Hot Take, if you as a politician suggest privatization of a public service, all the civil servants who manage it should be allowed to publicly execute you on the steps of Capitol Hill for all to watch

How can we improve cities which are starting out with basically nothing? Cities like Louisville Kentucky for example which currently have .23 miles of protected bike lanes? Well we can start by allowing for less expensive kinds of protection like parking protected bike lanes, 2 which are currently under construction are shown here on Lexington and Ellison.

But the allowance of Parking protected bike lanes actually allows for significant improvements of other infrastructure projects because louisville has a lot of 1-way streets and many are currently getting redesigned, this gives a great opportunity to add in new protected bike lanes of major thoroughfares like 2nd and 3rd street which is what metro government is doing, adding parking protected lanes on both streets when the road is next repaved thanks to a federal grant

These kinds of changes are real and positive but require you to make your voice heard so that city governments know what you want and demand

-Josh

Good morning Everyone,

Today, as a little thing to help you, maybe get started on being an urbanist activist. I thought I would give the smallest thing you can do to get a bike path and lanes in your city or town. If you are out and about, maybe in the car with family, driving, doing errands, or just out, make mental notes of where your local stores are. The largest group that gains the most from bikes and pedestrian foot traffic are local businesses.

Until next time

Wamter

who's urban design is better: usa or uk? well obviously uk but i need reasons so i can bully my american friends >:)

that's a bit of a difficult-to-answer question; as mean as it sounds, comparing the UK to a region or even some states is more fair - different areas in the USA have *way* different urban design. for example: the sunbelt tends to have more car infrastructure, while the northeast, midwest, and northwest tend to be more transit-oriented.

but if you *really* want an answer, my personal answer would be that most of the USA is more progressive in regards to urbanism, which is what matters most to me.

-sdrx902 (nico)

I am british and upset that america have bad trains

I did not know about Amtrak before tumblr user Amtrak official

Glad some Americans can appreciate trains too

youd be surprised - we have some pretty good trains! NYC, LA, washington DC, boston, chicago, seattle, and more all have robust rail systems with lots of cities planning to found / expand theirs! of course, everyone has their own unique problems, whether it be bottlenecking, bad frequency, or choosing the wrong mode, but what real city doesn't? if you're interested in learning more, i recommend looking up some simple maps - amtrak services, regional services, and rapid services alike, its a fun rabbit hole! -sdrx902 (nico)

All bus stops should have shelter from the elements, benches, and solar-powered space heaters in the winter

This would legitimately be the first step in trying to fix how awful bus stops in America are. Out side of adding more stops to a buses route, having an adequate place for people to sit and be comfortable while waiting.

-Wamter

Have you ever been to a subway system outside of the US? I've been to Paris, Barcalona, and Taiwan's, and they've been really handy.

I went on Rome's Metro and it was really useful. I need to travel outside the country more, but yeah I enjoyed the metro in Rome

-amtrak

from just a transit standpoint, what US city would you most like to live in? doesn’t necessarily have to be the most effective transit system if there’s one you are really interested in because of its history or design

I am going to try and get the view points of multiple mods for this question,

I personally feel like it would have to be New York as it is just a city with the best transit and the infrastructure projects there are always really interesting, I wouldn't live there due to other personal issues with the city and the price but from a pure transit standpoint, it is the clear option in my opinion

-Amtrak

personally i feel like from just a transit standpoint, nyc is a pretty obvious choice, but things like advocacy and cost of living can have a pretty big impact on transit, so im gonna have to say seattle. its pretty cheap when you account for its $20/hr minimum wage in the city, and $16.28/hr minimum wage for WA state. seattle also has the fastest growing metro system (sound transit's link) in the US, and its turning out to be a great system. we also have some of the highest transit modeshare (counting ferries and buses) on the continent, even above chicago. i think the atmosphere in seattle is incredibly forward-looking for transit, with too many projects to even mention. its such a good vibe

-Nico

Minneapolis and St. Paul are in a pretty good state in which they are actively trying to expand public transport options. With Northern Lights, to larger on the ground pushes for more walkable, livable spaces, the North Star State is one to keep an eye on in the near future

-Wamter

from just a transit standpoint, what US city would you most like to live in? doesn’t necessarily have to be the most effective transit system if there’s one you are really interested in because of its history or design

I am going to try and get the view points of multiple mods for this question,

I personally feel like it would have to be New York as it is just a city with the best transit and the infrastructure projects there are always really interesting, I wouldn't live there due to other personal issues with the city and the price but from a pure transit standpoint, it is the clear option in my opinion

-Amtrak

personally i feel like from just a transit standpoint, nyc is a pretty obvious choice, but things like advocacy and cost of living can have a pretty big impact on transit, so im gonna have to say seattle. its pretty cheap when you account for its $20/hr minimum wage in the city, and $16.28/hr minimum wage for WA state. seattle also has the fastest growing metro system (sound transit's link) in the US, and its turning out to be a great system. we also have some of the highest transit modeshare (counting ferries and buses) on the continent, even above chicago. i think the atmosphere in seattle is incredibly forward-looking for transit, with too many projects to even mention. its such a good vibe

-Nico

Minneapolis and St. Paul are in a pretty good state in which they are actively trying to expand public transport options. With Northern Lights, to larger on the ground pushes for more walkable, livable spaces, the North Star State is one to keep an eye on in the near future

-Wamter

Opinions on the DC metro? (I love it so far)

pretty good system! despite being from the northwest, it was the first train i ever went on as a toddler, so i hold it very close to my heart. it has pretty good coverage and doesnt sprawl too much. pretty impressive frequencies for its system size, too. and while i personally prefer individually designed stations, the essentially prefab brutalism of the metro was a great way to save on costs, and its a bit surprising more systems haven't followed that style. overall, an A tier system in my opinion - nico

So here is some imperfect data on population densities I collected:

San Francisco city limits Population Density - 18,634.65 ppl per sq.mi

San Francisco Area Population Density - 12,135.24 ppl per sq.mi

East Bay Population Density - 8,496.42 ppl per sq.mi

East Bay and San Francisco Areas Population Density - 10,551.24 ppl per sq.mi

-Amtrak

Cities used for the San Francisco Area were San Francisco, South San Francisco, Daly City, Colma, San Bruno, Brisbane, Pacifica and Millbrae

Cities used for the East Bay were Oakland, Berkley, Emeryville and Piedmont

Minnesota has been a hot spot for Urbanism and Public Transport progress for the better part of the last couple of years.

I-35 is being removed and is now in the process of designing what the new stretch would look like, and if you want to read more on how and why they did this, I will drop their mission statement below

Olson Memorial Highway has been granted the funds to convert into a Boulevard

Lastly to take more about Minneapolis proper, a report done by Fortune in 2023 showcased that the removal of single house zone restrictions and building more mixed used housing that had a percentage carved out for lower income people, was the main reason Minneapolis was about to cool off inflation and basically stop the nation wide rental spike from hitting the cities.

To add on, HF 4009 is a bill that will shore up multifamily zoning and make sure towns and cities use the ground when they are available.

Minnesota is also taking a huge step, with a new law introduced last year to ban parking minimums state wide. Parking minimums are one of the main reasons single family homes take up so much space, and the large, dead parking lots that every shopping center has

And for the final thing, and the most important in my view, the Northern Lights Rail last year had funding allocated from the state for the project and are now waiting for the release of federal funds to complete the last 80% of the funding

Even though Minnesota is seen as a more quiet state where nothing really major happens, it goes to show that when the a group of passionate people gather and want to make a change, and are able to convince a state body to throw their weight around to get the grants for it, the sky's the limit on what can be done for communities

-Wamter

Minnesota has been a hot spot for Urbanism and Public Transport progress for the better part of the last couple of years.

I-35 is being removed and is now in the process of designing what the new stretch would look like, and if you want to read more on how and why they did this, I will drop their mission statement below

Olson Memorial Highway has been granted the funds to convert into a Boulevard

Lastly to take more about Minneapolis proper, a report done by Fortune in 2023 showcased that the removal of single house zone restrictions and building more mixed used housing that had a percentage carved out for lower income people, was the main reason Minneapolis was about to cool off inflation and basically stop the nation wide rental spike from hitting the cities.

To add on, HF 4009 is a bill that will shore up multifamily zoning and make sure towns and cities use the ground when they are available.

Minnesota is also taking a huge step, with a new law introduced last year to ban parking minimums state wide. Parking minimums are one of the main reasons single family homes take up so much space, and the large, dead parking lots that every shopping center has

And for the final thing, and the most important in my view, the Northern Lights Rail last year had funding allocated from the state for the project and are now waiting for the release of federal funds to complete the last 80% of the funding

Even though Minnesota is seen as a more quiet state where nothing really major happens, it goes to show that when the a group of passionate people gather and want to make a change, and are able to convince a state body to throw their weight around to get the grants for it, the sky's the limit on what can be done for communities

-Wamter

Whoever may answer this ask, what's your opinion on th- 💥

The interstate Highway system? Yeah it is kinda shit if I'm honest

-Amtrak

Hey, I’m pretty new to urbanism and learning about transit. But one thing I’ve been thinking of, as someone who grew up in semi-rural suburbs, is affordability. What kind of things can we do and advocate for to make living in dense, walkable, cities affordable, besides, the usual “Eat the rich” and “destroy landlords”? 

I love living in the city and having actual transit options and things within walkable distance. But damn if I don’t miss the cost of living when I was in the middle of nowhere. 

as far as immediate solutions, living in a place with quick and direct access to walkable urbanism is a great idea - issaquah, a suburb of seattle, is pretty cheap and is soon gonna have rail access to bellevue and seattle proper. living along an intercity rail route is also a good choice for the same reason. as far as advocacy and policy, *do* sweat the small stuff. even seemingly small bills in your local government can have a huge impact. universal basic income, rent control, middle density, and transit ballot measures are all important things to support, advocate, and/or push for if they don't exist where you live. even something as small as allowing businesses to use on-street parking for seating or more vending space is a huge step. if you're not afraid to get your hands dirty, guerilla urbanism is a good albeit risky choice. painting crosswalks where there are none, putting planters to enforce pedestrian-only spaces, and staging blockage protests. but i dont endorse that, wink wink.. -nico

Thoughts on trolleybuses?

trolleybuses are a very good option for cities that are willing to put in a bit of extra upfront cost in exchange for long term reliability and cost reduction. trolleybuses are much more mechanically simple than other buses as they do not need to carry their own source of power -- internal combustion engines or battery technology both add layers of complexity, more components that wear and need maintenance, and contribute to extra costs in maintenance. not to mention, they're old and battle tested -- we know what wears down, we know when it wears down, and the technology has been proven for decades

whether your city should build trolleybuses is a different question. cities with challenging topography (San Francisco and Seattle for example) get a lot of extra benefits owing to their superior performance on steep slopes. they also don't suffer from range anxiety the same way battery-electric buses would in cold climates.

it comes with a tradeoff -- the trolley wires are extra maintenance, and if the bus comes off the wire you gotta spend a bit of time putting them back on. modern trolleybuses often include small battery systems to let them travel some miles without being connected to power, which is pretty huge for flexibility reasons. San Francisco's latest trolley fleet can go for (i believe) around 4 miles before losing power? not to mention newer designs that are essentially battery-trolley hybrids, allowing for trolleybuses to venture much farther out from main corridors that have the trolley poles.

cities looking to build bus rapid transit systems especially should consider them -- if you're going through the effort to build dedicated travel lanes for your buses, putting trolley wires above them is not much of an extra cost and can help electrify your system without the unknown variables that come with fledgling battery-electric bus technology.

in short: trolleybuses good, more cities should consider using them, and by no means should any city be ripping out trolley wires.

~ Freyja

Im glad to see this blog. The urbanist community could definitely use more optimism

Yeah, that was what led us to make this blog, there is so much hopelessness online and the situation isn't nearly as bad as we make it out to be