Tab Combs @DrTCombs@transportation.social
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Transportation resilience expert. Studying, teaching, learning, tooting about 🚶♀️🚲 🚌 & 🛣️, with occasional outbursts about dogs, kids, & gardening. Searchable on tootfinder. Opinions my own.
Not anti-car, just anti-carbrain. A person, not a data point.
Support local communities affected by Hurricane Helene in Western NC: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RR5HML5ni83NdVodRGp2NZvyDJ_HtiAgw3J-IlMtPuA/edit?usp=sharing
Joined Nov 2022
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I tend to avoid #NewYearsResolutions, but not this year.
In 2024, I resolve to push back every single time someone uses the term #VRU, or #VulnerableRoadUser.
It's a transportation catchall for "humans not safely ensconsed inside a motor vehicle," and it's lazy, inaccurate, offensive, and counterproductive.
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They grow up so fast.
Oh, I think I know this one!
The catch is that it's ugly, massively unnecessary, and would be illegal under #NHTSA's proposed "Pedestrian Head Protection Standard" that might only become law if we keep pressuring lawmakers to care about saving lives?
https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/nhtsa-proposes-new-vehicle-safety-standard-protect-pedestrians
I'm certainly not entertaining the notion that this particular homeowner is retaliating after being told to stop leaving their BMW in the bike lane. Certainly not.
there is a special place in hell for people who run their sprinklers over the sidewalk next to an elementary school on a 40 degree morning
#ChapelHillNC is sending teams of first responders up in 5-day shifts.
If you live in the southeast, find out if your community is doing the same. If so, ask how you can support them. It's hard work, physically and emotionally, and it's going to be needed for a very long time. #HelpTheHelpers
Federal and state aid agencies, including #FEMA, are on the ground, helping families get the resources they need to recover and rebuild. They're also now, of necessity, becoming experts in countering misinformation. Social media and some political interests are rife with efforts to sow seeds of mistrust of aid organizations, esp FEMA. This is making it vastly harder for people to get and give help.
Don't amplify those efforts. Deplatform those who do.
There are multiple ways to help the survivors of #Helene. Tons of established local organizations are working around the clock to provide food, shelter, clothing, and health care. You can find information about some of them here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RR5HML5ni83NdVodRGp2NZvyDJ_HtiAgw3J-IlMtPuA/edit?gid=0#gid=0
Never ever talk about a disaster as an opportunity. Especially one of this magnitude. People are dead, grieving, homeless, cold, hungry, sick.
This isn't an opportunity. This is a consequence.
A consequence of blatantly ignoring the threat of #ClimateChange. A consequence of the the oblivion of those--mostly on the outside-- who benefitted for generations from the exploitation of the southern #Appalachians vast cultural and natural resurces.
And hopefully, it's a wake-up call.
There are bright spots, of course. There are always bright spots, beacons of hope, in a disaster. But they are shining through layers of grief, despair, and mud. So much mud.
I talked a lot about this during the #COVID19 #pandemic, and I'll talk about it a lot now: There is NO SILVER LINING to a tragedy. Especially one that was largely caused by us, and our refusal to take #ClimateChange seriously.
This is normally the economic high season in the mountains, when tourists come from across the southeast to see the spectacular fall leaf color. This year, tourism-dependent small towns are begging visitors to stay away. Some towns, like #DamascusVA, are issuing wristbands. If you're not a resident, a legit aid worker or first responder, or #FEMA, you don't get a wristband and you're not getting in.
Rescue operations are still underway in the most remote areas that are only accessible by helicopter or foot. Some of the most heavily traveled roads won't re-open for over a year.
Parts of some cities, like #Asheville, still don't have running water or sewer. Schools are wondering if they can assemble enough volunteer "flush bucket" brigades to re-open schools.
It's been 2 weeks since Hurricane #Helene hit the southern Appalachians, devasting communities across this multi-state region. Areas along the #BlueRidge escarpment -- one of the oldest in the world -- were particularly hard hit. Hundreds of lives lost, thousands of people still unaccounted for. Whole families swept away in mudslides.
All in a place many outsiders claimed, until 2 weeks ago, was a #ClimateHaven, relatively immune from the impacts of human-caused #ClimateChange.
Thousands of families without homes. Not damaged homes, *gone* homes. Swept down the river homes.
Tens of thousands of cars -- opportunity lifelines in these mountains -- flooded, totaled, buried in the mud.
Jobs gone. Businesses gone. Water and sewer systems gone. Roads gone.
Entire means of production gone.
#Planners, this is our bag. This is what we've trained for, what we tell people we're best at. WHERE ARE WE????
It's been twelve days since the southern Appalachian region was devastated by a hurricane made more powerful by human-induced climate change. Over 200 lives confirmed lost, 1000s more remain missing. The region has years of recovery ahead of it.
Twelve days. And still no official acknowledgment that #Helene even happened from either of the national city and regional planning organizations in the US.
Watching a thread unfold on another platform about parents' frustrations with their teenage children's anxiety around driving.
We helped create a world in which our kids are dependent on cars...a dependence that is their second leading cause of death, and that is rapidly destabilizing the planet they're inheriting from us.
We don't also get to be annoyed with them when they don't want any part of it.
I knew the devastating impacts of #Helene on my beloved southern Appalachians would catch up to me at some point.
That some point is right now, as I prepare to submit the final report on how state agencies can better support NC communities' efforts to build resilience through flexible street use.
This is the hardest thing I've ever written. Some of these communities don't even exist anymore.
I just can't wrap my head around it. #WNCStrong
Tab Combs
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Today is the deadline for voter registration in Georgia. If you are not registered, please strongly consider registering. You can do so easily online, by mail or in person.
If you believe you are registered, I strongly recommend checking your registration status just in case, as there have been unprecedented efforts to revoke legitimate voter registration.
Can my bike go as fast as a car? No.
But when the ride is this nice, why on earth would I want it to?
- Pronouns
- She/Hers
- Sponsors
- https://ko-fi.com/drtcombs
Transportation resilience expert. Studying, teaching, learning, tooting about 🚶♀️🚲 🚌 & 🛣️, with occasional outbursts about dogs, kids, & gardening. Searchable on tootfinder. Opinions my own.
Not anti-car, just anti-carbrain. A person, not a data point.
Support local communities affected by Hurricane Helene in Western NC: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RR5HML5ni83NdVodRGp2NZvyDJ_HtiAgw3J-IlMtPuA/edit?usp=sharing
Joined Nov 2022
