Think public transit “doesn’t work” in your city or suburb? If that’s true, it wasn’t a foregone conclusion — it’s because of choices made. Land-use, funding, infrastructure & operational decisions. If you get fundamentals like frequency wrong, it fails.
Make good choices.
A recent study found risk of serious injury when cyclists are struck by a truck/suv (vs a car) increases by 90% and probability of death increases by 200%. Hood height also increased risk. NHSTA has regulatory authority over vehicle weight, power and height. Tweet about that.
As our kids go #BackToSchool, never forget that we ARE the traffic that we’re using as an excuse. If more walked, biked or rode transit to school, it would erase a massive number of car trips each day, and our kids would be safer, healthier and better at school.
Spread the word.
After 2 teenagers died from being struck while biking on the sidewalk of Old Georgetown Road, the State Highway Administration installed 3 miles of protected bike lanes.
The result? Virtually no change in driving time, but a plunge in fatalities and tripling of bicycle traffic.
#sayhername Eva Mireles. She loves CrossFit, her family and karaoke. She is a beloved teacher who died protecting her students at Robb Elementary on May 24, 2022.
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Today she should be coming home from the start of her 19th year of teaching. Today we honor her light & legacy 💜💎
Many Americans only go out on the weekends because going anywhere requires driving long distances, which takes too much time and energy during the week.
But if they could walk down the street to a cafe, pub, park, or library after work, they would go out far more often.
A typical European car is parked 92% of the time. It spends 1/5th of its driving time looking for parking. Its 5 seats only move 1.5 people. 86% of its fuel never reaches the wheels, & most of the energy that does, moves the car, not people.
Sound efficient?
HT @circulareconomy
The most important thing about this amazing Paris transformation is how fast it happened — how fast people on bikes “appeared” — once streets were transformed. You can’t write this off as “#Paris was always this way,” because it wasn’t. It took leadership.
Amsterdam’s plan to remove 11,200 parking spaces from its streets by the end of 2025 is even more inspiring when we realize the kind of people-places that are possible where cars used to be. Example — #Amsterdam’s Elandsgracht between 2014 & 2019, via @schlijper’s great pics.
We’re not telling society to “ban cars,” we’re asking local governments to stop subsidizing people who drive at the expense of people who don’t in every aspect of how we build places.
Half of business owners on this #Toronto street estimated that more than 25% of their customers arrived by car. In fact, it was 4%. And the % for those who walked or cycled? 72%. Retailers routinely overestimate the # of “car customers.” Via @carltonreid
https://t.co/KCc1cD7pzB
Rome was built in 753 B.C., subway in 1955
Paris was built in 259 B.C., metro in 1900
Beijing was built in 1045 B.C., subway in 1971
Americans are the most proudly and aggressively ignorant people on earth when it comes to urban transportation.
One of the hardest things to do when you are battling a burden is to find joy in everyday. I promise you it is there, you just have to make room for it.
Good night moon.
At this point I’m no longer saying I’ve “moved” my family to Europe from the United States.
I’m saying I’ve *evacuated* them.
We’re not expats.
We’re refugees from a country that’s lost its collective mind.