Amazing! We're currently working with Bike Streets to get our routes into their (free!) low-stress bike routing app — maybe check it out while you're there and let me know how it goes? bikestreets.com
We're making it safer to get out there and bike!
Houston Bike Guide -- www.houstonbikeguide.com
Third Place Index -- thirdplaceindex.org
— but also where there are critical gaps in street, sidewalk, and signal infrastructure that could make it safer for all road users to navigate through and around some of the most dangerous intersections and thoroughfares in the greater Houston region.
The Bike Guide reveals not only where you can bike today —
The segment also highlighted Evan O'Neil's Third Place Index, discussing the way these two projects use digital mapping to make legible pathways and patterns that reveal helpful routes/places for Houstonians to explore.
This morning I got the chance to talk about the Houston Bike Guide on @houstonpublicmedia.bsky.social! Take a listen! www.youtube.com/live/5gyialk...
Hi! just following up on this. We are looking at getting the data put on Open Street Map, but it will be a manual effort. If you'd like to get plugged in to helping, please email me at houstonbikeguide@gmail.com!
Good question! I'll add it to my list of things to look in to :)
I’m so excited to bring this to more people and more places, and would love to talk to anyone who has ideas or would like to collaborate. For now, I hope you visit the Bike Guide’s website here www.HoustonBikeGuide.com and enjoy the Houston Chronicle profile www.houstonchronicle.com/projects/202...
Everybody deserves to safely enjoy their neighborhoods, towns, and cities to the fullest, and a reliable Bike Guide is foundational to that enjoyment.
The Bike Guide has expanded to include neighborhood-specific guides, a mapped network of ‘super ways,’ the biking highways of Houston, as well as supporting community rides. I’ve even started to map out all the ‘on-ramps’ to the beautiful bayou network.
It began by drawing the way I found myself consistently explaining, out loud to people, how to navigate by bike— by explaining which streets to avoid and how to get across them safely.
This project has been near and dear to me, worked on late at night and on the weekends— with many collaborators— since 2020. It’s a project based on years of trying to use bike maps, wayfinding, and infrastructure in dozens of cities.
Last month, I had the honor to be featured in the @houstonchronicle.com for initiating and leading the Houston Bike Guide—the city’s only reliable reference guide for where to and not to bike.
Have you ever been led astray on your bike by Google Maps?
Popular wayfinding routes are often dangerous to use while biking. In Houston, they’ll commonly take you down streets on our High Injury Network — which is often someone’s last bike ride.
Seems bad:
"We identified more than 30,000 tire wear particles in 24 liters of stormwater runoff from roads and parking lots after two rainstorms. In heavy traffic areas, we believe the concentrations could be much higher."
As George Monbiot recently wrote: "The one thing that can stop the rise of the far right is the one thing mainstream parties are currently not prepared to deliver: greater equality. The rich should be taxed more, and the revenue used to improve the lives of the poor."
In case you're wondering how big of a deal this is, it applies to almost any parcel in a "transit-served" location. And that includes most of the city!
And not a word about reducing the need to travel by car in the first place.
EVs may be a part of the picture of decarbonisation, but many journeys need to switch routinely to public transport, walking or cycling, so fewer people feel forced to use a car to get around - that needs investment too.
Fewer cars --> Safer streets
In London, Low Traffic Neighborhoods saw a 35% drop in all traffic injuries and a 37% drop in deaths/serious injuries.
injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/earl...
After the US DOT accidentally filed an internal memo explaining why its own case against congestion pricing is weak (nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/04/24/d...), the agency is now asking that the memo be removed from the record.
does anyone have any good readings on how to manage, like, terror and despair right now because i'm genuinely finding it very difficult to live my life from day to day without having severe moments of acute crisis
![“It’s mostly comments I get from the people that do drive in, but it isn’t going to be that significant,” Kaufman admitted. “People won't come in, or they’ll wait until they are coming [to Manhattan] to see a show or do something else. I had a couple of people who said they went to see the doctor and figured they’d come down and get pickles. They’re not going to do the one trip, they’re going to combine their trips. There's less traffic, I agree, but is it worth it?”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:rdistsjuqdr5yakpv3ryfgws/bafkreibr55vpkfcdq2fovcjngnw7m2x3rudqd4x45rkgngzg33alxfk5k4)
“It’s mostly comments I get from the people that do drive in, but it isn’t going to be that significant,” Kaufman admitted. “People won't come in, or they’ll wait until they are coming [to Manhattan] to see a show or do something else. I had a couple of people who said they went to see the doctor and figured they’d come down and get pickles. They’re not going to do the one trip, they’re going to combine their trips. There's less traffic, I agree, but is it worth it?”
More evidence supporting the theory that one reason business owners overestimate the number of customers who drive is because the only customers who complain to them about about traffic and parking are drivers.
nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/03/10/c...
Good news in @crainsnewyork.bsky.social: "Transit officials are now seeking authority to immediately borrow against the new revenue stream so the MTA can act faster on modernization work for the subway, buses and commuter rail."
Better transit, arriving faster, thanks to congestion pricing!
fact check: since congestion pricing started, subway crime is down 36%.
This opposition tells you a lot about how often airlines destroy wheelchairs.
@islandpress.bsky.social
The real problem in most cities isn’t that the density of people or the density of buildings is “too high.” It’s that the density of cars is too high.