Yonah Freemark

How much housing is located near the nation's transit? 45% of units are located within a 1/2 mile of bus or rail. But only 10% is near frequent service... and 6% is near a rail station. Our new data tool @urbaninstitute.bsky.social allows you to investigate in detail! www.urban.org/data-tools/h...

'MTA Faces $95.6 Million Fuel Hit This Year From Iran War' -- www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Yissss

Happy Monday! More promising Bay Area transit ridership news - Oct 2026 BART weekend ridership was 97.2% of pre-pandemic levels (vs Oct 2019) - and Sunday ridership is now above 2019 levels at 102.9%! My math below - check for yourself at www.bart.gov/news/article...

Amazing advances for democracy in Brazil and Serbia today!

imagine if a democratic candidate anywhere said something like this about a jewish candidate, would be a ten-alarm fire in every media outlet for days. but the literal president promoting this sort of insane bigotry against a muslim won't even merit a story

The Bay Area does 1.3% of America's driving but pays 5.2% of the income taxes Congress now uses to bail out the federal highway fund. On Nov. 3, the same 5 counties vote on a transit tax that would raise less than their share of that bailout. 1/

obvious next step is an article demonstrating that AI articles are better than human written ones. we will then have to ask the purpose of the scientific journal-article-writing enterprise, then we will ask why we have researchers, then we will all become waiters, then the robots come, then idk

Do you like crayoning transit lines? Use the new annotation feature on Transit Explorer to try out route ideas; you can label them and see their lengths, then export maps. In the US, you can also compare against local data, like population & jobs density! www.thetransportpolitic.com/transitexplo...

How is the federal government funding transit—& what changes must be made in the next transport funding legislation? It's going to be a big post-election issue! Join us at @urbaninstitute.bsky.social with @bethosborne.bsky.social & many more to discuss in a webinar, Nov. 9, 2–3:30 ET. Sign up ⏬

New York City & the MTA can build the Interborough Express as automated light metro, rather than light rail. In the process, it can: —Provide more frequent service —Provide faster service —Reduce operational costs —Reduce delays There’s no excuse not to!

How does the federal government distribute funds for public transit? New research @urbaninstitute.bsky.social demonstrates that: —Federal support is insufficient for adequate national service —Funding is concentrated in a few states —Many small communities that need transit funds aren't getting it

🚇 New metro line: Line 6 Xiamen, China · 26.1 km · Opened Sep 16, 2026 Line 6 opened as Xiamen's first inter-urban metro line, linking Huaqiao University in Xiamen to Jiaojiang… Open Lines: thetransportpolitic.com/openlines Project: railwaygazette.com/china/2026/10/19/xia… 📷 屠麟傲血 (Wikimedia)

The federal Highway Trust Fund, which funds road & transit, faces a >$318 billion shortfall by 2036. How can Congress address this? —Cut spending by 40% —Increase the gas tax —Implement new taxes (VMT, registration) —Transfer from the general fund We lay it out: taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/congr...

I do think it's fair to say that the bay area is *increasingly* car-dependent -- which is why you need to vote Yes on RTM and Prop H!

State DOTs control most of the deadliest city streets (including this one in Memphis), but they won’t fix them bc they don’t want to constrain speed or vehicle throughput. The funding issue is bogus IMO. State DOTs always find $$ for favored roadway expansions. Urban safety just isn’t a priority.

"Vulnerability to fuel price increases is associated with support for right-wing populist parties." And intriguing implication: More transit and shorter commutes can help strengthen democracy. doi.org/10.1016/j.er...

Transit Explorer @thetransportpolitic.com is updated, with thousands of additional transit lines. Changes: —>500 km of new metros, mostly in China & India —all of the massive tramway networks of eastern Europe are now included —if you've missed them, new features, like comparing two cities at once

🚊 New tram / light rail line: Line 17 Geneva, Switzerland · Opened Oct 17, 2026 Line 17 of the Geneva Tramway Network extended to Perrier-Aubrac from Annemasse, crossing the… Open Lines: thetransportpolitic.com/openlines Project: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trams_in_Geneva 📷 en.wikipedia.org

This is the 2nd infill station Sacramento's opened on its light rail system in a month. The previous one was at Dos Rios on the Blue Line, on September 28th.

Go to your camera roll and search “boat” and post one that you like.

The 2027 IBC has been officially published, and it allows single-stair apartment buildings up to four stories! See the new section 1006.3.3.2 codes.iccsafe.org/content/IBC2...