Benjamin Schneider

Perhaps even some virtue signaling lawn signs?

What Will Replace DART if Cities End Their Contracts? Two cities allowing voters to elect to leave DART in May have offered microtransit systems as an alternative. They're flawed.

Today's microtransit operators are better than the dial-a-ride vans of the 90s. But as this article explains, it still has severe limitations compared to regularly scheduled transit service.

www.dallasobserver.com/news/dart-co...

There's a shameful legacy of cities replacing transit service with unreliable microtransit and leaving riders in a lurch.

Montgomery, AL replaced its bus system with a dial-a-ride fleet in 1998. Fares doubled, ridership plummeted from 3,000/day to 200, and the subsidy remained the same.

Americans are Fleeing Blue States, Even When Politics Misalign. The Culprit? Housing Affordability. Will the blue state starter home ever return?

Housing affordability and the declining political fortunes of Democrats are profoundly connected.

An inability to build housing is THE big reason blue states are projected to lose 12 electoral college seats by 2032.

www.planetizen.com/features/136...

Very excited for this! Eric and I have been discussing transit and cities for nearly a decade now — it will be fun to do it in public.

"Trump administration proposals seek to eliminate transit funding." Seeking to eliminate the Mass Transit Account (gas tax funding for transit capital projects); and the ability to flex highway money to transit -- subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025...

Does the Subway Still Need Train Conductors?

Does the subway still need conductors? Much of the world say no, but union leaders say it's a safety issue. Gov. Hochul has to decide by year end whether to sign a bill that would mandate two-person train crews, even on lines that already moved to one operator www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/n...

Uber and Lyft probably aren't the difference maker when people decide to go car-free. Most people can't afford ridehailing for every trip.

But they definitely make car-free living much easier and more dignified for the occasional late night or difficult to access trip.

Book Excerpt Special: The Incomplete Freeway Revolt - Streetsblog New York City A new book looks at the destructive 20th-century urban development style — freeways, downtown office towers, suburban housing developments — that keeps Americans so dependent on their cars. Here's an ...

The freeway revolt of the 60s and 70s was a noble movement that didn't go nearly far enough. But what's undeniably clear is that the few neighborhoods spared from the freeway builders ended up far better off.

Read my latest book excerpt in @nyc.streetsblog.org:

nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/11/06/b...

Great layouts! Look at all of those exposures and bedrooms

Zohran Mamdani actually won two elections New York City’s newly elected mayor just won a fighting chance to enact his ambitious housing agenda.

With the passage of the housing ballot initiatives, Mamdani won a second victory—one he didn’t even campaign for.

These laws will make at least some of his housing policy goals meaningfully easier to achieve.

www.fastcompany.com/91436060/zoh...

This is a great piece on efforts to envision a truly transformational regional rail system for So Cal. Looks at all these publicly-owned tracks! We should have have 15 minute peak service running under overhead wires powered by 100% renewable energy.

Recent subway ridership records:

Busiest post-COVID day, Wednesday, 10/29: 4,589,477
Busiest post-COVID Friday, 10/31: 4,428,750
Busiest post-COVID Sunday, 11/2: 2,825,658
2nd busiest post-COVD Saturday, 11/1: 3,093,309

This is how people get around NYC.

How Southern California would benefit from electric trains Electrification and level boarding platforms can significantly improve rail travel on the west coast, too.

Momentum is gaining momentum. The railroad infrastructure framework developed by @ndhapple.bsky.social has gone bicoastal.

A new report from @calelectricrail.org shows how level boarding and electrified trains would transform transportation in SoCal.

benjaminschneider.substack.com/p/how-southe...

How Southern California would benefit from electric trains Electrification and level boarding platforms can significantly improve rail travel on the west coast, too.

Time for Electrolink, Southern California 🚆

Electrification and level boarding "on the San Bernardino Line, the journey from San Bernardino to LA would go from 106 minutes to 70 minutes."

via @benschneider.bsky.social

Hard to beat that location. Right next to the Main Post and the Marina District.

Build housing in S.F.'s Presidio? It's not as crazy as it sounds. A Trump-branded 'Freedom City' in the heart of San Francisco would be a disaster. But social housing in the Presidio just might work.

I've previously written about how the Presidio could be an interesting place to experiment with new models of public development.

Now it's actually happening.

benjaminschneider.substack.com/p/build-hous...

New 196-unit housing project proposed for SF's Presidio. It's a very unique development led by the Presidio Trust and financed in part by US Treasury loans. Revenues from this fully market-rate project in a super desirable area would go toward supporting the park.
www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/p...

What a waste. $200 m on a 2.2-mi line that plods along at 8 mph, doesn't have a direct Metro connection, gets stuck behind cars with which it shares lanes, & arrives less frequently than the (faster) bus along the same route.

The city couldn't bother to make it effective, so now it's being killed.

We need to talk about ‘missing massive’ housing In most neighborhoods, missing middle housing will do the trick. But right on top of subway stations, urbanists should think bigger.

Of course, it still has a ways to go to catch up with Jersey City

benjaminschneider.substack.com/p/missing-ma...

Berkeley's transformation from one of the NIMBYest cities in California to one of the YIMBYest is a major arc in my book.

In 2022, Berkeley completed more new homes than it did in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s combined.

Rents there have been mostly flat in recent years.

And then we entirely forgot all of it

Really enjoyed talking to Adam Shanks at the @sfexaminer.bsky.social (my old paper!) about "The Unfinished Metropolis."

It was interesting to reflect on how growing up in San Franciscan informed my thesis about the stagnation of American cities.

www.sfexaminer.com/news/urban-d...

The Eternal Reinvention of the American Downtown The rise of remote work is only the latest in a long line of existential challenges that US business districts have faced. This time, cities have a chance to do it right.

Think the pandemic was a low point for America's downtowns? Think again.

In a new excerpt from my book, I explore the perpetual reinvention of these neighborhoods.

This time around, cities should celebrate the things that make downtowns special, not suppress them.
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

The Eternal Reinvention of the American Downtown The rise of remote work is only the latest in a long line of existential challenges that US business districts have faced. This time, cities have a chance to do it right.

Think the pandemic was a low point for America's downtowns? Think again.

In a new excerpt from my book, I explore the perpetual reinvention of these neighborhoods.

This time around, cities should celebrate the things that make downtowns special, not suppress them.
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

The obvious solution is to grade separate as much of the line as possible, but that's a multi-billion dollar proposition.

Absent that, Brightline and the state could improve safety by closing some intersections, increasing fencing, and improving crossing gates.

There's a tragic irony here:

Brightline was able to initiate an excellent rail service quickly and cheaply by reusing the old tracks through the heart of South Florida.

But those tracks are not designed to handle fast, frequent passenger service.

A ‘Death Train’ Is Haunting South Florida The Brightline has been hailed as the future of high-speed rail in the United States, but it has one big, unignorable problem.

Very interesting deep dive into the safety issues with Brightline Florida, America's deadliest railroad by far.

The core problem is the 331 at-grade road crossings, compared to 0 between NYC and DC.

www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

never!

S.F. isn’t a finished product. It’s a work in progress. Can it ever learn to see itself that way? OPINION: What should the view from the Golden Gate Bridge look like 50 years from now? Surely, no one who seriously contemplates it would respond, “Exactly the same.”

Today is publication day for my book, "The Unfinished Metropolis"!

To mark the occasion, the @sfchronicle.com published an excerpt in which I explore what has and hasn't changed in SF's cityscape, and imagine what the city could look like in 50 years.

www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...