary speaks to a broken politics." @TheTNHoller

An amusing theme in the article is that Tokyo won the war on cars by mistake.

Japan’s road & auto registration fees were intended to pay for roads; its ban on street parking to get more off-street lots.

But a result was that streets just around Tokyo’s commercial core look & sound like this

I know a lot of people will hate it because Leo is saying it but:

There's a narrative that rural areas are the backbone of the economy when this hasn't been true for a long time.

There's massive wealth distribution at play. That's a good thing, but there's a national blindness to it.

UK survey last month shows nearly 3 in 10 people are driving less and walking & biking more because of high fuel prices.

What's going on in PDX? Are our leaders ready to make biking, walking (and transit) fit our new reality?

(New to biking? Join our BikeBuddy program bikeloudpdx.org/bike-buddy/)

New York votes socialism.
London votes socialism.
Amsterdam votes socialism.
Paris votes socialism.
Chicago votes socialism.
Milan votes socialism.

All the capitals of capitalism are voting for socialism.

There’s a hint here somewhere.

#RISEUP We must be what they fear. The #USA is an evil Empire of corporate interests. There is no republic, no great leader coming to our rescue. Just regional managers as far as the eye can see.

Rewatch Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

That’s it. That’s the post.

….

Ok it’s not quite the whole post. The movie doesn’t have to be based on a provable conspiracy, since those are really hard to prove, & it’s a movie with cartoons! But there’s plenty of evidence of dark money attacking public transit.

Pope Leo takes a stand for peace at the risk of riling Trump Pontiff doubles down on excoriating criticism of military aggressors in the face of Trump’s ire

www.irishtimes.com/world/europe...

Younger adults are car-dependent, but more likely to switch to active travel, new study finds Younger adults in rapidly growing cities are more car-dependent than older generations, but could be quicker to move to active travel if conditions improve, new research suggests.The study, Generation...

Research in China shows younger adults rely more on cars, but are more likely to switch to walking and cycling if infrastructure improves.

A Cultural Shift Toward Living Together by Design In an era of growing social isolation, rising housing costs, and uneven access to care, multigenerational living—bringing together people of different

Intergenerational housing isn’t a niche idea anymore—it’s emerging as a powerful response to soaring housing costs, social isolation, and gaps in care.

Thanks to Krista Sykes @gsd.harvard.edu for a great article about our recent Living Together by Design event:

www.gsd.harvard.edu/2026/04/inte...

Waste firm using cargo bicycles to help businesses adapt to Dublin’s new no-bags-on-street rule A waste management company is using cargo bicycles to collect waste in the congested and confined streets of Dublin City Centre. KeyGreen, in a LinkedIn post, said: “Since introducing our ele…

irishcycle.com/2026/04/16/w...

Capsule Retreat: Building Through Process in Lebanon’s Mountain Landscape Capsule Retreat by EAST Architecture Studio redefines home through process-driven design, responding to Lebanon's evolving sociopolitical landscape.

www.archdaily.com/1040414/caps...

#wildlife #WildlifeCrossings

More photos of wildlife crossings in comments. Great idea!

Scientists Think They Could Design Entire Cities That Heal Your Brain Biophilic designs—buildings that mimic natural forms—may help reduce psychological stress.

Scientists Think They Could Design Entire Cities That Heal Your Brain
www.popularmechanics.com/science/gree...