Research study @yonahfreemark.com @urbaninstitute.bsky.social summarized in @keawilson.bsky.social @usa.streetsblog.org article found here: www.urban.org/urban-wire/r...
11.03.2026 13:40
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Research study @yonahfreemark.com @urbaninstitute.bsky.social summarized in @keawilson.bsky.social @usa.streetsblog.org article found here: www.urban.org/urban-wire/r...
"Twenty-six years ago, New York City, Chicago, Washington, and the San Francisco Bay Area all ranked among the top 14 global cities with the greatest mileage of metro rail lines per capita; today, all of those U.S. cities have fallen off the list." usa.streetsblog.org/2026/03/11/t...
New @chicagocta.bsky.social security plan. chicago.suntimes.com/transportati...
🤷♂️ Author calling for policies that will facilitate more housing in “prime real estate” and reduce housing + transportation costs and safety risks for poor people by reducing avg. trip lengths—e.g, putting housing closer to destinations and supporting more affordable transport options than driving.
In 1972, the US had more metro lines per capita than Canada, France, or Germany. Now, it's below all of them. It only has 50% of Canada's per-capita metros.
In 1990, 4 of the world’s 14 longest metros were in the US. Today, not a single US network sits on that list.
www.urban.org/urban-wire/r...
There's more. See the establishment of overlapping directors. About half of the directors on the Service (operating) Boards will have dual appointments on the NITA (regional) transit board. This is designed to secure alignment between NITA/Service Boards and among SBs. www.ilga.gov/documents/le...
"[D]ividing crashes by mileage makes it seem less catastrophic, which might explain its enduring popularity among road safety groups who can downplay awkward questions about why their approaches to keep travelers safe have failed so spectacularly."
"[Policy makers] mistakenly assume that the total amount of driving is beyond their control.... These are not immutable conditions; they are the direct result of policy choices that are inducing Americans to drive more — and to crash more, too."
"Yes, building less dangerous cars and more forgiving roads would help address the US’s sky-high tally of roadway fatalities. But another way to save lives deserves far more attention than it gets: Stop forcing Americans to drive so much." @davidzipper.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Sen. DeWitte op-ed laments end of "consensus" transit governance model in Chicago region. Yet, NITA Act requires (a) 12 votes (60%) w/2 votes from every 5-person voting bloc (Gov., Chicago, Cook Cty., Collar Ctys) or (b) 15 of 20 votes (80%) supermajorities. www.chicagobusiness.com/opinion/comm...
Zoox (Amazon) is expanding its automated vehicle network. Zoox uses an AV built for shared rides, but the viability of that business model is in doubt after failure of Uber Pool and Lyft Line. www.reuters.com/technology/a...
“Cities that welcome robotaxis may find themselves hosting a transit service that extracts rider spending without returning much of it to the local economy.”
“In every city where autonomous vehicles are picking up passengers, human drivers are completing fewer rides per hour and spending more of their shift waiting. The parallel to the taxi industry's collapse is imperfect but instructive.” qz.com/autonomous-v...
Is this where Chicago's 18th Street bike/ped infrastructure that got put down then rolled up went?
You are not alone in those concerns: today.ucsd.edu/story/americ...
Court opinion upholding NYC's congestion pricing program from USDOT dismemberment dismantles USDOT's "equity" argument that the NYC congestion pricing program hurts low income people. Analysis applicable to congestion pricing programs in other metros--e.g. Chicago? earthjustice.org/wp-content/u...
Chicago should drop opposition to HB2454, which makes bicyclists the “intended users” of all city roads. Bill would allow cyclists to hold the city accountable for road conditions the same way drivers hold it accountable. Op-ed @nikhunder.com #CharnaAlbert. www.chicagotribune.com/2026/03/06/o...
The Urban Truth Collective @urbantruth.bsky.social launches. usa.streetsblog.org/2026/03/05/u...
Do you think people will get into "sharing" mode with respect to vehicles? We're a people after all where sharing a lawnmower around a neighborhood seems to make operational and cost sense but everyone has their own lawnmower in their garage. The failure of LyftLine and UberPool is sobering.
"At the core ... is an ableist society, or one built primarily by, for and of people without disabilities. Those who don’t fit that label are then considered disabled. But accessibility advocates say the opposite is true: It’s the world that disables far more." www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
"Incorporating evidence from 26 studies on AVs’ impacts on the flow of car traffic, researchers find that a future where driverless cars become widespread is likely to increase the total number of miles traveled by vehicles in the US by around 5.95 percent." www.vox.com/future-perfe...
Pic of Grand Ave. behind anti-bike lane protestors Exhibit A for why protected bike/ped infrastructure is needed to improve safety, give more options to seniors, bicyclists, pedestrians, and other non-auto travelers, and optimize streetscapes for businesses. chi.streetsblog.org/2026/03/05/d...
Bear with @starlinechicago.bsky.social as he makes the case for #OneCentral project as a catalyst for public transportation improvements with region-wide benefits connecting a number of Chicago megaprojects in development. yard-social.com/2026/03/04/d...
Author suggests that @chicagocta.bsky.social low post-pandemic ridership recovery compared to @wmata.com is attributable to WMATA's success in reducing the incidence of crime on the system and improving the "felt safety" experienced by riders.
"It took WMATA years of comprehensive safety planning and implementation to recover so much of their ridership, and the same will be the case for us. So let’s not waste time avoiding solutions that have been proven to work just because they are difficult." citythatworks.substack.com/p/riders-des...
The opinion by the US District Court judge in the NYC congestion pricing case rebuffing USDOT's effort to shut down the program found here: earthjustice.org/wp-content/u...
Full report w/Chicago page excerpt. www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/uwa25...
"Kennedy consistently found that downtown residents have carbon footprints several times lower than their suburban counterparts. That, too, is part of the case for redeveloping downtown highways, he said."
