Amy Lee

Amy Lee

@amyelee.com

Postdoc at the University of California, Davis. Studying policy and politics of transportation, land use, and travel behavior. She/her. amyelee.com 🏳️‍🌈

5.7K followers454 following143 posts

Amy Lee reposted

This drives me CRAZY. I grew up playing sports w/ boys. I played on a U12 boys select soccer team, b4 switching to a U12 girls team that kept beating us. Nobody had any issue with any of it. Youth sports have never had the strict sex/gender boundaries that “XX-XY” activists are now trying to defend.

Andrew D Thaler@drandrewthaler.bsky.social

I live in a rural town and, like, I don't know how to tell you this, but the girls play on the boys team and vice versa all the time because otherwise we don't have enough players for a game and it's literally always fine so stop being weirdos about kids sports and just let trans kids play.

Logging in to share this critical gadgetbahn update with all my monorail era followers. I’m thrilled to present the Dusquene Incline in Pittsburgh, PA.

Amy Lee reposted

MAJOR PAPER DROP #2: Anyone claiming AI can read zoning codes is wrong. From academics offering chimerical metrics to private zoning-data companies producing AI slop, too many believe in AI shortcuts: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... This belief is only helping us misunderstand the law faster.

papers.ssrn.comKEEPING AI IN ITS ZONEWith zoning-reform fever sweeping local governments, state legislatures, and even Congress, there is an urgent push to understand exactly how zoning works. Unfo

Amy Lee reposted

They are lowering US flags to half-mast for a week, but if the government really wants to pay tribute to Dolly, they should fund education, the arts, and medical research instead of trying to eradicate them.

Super interesting polling results: "One in three U.S. adults (34%) name road-related accidents as their most top-of-mind daily safety risk, more than twice the global average of 14%." Much higher than the one in five (19%) who point to crime and violence. news.gallup.com/poll/712673/...

Amy Lee reposted

Amy Lee reposted

At the end of the term I asked my college creative wriing students to submit anonymous thoughts on AI. No real surprises: Mood ranges from resignation to despair, capitulation from embittered erosion of standards to total, feelings of betrayal from deep to furious. 1/

Amy Lee reposted

🚨 New paper! 🚨 Does talking about transportation help local election candidates win? 🗳️ Analysing candidates for local office across the United States, I found that transportation issues could be used as a strategic electoral advantage in local elections. Read the article: doi.org/10.1177/1078...

Amy Lee reposted

Seattle's light rail & streetcar lines carried 4.8 million riders in April—a 44% increase above March, after Link Line 2 was extended to connect Seattle & Bellevue across Lake Washington. Seattle's light rail & streetcar lines are now the most-ridden in the nation, above LA, Boston, or San Diego.

Amy Lee reposted

I’ve taken the wheel from @shanedphillips.bsky.social on the Housing Voice podcast for the next four regular episodes to talk transportation! First up - how has cities responded to the state change in parking requirements around transit stops?

UCLA Lewis Center@uclalewiscenter.bsky.social

#UCLAHousingVoice is shifting gears with a new season of #RoadScholars, our interlude exploring housing/transit connections. First up, guest @amyelee.com discusses parking requirements & how AB2097 highlights tensions between state mandates and municipal action. 🎧 lewis.ucla.edu/2026/05/13/1...

Super excited to hear about parking policy change in the PNW from Catie Gould. Tune in on May 7.

Sightline Institute@sightline.org

What happens when states take the lead on parking reform? Join @uclaits.bsky.social on May 7, with @citizen-cate.bsky.social on passing WA's SB 5184 and @amyelee.com on how CA's AB 2097 is playing out on the ground. Sign up at the link below!

Amy Lee reposted

Amy Lee reposted

Why is advancing ambitious climate legislation hard even in “deep blue” states? Here’s a systematic study of 6 years of lobbying data and 8 years of testimony in a state that sees itself as a climate leader, but is struggling with implementation of its bold targets. Guess who are obstructing?

Amy Lee reposted

If you could snap your fingers and remove 10% of the vehicles causing traffic and clogging up the streets, would you do it? That power exists, and it's called congestion pricing.

Today in the New York Times: "One year after the start of congestion pricing, traffic jams are less severe, streets are safer, and commute times are improving for travelers from well beyond Manhattan."

Amy Lee reposted

Yet another evidence review argues very strongly that simply providing alternatives to driving doesn't reduce driving This isn't surprising, if only thanks to habit. If I unthinkingly jump in my car for every trip (as many do), new buses won't change that www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.comReducing traffic with “carrots”: A review of the evidenceReducing traffic volumes is one way to reduce carbon emissions from the transport sector. Since increasing driving costs is often met with public resi…

Amy Lee reposted

Today on Volts: sustainable transportation policy is under comprehensive attack by the federal government, but states can soften the blow. Specifically, governors have a little-understood authority to transfer existing federal funds to EV charging, bike lanes, & transit. But time is running out!

volts.wtfHey governors: you can salvage sustainable transportation, but you need to do it quick!Liya Rechtman lays out the playbook for governors to salvage clean transportation using existing federal funds before it's too late.

Amy Lee reposted

This book finally got published today - free for download here cssn.org/news-researc... A monumental effort documenting climate obstruction across sectors, countries & governance levels, by 110 @cssn.org scholars I was chuffed to contribute to one of the chapters (thread)

cssn.orgGlobal Assessment - Brown Climate Social Science NetworkClimate advocacy has not failed, climate policy has been sabotaged, explains a new open access book, Climate Obstruction: A Global Assessment.

It's finally here! 100+ scholars, global scope, practical insights. “Climate Obstruction: A Global Assessment” shows how organized interests stall policy—and how governance can respond. Open access available now! Or order for paperback and hardcover. cssn.org/wp-content/u...

Amy Lee reposted

Happy centennial! It’s worth noting that originally this body, the first national traffic engineering institute, was funded 100% by one automobile manufacturer: Studebaker. It was named the Erskine Bureau after the company’s president. In 1935 the Automobile Manufacturers Association took it over.

🎉 Happy 100th birthday to transportation research at UCLA! 100 years ago today, the UC regents voted to establish the nation's first research center dedicated to street traffic issues. Learn more about our century-long tradition of transportation research www.its.ucla.edu/100...

Streetsblog USA@usa.streetsblog.org

U.S. cities could aspire to be more like Hoboken, or Osaka, or any number of other overlooked global models of active transportation excellence — and if they did, biking and walking could become an astonishingly powerful tool to confront climate change around the world.

Amy Lee reposted

Our multi-campus research team shared preliminary results from our work about the evacuation experiences of transit riders with LA county transportation and emergency management professionals yesterday! Can’t wait to release these findings publicly later this summer

Amy Lee reposted

There are no distractions. It's all bad. Systematically stripping trans people of their rights, guys in balaclavas shoving any brown person with a tattoo into a ummarked vans, ending healthcare for millions. It's all in service of fascism and technofeudalism. It's all one thing. That's the point.

Amy Lee reposted

Study on London 20 mph limits shows: - collisions ⬇️ 35% - casualties ⬇️ 36% - fatal/serious injuries ⬇️ 34% - child casualties ⬇️ 46% - child deaths ⬇️ 75% - walkers, cyclists, motorcyclists killed/seriously injured ⬇️ 28% etsc.eu/20mph-limits...

etsc.eu20mph limits in London linked to sharp fall in road injuries and deaths, new report findsA new study published by Transport for London (TfL) has shown that the introduction of 20mph speed limits and zones on local authority-managed roads in London between 1989 and 2013 led to significant…

So much is terrible these days but it's also jacaranda season in Los Angeles, which is beautiful from the ground and absolutely stunning from air.

Amy Lee reposted

🚨 Job alert: UCLA ITS is hiring a founding Staff Director for a new parking policy center! Work with top scholars, shape reform, and carry on the legacy of Donald Shoup. 🅿️ Learn more & apply by May 17: www.its.ucla.edu/202...

its.ucla.eduNew job opportunity: Parking Center Staff Director - UCLA Institute of Transportation StudiesJoin the UCLA ITS team. We're looking for a founding staff director to lead a newly established parking center.

Amy Lee reposted

A colleague at Stanford’s business school used The Stanford Daily to argue—poorly—against DEI. The piece was riddled with historical errors and left one searching for fact, so I broke my public writing hiatus to respond. I hope you’ll read and share the piece. stanforddaily.com/2025/04/22/w...

stanforddaily.comWhat DEI threatens isn’t merit. It’s monopoly.Political science professor Hakeem Jefferson argues for DEI's importance to de-monopolizing universities.

Amy Lee reposted

Yes, the famously private freeway system and the famously private airport systems

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

"Private sector money is what should make these investments" -- Duffy on Fox indicates the federal government is likely to pull funding for a high-speed rail project in California

Re-upping this, given news from the UK today, because it investigates what is and who decides the definition of "biological sex," which is anything but straightforward.

Amy Lee@amyelee.com

Just finished "Tested" and highly recommend. This theme, brought up about the 1936 Games in Nazi Germany, echos throughout: "Scholars of this period have argued that for sports officials, the point of all this concern…about fraudulent, incorrect women, wasn’t accuracy, or logic. It was control."

Amy Lee reposted

This seems like a good time to remind people that the Stanford Prison Experiment was based on fraudulent data. The "guards" were cruel to the prisoners because Zimbardo told them what he wanted to find with his research, and because they *wanted* to help him prove his point.

Just finished "Tested" and highly recommend. This theme, brought up about the 1936 Games in Nazi Germany, echos throughout: "Scholars of this period have argued that for sports officials, the point of all this concern…about fraudulent, incorrect women, wasn’t accuracy, or logic. It was control."

cbc.caTested | CBC Podcasts | CBC ListenWho gets to compete? Since the beginning of women’s sports, there has been a struggle over who qualifies for the women’s category. Tested follows the unfolding story of elite female runners who have b...

Amy Lee reposted

For “abundance” to improve transportation, supporters must consider the kinds of infrastructure that gets built – not just the quantity. Without addressing externalities (esp from cars), a supply-side spigot of new construction would be a disaster. Me, in Bloomberg CityLab 🧵

bloomberg.comWhat Would ‘Transportation Abundance’ Look Like?Fans of the abundance movement say that adding supply solves big problems in housing and health care. But when it comes to getting around, things get complicated.

Amy Lee reposted

Unidentified men grabbing someone off the street and putting her in a car because she wrote an op-Ed. This as flatly authoritarian as anything we’ve seen in this country in a very long time.

Matt Novak@paleofuture.bsky.social

Video of the international student at Tufts being arrested by "federal authorities" in Massachusetts has been released and it's terrifying. They're not even uniformed officers. Just secret police thugs in hoodies and masks. From WCVB: youtu.be/PuFIs7OkzYY

Such a neat research idea & amazing findings: - Nighttime pedestrian deaths fall 5% on nights w/ peak moonlight - In cloud-free conditions, moonlight reduces pedestrian deaths by 17% - Rural areas with low artificial lighting see a 39% drop in deaths under bright moonlight - Links are causal

Justin Tyndall@justintyndall.bsky.social

My paper, Road Illumination and Nighttime Pedestrian Deaths: Evidence from Moonlight, is now published at Economics of Transportation. authors.elsevier.com/a/1kptw_oIvi...

University of California has banned diversity statements in the hiring process because "the requirement to submit a diversity statement may lead applicants to focus on an aspect of their candidacy that is outside their expertise or prior experience." By that logic, what about teaching statements?