Nat Henry

magneticanisotropy's comment on "Modal share distribution in nearly 800 cities in the world. Active mobility (walking or cycling) is measured on the right. Bus and other forms of Public Transport on t... Explore this conversation and more from the dataisbeautiful community

Unfortunately this data doesn't pass the smell check for North American cities: www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeau...

Color map showing population density from Administrativ-Statistischer Atlas vom Preussischen Staate. It is the first known color choropleth.

YES! After a few hours searching, I finally dug up a high-quality scan of the first (known) color choropleth. From haab-digital.klassik-stiftung.de/viewer/fulls...

Thanks to @datavisfriendly.bsky.social & @infowetrust.com who helped with the search.

#cartography #maps #dataviz

Shout out to @kingcountymetro.bsky.social for showing that it's possible to build good signage that helps people navigate your transit system!

Real question, who is in charge of wayfinding at Sound Transit?

Cool kids take the bus 😎

This is such a neat viz. I'm in the geospatial cluster, but my follows span software devs + social scientists + PNW + urbanists—sounds about right to me!

Diagram showing thatLiving on an arterial concentrates harm even as someone living perpendicular to the arterial may have exact same access.

In honor of the City finally releasing the Corridor maps, this sketch illustrates why living on an arterial is not the same as being close to transit.

Amazon Fresh was not my favorite grocery store, but it's bad news Judkins Park will now be without any grocery store. The nearest other store is a mile away. A big blow for the walkability of the neighborhood — and just before the new light rail station opens too.

I made a map visualizing the customer count and percentage of #PowerOutage as of 6 AM CT on Jan 26, following the severe #WinterStorm over the weekend. #Nashville stands out as the hardest hit area in terms of outage numbers. #WinterStormFern #DisasterMapping #DataVisualization

Sure, I'm glad it's a useful example!

The second item: "We're going to be getting out the red paint on Denny Way," Wilson said. "We cannot let one of our highest ridership routes languish in traffic." Bus lane inbound.

This is my favorite plot from this post, showing life expectancy at three spatial scales:

- Countries of the world (range: 51 to 85 yrs)
- Counties of the US (66 to 90 yrs)
- Census tracts in King County, WA (71 to 87 yrs)

At each scale, averages hide dramatic spatial heterogeneity in health

What is a Geographer? I

When I tell people I'm a professional geographer, the most common reaction is "Huh?"

So I'm writing a series of short explainers about what I do! Here's the first one: nathenry.com/writing/2026...

#51: Illegible Camping Bans, Just Streets Research, and Utopian City Ambitions. Welcome to the 51st issue of Urbanism Now, our weekly newsletter curated with brief and insightful urban ideas from around the world to inspire action where you (c)are.

My testimony on Burien's camping ban is featured on @urbanismnow.com this morning! urbanismnow.substack.com/p/51-illegib...

Me and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson in City Hall

Mayor Katie Wilson! She kicked off her term with an impressive display of stamina—I was near the back of a looong reception line.

Wanderer above the sea of Breezewood Pennsylvania

Has anyone done this yet

They have some really official-looking signs up at the airport!

Today is the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year for most of us living between the Equator and the Arctic Circle. The duration varies by latitude. Those living in the Arctic are experiencing Polar Night, which may have begun weeks ago!

Blog
antonioantoine.com/2025/12/17/t...

1 Line light rail highlighted. The only red lobster restaurants in the region are at each of its ends

Was this the plan all along?

[taps the sign]

Map showing a detail of Burien's spatial camping prohibition, Ordinance 832, at Southwest 132nd St and 8th Pl SW. Orange parcels (and presumably the rights-of-way in front of them) were included in the camping prohibition zone, while green parcels were not. This map demonstrates how even a resident with an internet-enabled device using an interactive map of the prohibition zone could draw an incorrect conclusion about a right-of-way's prohibition status due to GPS errors. Note that this spatial camping ban is no longer in effect: as of January 2025, the City of Burien banned all camping within city boundaries.

In my testimony, I argued that the City of Burien's camping ban was spatially illegible: the prohibition zone was defined in a complicated way that invited mistakes from city mapmakers and the general public.

Take a look at the maps and decide for yourself: henryspatialanalysis.com/news/public-...

Public policy should be spatially legible: expert testimony from SKCCH vs. Burien — Henry Spatial Analysis Drawing on expert testimony from SKCCH vs. Burien, I show how the failures of Burien’s map-based camping ban demonstrate the need for spatial legibility in public policy.

I've written a summary of my expert witness testimony from Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness vs. Burien, the widely-reported camping ban lawsuit that, for most of 2024, revolved around a map.

henryspatialanalysis.com/news/public-...

This much

I was just talking with my wife about that Seattle Aquarium article earlier—it was a really interesting story! Charlie and his illustrious heritage need a new hobby

Good summary, thanks for being there and live posting!

Washington Bikes board: Roxana Gomez, Chair Luke Distelhorst, Vice Chair Demi Allen, Secretary Matt Latimer, Treasurer Mary Hoshizaki Brice Maryman Marlene Druker Mark Mercado

Cascade Bicycle Club board: Gina Kavesh (Co-President) Allison Handy (Co-President) Matthew Latimer (Treasurer) Demi Allen (Secretary) Eugene Cho Luke Distelhorst James Dorsey Marlene Druker Roxana Gomez Stephen J Hall Jr. Mary Hoshizaki Eric Jensen Brice Maryman Mark Mercado Michael Payne Kai Shih Hanoch Yeung

In my defense, the WA Bikes board is appointed by, and entirely composed of, the Cascade board. I think it's reasonable to ask Cascade board candidates about their positions on WA Bikes issues!

Initial email from Cascade Bicycle Club on November 17th, 2025, inviting me to vote for the Board of Directors.

On November 17th, 2025, I responded to Cascade Bicycle Club and asked if the board candidates had taken public positions on the WA Bikes endorsements.

Response to my email from Vicky Clarke on December 2, 2025. Contents: "Hi Nat, Individual board members don't take a position on WA Bikes endorsements, and the WA Bikes board is separate from the Cascade board. The WA Bikes board collectively approves or seeks modifications of the endorsements proposed by staff, and the board acts by majority vote."

When @cascade.org announced its board elections, I followed up to ask if the candidates had public stances on this year's WA Bikes endorsements.

Unfortunately I didn't hear back until today (voting closed yesterday), but I'm sharing the response for anyone interested in how these endorsements work.

For real! They picked the rare household that gets EXCITED about government statistics 🤪

Invitation letter to participate in the Census American Community Survey

LET'S GOOOOOOO