Faina

Closing Central Madrid To Cars Resulted In 9.5% Boost To Retail Spending, Finds Bank Analysis City of Madrid significantly boosted the takings of its shops and restaurants last Christmas by banning cars from the CBD, finds an analysis by Spain's second largest bank.

Keep this in mind when people claim cars mean business — closing Central #Madrid to cars over holidays resulted in a 9.5% boost in retail spending on its main shopping street: STUDY.

There was also a 71% drop in air pollution.

Via @carltonreid.com in @forbes.com. #citymakingmath #citiesforpeople

This Author Wrote the Book on How to Be a Better Transportation Advocate — Streetsblog USA Step one: read this book.

I was really proud to write an endorsement for @carterlavin.bsky.social's book, which is essential reading for anyone who wants to turn their theoretical love of stuff like biking, walking, buses, and mobility justice into political campaigns that actually change our world. Get a preview here. 👇

A reminder that all the most successful shopping malls in Canada aren’t the ones with the largest parking lots: They’re the ones with the best connections to public transit.

Here’s the front-end view of the new REM line to Deux-Montagnes in #Montréal. Between Côte-de-
Liesse and Montpellier. A very smooth ride so far…

Massive car interchange from the air

Never forget, car dependency is the opposite of freedom.

What’s more “free” than cars, you ask?

Choices.

If You Want to Win, You've Got to Fight

Super excited to have this guide in successful advocacy for transportation out today. islandpress.org/books/if-you...

A woman in casual attire with a broom over her shoulder rides a bicycle across a car-free suspension bridge over a river in Rijswijk.

For taxpayers, every piece of cycling infrastructure is a gift that keeps on giving.

An asset that returns annual savings in congestion, pollution, maintenance, safety and healthcare over its lifetime.

Stop asking whether your city can afford to invest in cycling. Ask whether it can afford not to.

A smiling blond toddler walking toward the camera

The name Seamus spelled out in flower petals on a beach at sunset

My son Seamus died 15 years ago today. He was killed by a careless driver in a crosswalk.

He walked at 9 months, almost as if he knew he wouldn’t have much time. His favorite thing to do was throw rocks into water. He loved the moon. He called butterflies “buddy buddies.” I miss him every day.

When the world finds out the airports are federally subsidized, will we do the math and realize our money is better spent on fast trains?

Hochul a 'no' on Mamdani's free bus plan; 'yes' on statewide universal childcare The price tag to expand a universal childcare program statewide is $15B.

“I know you can’t afford things but we also cannot afford things” will be, I predict, a losing message. The world’s first trillionaire is on the horizon. “We can’t afford transportation, healthcare, food and shelter” will no longer cut it for the “progressive” party.

The carnage caused by FAA cutbacks cast a spotlight on the massive public subsidies required to have air travel function in the US. People think spending money on bike lanes and rail is socialism while TRILLIONS have been spent to prop up the airline industry and to build and maintain roadways.

So it turns out... the US air travel system was incredibly, deeply dependent on federal funding to just run day-to-day all this time, to the benefit of private airline shareholders, when everyone thinks that state-run trains are leeching off the government. Weird!

1000% my experience with the media: “Only when circumstances make you a little less blinkered, do you notice the fact which then becomes blinding and finally crazymaking, which is that there is zero stress put on the relation between those two “sides,” or their histories, or their sponsors…”

This. We need this in Santa Cruz County.

Charlotte's transport referendum has won.

1% sales tax increase is expected to generate $19 billion/20 years, funding:
—Transit (40%): Red Line commuter rail, Silver Line light rail, Gold Line extension, Blue Line extension
—Road projects (40%)
—Bus improvements, creating frequent bus network (20%)

Drives me nuts when reporters include ‘both sides’ but forget to mention that the opposition is two white guys who show up to every meeting with rude comments, and the support is a multi-racial, multi-age and cross-income representation of the entire county.

This is quite a story: the US employed every strongarm tactic available, including personal threats against delegates and their families, to derail an agreement on reducing shipping emissions that was almost finalized. on.ft.com/47lq3dZ

Mayor Sadiq Khan - Co-chair of C40 - at the World Mayors Summit announcing that three quarters of C40 cities have already peaked their emissions

C40 Executive Director Mark Watts at the C40 World Mayors Summit announcing that 75% of cities have passed their peak emissions. A graph shows that while this is great progress, there is still a lot more to do

A chart showing the 11 cities that have reduced their emissions by 30% or more since their peak: Stockholm 42.4%; Copenhagen 42.3%; Athens 39.7%; Milan 35.3%, London 34.8%, Yokohama 34.2%; Paris 33.0%; San Francisco 32.7%; Washington, DC 31.3%; Sydney 30.8% and Salvador 30.4%

Who needs some good news? 🙋‍♂️

Today my amazing team at C40 are launching new research showing that emissions have peaked in 60 of our member cities - 75% of those for which we have sufficient data - meaning absolute emissions have reached their maximum and are now on a steady downward trend 📉

"Due to budget constraints, we are cancelling this bike program that saves both the state and its beneficiaries tens of billions of dollars, and are instead funneling its funds into a car program that costs the state billions, and Californians trillions."

Yep. This is basically the whole story.

Got to take the trolly for the first time today. Such a game changer. Also 6th college was 100% unrecognizable to me. (Yes I know it has a different name now)

Transit is the key to quicker commutes
🧵

Images of creative Dutch biking infrastructure

IMPORTANT: The Dutch invest €595 million annually on urban biking, resulting in €19 BILLION saved in public health care costs alone. That’s how smart governments do the math on investing in better mobility.

Let’s be clear— it wastes public money to NOT do it.

#CityMakingMath HT @modacitylife.com

Instead of trying to green cars so much why don't we just invest in trains. city trains. under ground trains. above ground trains. trains between cities. trains between countries. TRAINS

THE PEOPLE CRAVE TRAINS

From now on, when anyone asks how we’re going to pay for it, the answer should be we’ll take it out of the teargas budget.

The design of your city can help make you healthier, study finds A new study in Nature found when people moved from less walkable U.S. cities to more walkable ones, they increased their levels of physical activity and saw health benefits.

The design of your city can help make you healthier, study finds.

(That should be ANOTHER study)

“A new study in Nature found when people moved from less walkable U.S. cities to more walkable ones, they increased their levels of physical activity & saw health benefits.”
www.cbc.ca/player/play/...

The places people in Santa Cruz actually go, like work, school, breweries, coffee, the beach, and downtown, are already lined up along the rail corridor. Rail & Trail just makes it easier to get to them without fighting traffic or parking.

"Tactical urbanism has the power to pierce the automotive bubble that so frequently surrounds politicians — sometimes in an almost literal sense, because so many elected officials are driven everywhere."

Read an excerpt from "Life After Cars," out tomorrow!

The shoreline of the Mississippi River is awash in exquisite fall color

A small creek runs through a ravine filled with fall color

An aBRT line bus runs down a street lined with colorful trees

A bike leans against a bench with fall colors and a bridge in the background

Today some friends and I took a fun transit snack adventure (mostly) on the @metrotransitmn.bsky.social B line. We visited Donut Trap, 2 Scoops, and ended with some pupupas from Manana. Afterward I went for a fall color ride along the Mississippi.

Minneapolis-St Paul is a special place.

Sure a car can do this, but the goal of good urban design is to give people the freedom to choose a better tool for the trip.

That's not always a huge cargo bike, it can be walking, a simple bike with panniers, or even public transit. In the end, each choice helps evaporate car traffic in cities.

“We assume that car use is an incompressible liquid that must be routed somewhere. But it’s more more like a gas that fills whatever space it is given.”

—Ian Lockwood, Harvard Loeb Fellow, transport planner.