Alex Karner

These Tenants Are Going on Strike Against ‘Rent Debt’ A new kind of tenants union is ramping up the pressure on corporate landlords.

“In some cases, we’re seeing fees that we don’t think should be charged at all, like pest control fees,” says Kuehnhoff. ​“Landlords have a duty to provide a pest-free environment already, so they shouldn’t be adding that to the rent.”

A banner showing details about the Crossroads Convening on Transportation Equity and Justice to be held January 16th at the MLK Library in Washington, DC. The image at the top shows multiple intersecting zebra crosswalks with pedestrians.

Bored with TRB's censorship and cancellations?

Submit your work to the Crossroads Convening on Transportation Equity and Justice instead -- proposals due October 25.

www.crossroadsconvening.org

Something like this? rem-main.rem.sfu.ca/papers/jaxse...

We’ll be bringing together transportation scholars, practitioners, advocates, and activists to foster connection and share ideas for building an equitable and just transportation system, especially as we navigate a shifting political landscape.

We especially welcome work censored in other forums.

Crossroads: A Transportation Equity and Justice Convening will take place on January 15, 2026 at the MLK Library in Washington, DC.

Consider submitting your work, assisting as a volunteer, or sponsoring the event. More details at www.crossroadsconvening.org

Registration will be free.

We’ll be bringing together transportation scholars, practitioners, advocates, and activists to foster connection and share ideas for building an equitable and just transportation system, especially as we navigate a shifting political landscape.

We especially welcome work censored in other forums.

Yes! This is the final published version. The link should give you free access: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lluT,L-HR...

Some of these students are on the job market and rely on annual meeting review feedback and presentation/networking opportunities.

TRB could have been forthright initially and just said "don't waste time submitting equity or mobility-justice related work." Instead, they dissembled. Why?

Hearing reports that TRB is censoring annual meeting content. Authors are receiving a "Notice of Non-Selection" when notified that their papers were not sent out for review. Esp shitty for students who submitted work on Aug 1 only to wait two months for no reviews. Shameful behavior by TRB.

We end by considering paths forward: aligning with orgs committed to free inquiry, adapting to fewer institutional supports, and building new institutions resilient to political pressure.

Thoughts welcome. Also stay tuned for a day-long event to take place in DC in early January 2026 👀

We examine how these shifts undermine TRB’s long-standing commitments to independence, integrity, and inclusivity—changing what knowledge gets produced and shared in our field. We also interrogate the org's history, showing how much of a departure their recent actions represent.

Transportation research is under threat. The Transportation Research Board is canceling contracts, restructuring committees, and signaling that it will censor work presented at its annual meeting.

Read out new commentary in Transport Policy for more: 🔗 authors.elsevier.com/a/1lluT,L-HR...

😂

Coalitions in Motion: Labor and Riders Organizing for Transit Justice - Alex Karner, 2025

Unionized labor is often seen as a barrier to better transit, but in this new piece I argue that finding common ground between grassroots rider unions and formal labor unions could be a powerful approach for advancing mobility justice goals and winning more reliable, frequent, and safer service.

This new article by @alexkarner.bsky.social about transit rider unions working working in solidarity with transit worker unions to fight for better service is 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥. Transit rider conditions (poor service etc) are operator working conditions. doi.org/10.1177/1095...

I love when well-worn findings from the planning literature get published in Science or Nature led by a computer scientist/engineer. I count four transportation citations (out of 86). Zero to planning-specific journals.

What can be done? We recommend alternative professional societies that are free from federal influence, investigating novel sources of financial support, and becoming comfortable in an era with fewer resources. Ultimately, we need to rebuilt institutions resilient to outside meddling.

I get the pressure that NAS and other orgs are under (we highlight that in the piece). But this moment is one of clarity--we shouldn't have been depending on these folks in the first place. A federal admin with ill will was always able to exert pressure in this way, with predictable results.

They're dependent on federal support, but during prior administration changes, ongoing projects were allowed to continue. TRB also restructured in 2020, but that was undertaken with substantial public input over several years.

Recent actions indicate they're no longer able to act with integrity.

TRB has historically been a critical forum for bringing researchers and practitioners together. They've also directly sponsored research on topics including pavements, airports, public transit, traffic safety, and everything in between.

Title block of the manuscript entitled "U.S. Transportation Research at a Crossroads" by Alex Karner, Dana Rowangould, and Jesus M. Barajas.

Abstract with highlighted text as follows: Science in the United States has become increasingly politicized, with a wave of recent federal grant terminations and censorship of equity and climate-related work. U.S. transportation research has not been immune. [begin highlight] The Transportation Research Board (TRB), a stalwart of U.S. transportation research, has canceled research contracts, undertaken a dramatic internal restructuring, and appears poised to censor research presented at its marquee annual meeting. [end highlight] These shifts are significant in part because TRB espouses the values of scientific objectivity, independence, and integrity. Accordingly, TRB has historically funded work identified as needed by the broader research community and has been a home for the free and open exchange of ideas at its conferences, meetings, and events. [begin highlight] We argue that TRB’s recent actions suggest that it is no longer able to act with scientific integrity. [end highlight] In this commentary, we provide a brief history of TRB and its objectives, discuss its recent actions, and propose paths forward for researchers and practitioners interested in pursuing equity, justice, and climate change-oriented work.

The Transportation Research Board has abandoned its founding principles--scientific integrity, objectivity, & freedom of inquiry.

We wrote a short piece about TRB censoring work, canceling projects, and eliminating certain committees--with an eye towards the future.

osf.io/53dsk_v1
🧵

tilting at windmills just leaves you exhausted and usually super bitter. make the things that you want to see in the world. you'll be exhausted but not bitter.

Has a transportation advocacy nonprofit near you lost a federal grant since the start of the Trump administration (and are you fundraising to offset that loss)? HMU if so for an article.

Screenshot from an email that says, "Nevertheless, while the types of activities we carry out and the topics we address depend on the needs and priorities of our sponsors, TRB remains independent in how we conduct our activities. Peer review, balanced committee membership, conflict of interest policies, and other internal review and approval processes are completely independent of the sources of our funding."

TRB's FAQ about the committee dissolution contains this bit, where they claim "independence" regardless of funding sources.

This claim is contradicted by the facts--the org immediately canceled over a dozen projects and then dramatically restructured, all in response to perceived sponsor desires.

I had a contract that took about 18 months to execute. It was canceled in about a week following the anti-DEI executive orders. There are ways to slow-walk these changes that were not pursued--there's plenty of legal cover that could have been leveraged. I'm not letting TRB staff off the hook

Classic doublespeak. There's no way that even *they* believe it.

Finally got official communication about this, as a friend (not member) of several committees, after hearing about it on here days ago. The old committees have been summarily dissolved without warning and fewer new ones are being formed. A predictable set of topics is omitted entirely.

I believe so!