Kea Wilson

YouTube video by ChappellRoanVEVO Chappell Roan - The Subway (Official Music Video)

we knew Chappell Roan was going to be on a train in this, but I am trilled to report that she also rides a citibike

I'm not saying you never have to inconvenience motorists to get to Vision Zero — but I might go so far as to say *most* of the time, you don't. And we do not do ourselves any favors as a movement when we pretend that it's always Our Lives vs. Their Comfort, because that's just blatantly not true.

Bus and bike lanes fight congestion, which makes driving suck less! Land use reforms that make it possible for people to walk means that even avowed drivers get a convenient neighborhood grocery store! This stuff benefits everyone, even if decades of misinformation has convinced us otherwise!

E.g. traffic calming a deadly stroad actually doesn't tend to increase average travel time, even though it decreases drivers average speed. That's because stroads are covered in stoplights anyway, and drivers just move a tiny bit slower between them. But that tiny bit can be life-saving!

Yes, but also: so many things that could save lives *wouldn't even inconvenience motorists*, people just assume that they will. Giving people a safe option besides driving can often make the driving experience better and safer, too, and we do Vision Zero a real disservice when we don't embrace that.

Cities Matter More Than Ever After Trump Officially Denies Climate Change — Streetsblog USA We're entering a new era of federal climate denial, and it's time to use a different set of tools to fight back.

IDK who still needs to hear this but cities: we really, really can't keep waiting on autocentric federal solutions to deal with the transportation sector's contributions to climate change. And that was true before the White House was actively working to make cars more polluting.

What do YOU want to see in the next federal surface transportation bill? There's a comment period open right now (👇), but let's start the conversation here.

I'll start: we need federal funding for transit operations yesterday.

What Will It Take To Give Victims and Advocates a Voice at US DOT? — Streetsblog USA A new bill would put a dedicated "roadway safety advocate in the halls of US DOT — and you can support it right now.

You know how hospitals have a "patient advocate" who helps people navigate the healthcare system + pushes for structural change when a lot of people are running into the same roadblocks? This bill would create something similar for USDOT, and potentially help a lot of victim/survivors.

What Will It Take To Give Victims and Advocates a Voice at US DOT? — Streetsblog USA A new bill would put a dedicated "roadway safety advocate in the halls of US DOT — and you can support it right now.

If you're not sure what to say in your comment, here's one proposal that deserves federal support: using the next reauthorization bill to establish a non-partisan "national roadway safety advocate", who can champion the needs of victims/survivors and help them communicate better with the feds.

🚨ICYMI: Until August 20, DOT is accepting public comments on what they want the next reauthorization package to look like, It only has 38 comments right now – a great chance to make your voice heard and uplift policy ideas you want to see included.
www.regulations.gov/commenton/DO...

Keeping immigrants drivers safe from mass deportation efforts & police harassment is a key part of street safety. So is keeping unqualified truck drivers from getting CDLs. And IMO, one of the under-discussed dangers of this administration is how they warp our ability to hold two thoughts at once.

How Trump is Exploiting a Very Real Trucking Safety Concern to Crack Down on Immigrants — Streetsblog USA The Trump administration will crack down on truck drivers who don't speak English and the people who give them licenses. Some advocates say that anti-immigrant spin is distracting much broader safety ...

This was a really tough one to write, but I hope what comes through is this: we don't just need to make noise when the Trump administration enacts policies we don't like as a transportation reform advocates. We need to make noise when they do things that DO make sense, but frame it in harmful ways.

"no no, dig up, stupid" is the US's official transportation policy. SEPTA is about to self-destruct a fully functional transit system and strand tens of thousands of people without reliable transportation, but $31 billion to make it easier for dealers to upsell to the next trim level is worth it

What’s That Splatter on Your Windshield? Can you identify what insects are pelting your vehicle during your summer road trip? Take this quiz and see what you can learn from these close encounters.

It isn't until the end that this story gets to the real problem — "that insects are in the greatest existential crisis in their 400-million-year history" — but this piece treats "splatter" as more of an issue for drivers who want to keep their cars clean.

honestly I found ALL of the victims sympathetic, but I also sympathize with train operators who are trying to make alternative transportation work with a fraction of the government support other countries get. trains are and should be among our least violent modes, but getting to zero takes money.

Enjoyed talking to Jim Mathews of the @railpassengers.org about the complicated structural, political, and cultural reasons behind these deaths, why it both is and is definitely not *just* a corporate responsibility problem, and a lot more.

I say this a lot but: no one should be embarrassed to ask simple questions about transportation policy. Part of the reason why transportation sucks so much in this country is because we make this stuff opaque, intimidating, and impossible to follow for people who want change. Let's challenge that.

Everything You Were Afraid To Ask About the Next Surface Transportation Reauthorization But Were Afraid To Ask — Streetsblog USA * But were afraid to ask.

I suspect at least a few smart people don't really understand what the federal surface transportation reauthorization really is, how it translates to the number of cars vs. buses on the road in their communities, and what they can do to help shape it. So here's a 101-level explainer.

Rail Advocates Say Brightline's Shocking Safety Numbers Are Part of a Bigger Problem — Streetsblog USA A story about Florida's "killer train" has rail advocates rattled — and pushing for a wider set of solutions.

Yes Brightline's safety numbers are shocking and unacceptable. And also: it is really, really weird to talk about that without also discussing 1) how little money we give passenger rail in this country for safety upgrades *or anything else*, 2) how many people drivers kill by contrast.

FMCSA publishes notice exempting ‘under-the-hood' testing for CDL skills test requirement FMCSA granted the exemption for a two-year period allowing SDLAs to waive the under the hood requirement for CDL applicants that will operate transit buses in intrastate commerce...

Small but important thing that we should celebrate: bus drivers are no longer required to basically double as bus mechanics just to get a license.

So many would-be drivers said this was their number one barrier to entering the field; this could make a *huge* dent in the hiring crisis.

A Few Lowlights from Secretary Duffy's First Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Hearing — Streetsblog USA Featuring: shouting matches, word-salad answers, blatant misinformation, and more.

Lotta wild shit in yesterday's T&I hearing, but the Secretary of Transportation shamelessly saying he doesn't want to fund "racial stuff" in transportation research took the cake for me

honestly, this is the only kind of distracted walking PSA I want to see

Call me radical, but I still think children who are legally able to drive should have the option of... not driving.

This article is focused on teenagers who are too young to drive cars on their own.

The 'One Big Beautiful Bill' Is About Our Transportation Future, Too — Streetsblog USA Transportation didn't get a lot of mention in the public discussion of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. But it's everywhere.

...though, again, pretty much *everything* in here will have huge transportation impacts, even if it doesn't seem like it at first glance, and we need to stay alert to those intersections

Five of the Ugliest Transportation Policies In the 'Big, Beautiful' Bill — Streetsblog USA Here's a rundown of some of the transportation provisions in the Republicans' reconciliation package, and what they might mean for your community.

Now that we've all had a little time to dig through this megabill, @yonahfreemark.com + @t4america.bsky.social + a lot of other smart people helped me pick through some the policies that will most directly (and, to be frank, negatively) impact our transportation outlook.

I'd maybe feel that way if Waymo pitched AVs as a stop-gap solution to give kids some independence back while we work to increase multimodality, including restricting their availability in currently walkable places. But instead they're saying AVs are a good place to "unwind from school" alone.

You can't bump into your friends on the way home from school from the back of a Waymo. You can't discover a creek or a park or a shop or whatever other neighborhood landmark that will become a core memory. "Unwinding" in the back of a self-driving pod is a terrible replacement for a real childhood.

The Teens Are Taking Waymos Now Alphabet’s self-driving car company launches what it hopes will be lucrative individual teen accounts—and maybe a whole lot of social change in the process.

I'm sorry but this whole thing makes me feel insane. Let's just be real: we stole basic independence from generations of kids and teenagers by intentionally making our cities deadly + impossible to travel outside a car, and now corporations are selling a worse version of it back to them at a price.