Tab Combs @DrTCombs@transportation.social

We had a really, really rough #BikeToSchool this morning. I can't even begin to express my gratitude for the teacher who came to meet us at the bike rack for hugs, because she looked out her window and saw the tears.

#Teachers are living saints.

Is #NHTSA finally going to do something about #TruckBloat?

https://urbanists.video/w/n2o9X1DoULyimWZejwxTkN

Are you waving at me? Are you swatting at a fly? Are you trying to fling a booger?

I don't know!

So I'm just gonna sit here and wait my turn while you get your shit together.

#DontWaveMeThrough

I also have concepts of a plan

Waving cyclists through stop signs when it's not their turn is not "helpful." It's confusing, frustrating, and puts us in harm's way.

https://urbanists.video/w/6FbK8HnZ46LJu4EREiu4TQ

#BikeTooter #DriversEd

https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2024/09/sp-holland-police-accountability

Brain: Hey I know it's only 2 am but you wanna make a list of every unfinished writing project we're working on?

At least my laptop is keeping me warm

It's really adorable that I thought I could write this thing at soccer practice

Surely these things aren't connected

Partner: I still don't understand why you get up at 3 every morning to work. Can't you just get it done during the day like a normal person?

Me: hey Brain, it's time to write.
Brain: nah, got all day
Me: actually, we only have until school lets out, and it's gonna take every minute of that time
Brain: naw dude, we're good, let's goof off
[rinse, repeat for several hours]
Me: effing A Brain, school's out in 20 minutes.
Brain: I'M READY TO WRITE! LET'S DO THIS!!!

You know what makes a road expensive to design, build, and maintain?
Cars.
Cars are wide. They are heavy. They go fast. They crash hard. It takes a colossal amount of resources to accommodate them en masse.

You know what's cheap? Sidewalks and bike paths. Orders of magnitude cheaper than roads built for cars.

Streets do not create car congestion. That's ridiculous. We, as a society, create the conditions that force people to drive if they want to get somewhere, even if they have to sit in the traffic of which they are a part.

Our complete refusal to provide for alternatives to driving, even when driving sucks, is what has created "car congestion."

There is no such thing as car trip demand. Cars do not demand to make trips. People make trips. Often, they make them by car. Usually because there is not a better option provided. The fact that you can recognize a road needs to exist but argue that it doesn't need to serve the needs of people is absurd.

This is what #CarBrain does to people.

#CarBrain makes well-respected environmental advocacy organizations claim that providing facilities for all people in all public spaces is impractical, that people must already be walking & biking on a street before that street can have facilities for walking and biking, that investing in infrastructure for walking & biking costs more than infrastructure for driving, and that streets cause "car congestion," whatever that is.

First time I encountered the new version I was in a car, and was stunned at the lack of design cues telling me to slow down as I approached the slip lane.

This intersection was really dangerous and was completely devoid of any pedestrian accommodations before getting the roundabout facelift.

But that sliplane...WHYYYYY?

For real, why? Is there any legitimate* reason to include sliplanes in a roundabout?

*maintaining vehicular traffic flow does not qualify as legitimate

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.9701814,-78.9324874,157a,35y,43.98h/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDkwNC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

#RoadSafety #Transportation

I knew #threads wasn't going to be great, but I honestly did not expect it to get so bad so fast.