Research q: anyone know where I can find an updated estimate for this number that center for investigative reporting (cc @revealnews.org) came up with 11 years ago?
@keawilson
Senior editor + advocacy journalist at Streetsblog USA covering the movement to end universal car dependency. Based in STL, reporting nationally. Tips to: kea@streetsblog.org or kwilson.52 on signal. Opinions are my own.
Research q: anyone know where I can find an updated estimate for this number that center for investigative reporting (cc @revealnews.org) came up with 11 years ago?
IDK who needs this, but here's a breakdown of why Kansas' anti-trans driver's license law is bullshit, why this is absolutely a transportation reform issue, and how cruel and dangerous it is to make people in car dependent places choose between legal driving and not denying their basic identities.
This is fucked and if youβre a βstreet safetyβ person this is absolutely your issue
"When our government is not just apathetic but an aggressor against our communities,... we need to resist today by creating systems of community care that get people where they need to go right now, even in the most terrible storms." @keawilson.bsky.social usa.streetsblog.org/2026/02/02/s...
Also inspired by DIYers like this. If you have other examples, lmk.
...though IMO really, we should be funding more programs that would make sidewalk clearance a government responsibility.
+ a few links. Minneapolis has the best snow clearance guide of any municipality I've seen; the *least* a government can do is give residents good guidance on how to take care of sidewalks.
Much like resisting violent political systems, clearing snow off sidewalks is a skill that communities can develop together. Every storm can make us stronger, or it can bury us. And even when we feel most powerless, we still get to decide which."
We can even be the ones who hit the phones and fight for the while the young and able-bodied are out there sweating in the snow.
We can remind them to clear from curb to curb, and not to wear a coat when they're about to overheat, and how much and what kind of salt to use. We can put together the neighborhood fund for the community-owned electric snow blower, or the DIY bike lane plow.
And if we can't safely shovel, we can find other ways to resist, too. We can organize our neighbors who *can* plow, and make sure they understand how to do it both safely and well.
Whether we clear our sidewalks of ice so immigrants and protestors can outrun ICE violence, or so the octogenarian down the block can walk her dog without fear of a deadly slip, plowing is a way to reclaim our collective power, and an opportunity to create the kind of community we want to live in.
"If we're able, shoveling a sidewalk in winter is one of the most concrete and impactful ways that we can do to resist a government whose actions are actively eroding our collective right to free movement β and literally clear a path to other kinds of resistance, too.
A few grafs towards the end got cut for length that included some concrete tips on shoveling + supporting neighbors who do when you can't, so I'm adding them here:
This pubbed a week ago while I was on vacation someplace warm (yes, I did pay someone to shovel my walk while I was gone), but wrote about why mutual aid is getting more important for street safety, especially as government gets more violent.
Fellow snowbelt folks: what is your number one tip for clearing a sidewalk of snow? Having a weirdly hard time finding a guide that's specifically geared towards plowing so pedestrians of all ability levels can move comfortably and thinking about compiling one of my own.
"And it would also ensure that taxpayers actually get some of the life-saving benefits they've been promised by transportation officials for decades β rather than seeing their money wasted on endless highway expansion projects that never seem to reduce congestion or cut deadly crashes."
Maybe someday, more politicians will give full-throated support to multimodal transportation policies because the climate emergency demands it. But until they do:Β *call it a safety policy.* Because it'll have the same emissions benefit either way.
If he could change his first name to something that starts with a "K" that'd be ideal but if not he's still welcome
Yes π more π Wilsonsπ
ok so who's going to invite me, Kea Wilson, to moderate a panel featuring Portland mayor Keith Wilson and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, thereby unleashing Maximum Multimodal Wilson.
If you need a break from The Horrors, I dug into a wonky but super important bill that would make it possible to use transportation funds to build housing and other important destinations near transit, and why TOD deserves a lot more airtime in the conversation about building livable places.
On the most basic level, transportation reform advocates need to speak out about ICE violence because it is a barrier to movement for countless migrants, brown people, protestors, and anyone else who ICE targets. But there are deeper reasons why this is our issue, too. Explored a few on the pod.
A flyer that says we ride in unity, for all for Alex, with Alexβs face on it Saturday 1/31 1:00 meet 130 roll Wagshburn fair oaks park Ride together stand together
On Saturday we ride for Alex Pretti
1:00pm at Washburn Fair Oaks Park
From Angry Catfish:
βWe're asking folks to host rides and come together. Bike shops and non-profits, cycling orgs and alt cycling collectives, city and rural. We are many but we stand together as one.β
*constant atrocities
Maybe you follow me because I write about transportation reform advocacy and you just don't see these connections. Maybe you need to hear that Alex Pretti was a cyclist in order to feel called to resist this. At this point, whatever; *just do whatever you can to resist this.*
I've spent my career being called an alarmist or naive because I believe that traffic violence (like gun violence and the violent expulsion of immigrants) is not only not inevitable, but creates prime conditions for *all of this.* They conditioned us to accept content atrocities, and we got them.
Part of how fascists get into power is by creating an environment of violence so extensive and deep-rooted that people feel there is no choice but to surrender their power to a violent state that claims they'll quell it. And then that state uses that violence as a pretext to kill you.
They will create a world so dangerous that you feel you have no choice except to drive a car, or own a gun, or flee a country that they violently destabilized. And they will use that car, that gun, that decision to seek asylum as an excuse to shoot and kill you.
The TLDR: nearly 70 percent of people these researchers surveyed either already had, were strongly interested in, or were open to the idea of living car-free. In US communities, which routinely punish people for living car free with death and indignity.
Now: imagine if we didn't punish them.