Little known fact: the 101 freeway was initially imagined for just bikes
Little known fact: the 101 freeway was initially imagined for just bikes
California Cycleway in Pasadena CA
Los Angeles once briefly had a Cycleway in addition to the Pacific Electric railway.
#bikesky
NEW PAPER w/ @cselmendorf.bsky.social & @jkalla.bsky.social:
An under-appreciated reason why voters oppose dense new housing, especially in less-dense neighborhoods: they think it looks ugly and want to prevent that, even in other neighborhoods.
Some of what we think is NIMBYism might not be!
In 1974 a woman walks in the middle of the street with cars parked both sides and a campervan behind her driving. Today all car parking is removed for bike parking and outdoor dining
Bellamystraat, Amsterdam in 1974 and today
BEFORE & AFTER: Baudelopark in Ghent, Belgium
Pretty cool!
Anne Hidalgo has pulled off an Oceans 11 heist by quietly removed 1/2 the parking from Paris
56% bike mode share! Cities can create βpocket Utrechtsβ for those who want itβ¦. Aka, 40% of people.
In 1982 there are cars parked along both sides of the street. Today all replaced by greenery and bike parking with people walking in the road
Frans Halsstraat, Amsterdam in 1982 and today
I just learned about Bologna, Italy's city-wide 30km/h (18mph) speed limit which ELIMINATED pedestrian deaths + biking up 10% & pollution down 30%.
"Slowing down is often the best way to move forward" -- From @michelagrasso.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/urbancyc...
New blog post: the evidence is clear - demand for homes in walkable neighborhoods in the United States outstrips supply by a factor of 4 or more.
They spent the last four years telling us people who invaded the capital and beat police officers with flagpoles were unjustly persecuted civil rights heroes and now itβs taken about 45 minutes for them to be like βyeah if you write an op-ed youβre going to the blacksite thatβs just common senseβ
I want to tell you why the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia should matter to you.
The one power you cannot give the executive is the ability to imprison or expel anyone regardless of their legal rights. That is our key check against autocracy. And we are watching it disappear.
a picture of the apple logo with the caption "0% tariff" next to a picture of a real apple with the caption "10% tariff"
A helpful guide to the current state of US trade policy:
Here's the reality: they've backed themselves into a corner. If they bring him home there will be hell to pay. It's clear that they believe that the lesser hell is not bringing him home. So we need to make that hell the worse hell. Start calling and screaming at all of your representatives now! 1/2
Images of four beautiful housing types -- small apartment with residential over retail; a Perimeter Block Apartment like the Arconia seen in the TV show Only Murders in the Building; Townhomes and Brownstones; and a Bungalow court and walk street.
QUIMBY: Quality in my backyard
Plainclothes agents. Trying to question elementary-aged kids. And lying that they had parents permission to do so.
For whatever reason ICE doesn't have a Bluesky account. So I thought I'd drop this in here. Note the Free Speech crowd has now put the good folks at ICE in charge of stopping, detaining and deporting "Ideas".
I am absolutely not a fan of this man, that said, heβs completely correct and the messaging here is π―
The roadway treatment your city's traffic engineer doesn't want you to know about.
Similar to 99% of residential properties in Boston, this four-unit building, constructed in 1850 on a 3,782 sf lot, could not be built under todayβs overly restrictive zoning regulations.
π Beacon Hill, Boston
I really cannot overstate how dangerous it is that the masked men in the snatch vans no longer feel any obligation to the courts or the justice system - even at the level of remembering a name.
That means that nobody is safe.
Yup!
What could a car-lite #LosAngeles look like?
Our current approach isn't working. We invest in expensive transit projects, but fail to build the infrastructure around stations needed to create riders. What could a transit-first community look like?
I present to you, a Westwood for the future:
This is a good, funny sign. But it gets at a key element of what Social Security does. Middle aged people who aren't fully supporting aging parents can fund their kids education. It runs through the whole life cycle.
We donβt expect planes to share runways with cars. Or boats to use roads. So why expect people cycling to share space with fast, heavy traffic? Every mode needs its own safe infrastructure.
π₯ Watch how the Dutch do it right π
My vision for Los Angeles is a future where nobody needs to own a car
But many Angelenos are dependent on their car today
We need policy that leads us to our car-light future, while still improving life for those who currently have no choice but to drive
This is really interestingβ¦. Paris is showing cities what Amsterdam figured out and Copenhagen copied.
I had to check if this was real β¦ it is
Shout out to my hometown with a population 1/10th of Chicago's for building more PBLs than we've done in the past three years. www.cleveland.com/news/2025/04...