@humantransit.bsky.social
Public transit planning consultant and commentator. Author of the book “Human Transit” and the blog HumanTransit.org. The consulting firm is jarrettwalker.com. Also obsessed with literature and plants.
Looking at it …
28.02.2026 17:23 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
New Urbanist Book Club just dropped! Reading Human Transit which I'd had on my 'to read' list for quite some time. Looking forward to talking buses, trains, trams, and maybe even urban gondolas with y'all next month.
www.lamppostsocial.com/events/stron...
Great new initiative to develop better messaging around the value of good urban planning, led by @brenttoderian.bsky.social, @grantennis.bsky.social and
@tomflood.bsky.social.
Come on, @planetizen.bsky.social!
Dunkerque, France is not a good model for free fares in New York City! The math is different in such small cities. When Paris or London do free fares citywide, that will really be news.
www.planetizen.com/features/136...
A bad but universal metric of public transit reliability is the % of a line that is in its own lane.
It is easy to create exclusive lanes where there is little delay, but not at the bottlenecks where they matter most.
So this metric says nothing about speed or reliability.
I want to believe that AI can't replace human philosophers, theorists, or historians.
But this scholarly paper about AI's distinctive threat to democracy is very good, and an AI wrote it with only minimal prompting ...
writing.yaschamounk.com/p/the-humani...
In the Colombian town of El Carmen de Viboral, where I seem to be the only tourist, evidence of Canadian soft power.
18.02.2026 15:57 — 👍 39 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0Zeno's paradox of editing: every time you proofread your work, you'll find half the remaining errors.
17.02.2026 11:35 — 👍 66 🔁 4 💬 2 📌 0
Do YOU have an aging friend/relative who should stop driving? Tell them this story from San Francisco. Ask how they will feel if they kill an entire family.
But don't tell them that even then, they'll be forgiven and be able to drive again.
This verdict is obscene.
www.ktvu.com/news/woman-a...
I am not following this at all. You're going to have to explain how the New York situation is relevant to Chicago.
15.02.2026 17:38 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Tallinn's free fares moved people from active modes to public transit, but didn't reduce car use. A few people got shorter walks in the snow, which is nice for them, but this was a very expensive way to deliver that.
15.02.2026 17:00 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0No, this is not like the Chicago situation at all. New York MTA is all one agency and it doesn't matter much to them whether fares are collected on the subway or the bus. The problem is that pushing people from subway to bus encourages more wasteful network design.
15.02.2026 16:58 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Sorry, but this @nytimes.com op-ed on free fares in New York City, by @galvinalmanza.bsky.social, is deeply ignorant of the issues.
It proposes that pretty social justice vibes and some careless citations will change facts of math. Thread: 1/
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/o...
I like Zohran Mamdani and wish him every success. I'm one of many transit experts who would have supported him despite this one bad idea. But the @nytimes.com needs to start listening to actual transit experts, instead of trying to shout us down with well-meaning social justice vibes. 8/8
14.02.2026 14:38 — 👍 70 🔁 4 💬 4 📌 0
Then there's the fact that free fares on buses but not the subway will move riders from the subway to the bus, as I argued back in 2022. This will be very, very bad for transit and its customers overall.
humantransit.org/2022/12/when... 7/
The only way to avoid that outcome is to imagine some new funding source that will appear in response to the beauty of the free fares vision, but any such funding source would be better spent on service, regardless of whether the goal is ridership or access to opportunity. 6/
14.02.2026 14:36 — 👍 32 🔁 3 💬 2 📌 0In a big city, where fares produce a lot of needed revenue, eliminating fares mean less service. It means that the poor people that the author claims to care about can't access opportunity, because the free bus they need doesn't exist, or is too crowded to board. 5/
14.02.2026 14:36 — 👍 52 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 0She also cites the limited experiments in Boston, encouraging the reader to think that it was tried citywide. In fact, only a few routes in low-income areas are free. Outside of emergencies, citywide free bus fares have NEVER been done in any big city in the world. Maybe there's a reason! 4/
14.02.2026 14:35 — 👍 34 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0Free fares are still working in some smaller US cities -- Richmond VA and Albuquerque NM are now the largest. But Kansas City just went back to charging fares. Why? Some feel security was worse. But the big reason is: They need the money!!! 3/
14.02.2026 14:34 — 👍 40 🔁 2 💬 3 📌 0The author cites all the usual examples that have nothing to do with NYC, such as entirely rural systems in Washington State. Yes, free fares work OK in rural places and small towns where ridership is so low that fares don't even pay for the costs of fare collection. 2/
14.02.2026 14:33 — 👍 48 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
Sorry, but this @nytimes.com op-ed on free fares in New York City, by @galvinalmanza.bsky.social, is deeply ignorant of the issues.
It proposes that pretty social justice vibes and some careless citations will change facts of math. Thread: 1/
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/o...
Can buses be free but not the subway? I explained to this problem back in ‘22, and it sounds like more folks would benefit from this piece. Pls share.
humantransit.org/2022/12/when...
I am old.
13.02.2026 20:41 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Apple Liquid Glass is what happens when a junk food company sees sales declining and the only thing they can think of is to add more sugar.
12.02.2026 19:03 — 👍 61 🔁 7 💬 3 📌 0
Apple Liquid Glass is what happens when a junk food company sees sales declining and the only thing they can think of is to add more sugar.
12.02.2026 19:03 — 👍 61 🔁 7 💬 3 📌 0So people walk or use bikes, unless the destination is up a steep hill on a dangerous road.
12.02.2026 12:58 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0(We're the right consultants, by the way!)
12.02.2026 12:16 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Unfortunately the US exported the wrong consultants ...
12.02.2026 12:01 — 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
The whole world except the United States knows about how to put crucial government services where everyone can get to them.
The crucial service marooned on an inaccessible hilltop culdesac, reachable only by car, is a uniquely USA idea.
(Chattanooga, TN, USA)
Estaré en Medellín hasta este sábado, y en Rionegro hasta el próximo jueves el 19. Si tengo seguidores aquí a quien les gustarían conocerme en persona, favor de darme un mensaje.
11.02.2026 22:45 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0