Alex Hallowell
@alex_hallowell
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Babies 👶🏽 + Buses 🚍 | Current: MBTA | Former: @sfmta_muni , Cal | Opinions my own, she/her
Cambridge, MA
Joined February 2011
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The fact that the two top killers of kids (guns, car crashes) are largely attributable to an unwillingness to regulate adult’s toys is just fucking exhausting.
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OMG Ijust got a public notice from the Historic Commission that my nextdoor neighbor wants to knock down their old garage and put in an ADU, and I AM GOING TO WRITE THE BEST LETTER OF SUPPORT!!!!
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Closing a street in the middle of a park to cars should not be controversial and it’s insane we are still talking about this.
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I gotta pull up a chair and a beer and watch all the cars bottom out on this beaut
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Today I had a hilarious convo with a friend who is a practicing architect who just moved to the US from France. She was saying how boring and ugly her firm’s designs are once they make it through local zoning and design review.
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I'm curious: for folks who use transit occasionally/regularly but who don't use buses often/ever--why? What are the barriers, silly or serious, to your using buses/exploring the option more frequently.
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With gas prices spiking and likely to go quite a bit higher, I wanted to talk about how I’ve approached going car free and car light. It’s always a good time to downsize if you can, but it does often take some planning and shifts in routine.
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I do what I do in hopes that we never have another day like this. Happy
#earthday
everyone.
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I BEG you to please stop putting pictures of buses alongside bad news of the pandemic.
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Truly obsessed with the speed bump culture here in Mexico. They’re everywhere, they fuuuuuck up your car if you’re not careful, and they work so well.
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Watching this congestion pricing implosion is every municipal employee’s worst nightmare come true.
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Transit/Planning Twitter, a question: does anyone know of a municipality that has an explicit goal of removing car lanes as part of their sustainability strategy?
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So it sounds like some people are getting annoyed with SF's hiring process again, and I would very much like to pile on. More than any other issue facing the SFMTA, the utterly broken hiring system is The Thing that will ultimately break the system.
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On January 3rd, I collapsed at my in laws house. I went to the hospital where I was whisked into surgery that saved my life. I was bleeding internally from a ruptured Fallopian tube. The procedure that saved my life? An abortion.
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@the_transit_guy
College towns: many have decent walkability, above avg civic events and a good range of restaurants. I loved Berkeley, CA, but even a less city-like place like Ithaca, NY has a lot of the best parts of city living but would still appeal ppl who gravitate towards suburbs.
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Hi Twitter: please settle a disagreement, Is Office Space a well-known film that is often referenced in pop culture? Thanks!
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Just mulling the state of hiring here in SF, once again. The Transit division has more than 300 current vacancies and we are working on a budget proposal that would add 400 NEW positions.
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Stop spacing is such an under-examined reason that your bus* takes eons to get anywhere.
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So seems now is as good a time as any to announce a professional update: in the new year I will be taking a new role as the Director of Transit Priority at the T. I’m very excited to learn new things and get more buses—and more people—out of traffic and on their way 🚍❤️
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Considering I live in Cambridge, MA, a city that’s been preserved in amber for centuries, I’m guessing a support letter will not hurt.
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I rode an escooter 🛴 for the first time yesterday and was promptly hit by a car🙃. (I'm fine.) My thoughts are: they're rattly AF, not nearly as fun as a bike, and a perfectly reasonable mode of transportation. Cars are STILL the problem.
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Sevilla, Spain recently instituted a pedestrian only zone in the historic center of the city. I got to speak with Fernando Martínez Salcedo, about the approach. And, while the urban form is about as far as you can get from most N. Am. cities, I think there are some lessons:
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It still blows my mind that a free parking initiative could be enacted overnight and then placed on the consent calendar of the oversight board retroactively when bike lanes, bollards and transit stops involve a detailed outreach and legislative program for consideration.
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She was confused by the quality of the firms final designs and after a few weeks she realized that they started off nice, but that the permitting process resulted in that “same thing everywhere” design.
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Yesterday I saw two Park Rangers stopping an SUV driver on JFK aim GGP. The Rangers were on bikes, had lights flashing, and one had even placed his bike in the path of the car to prevent it from moving while they appeared to ticket the driver. 10/10 no notes.
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I have been training for this for years! I don’t even know if this is a high stakes approval process or not, but I’m just so excited!
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@aarieff
This so much. I feel like the 8-12 min frequency is really the lowest that I personally view as "viable" for regular usage but most municipalities classify 15 min frequencies as "frequent" bus.
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“As a HOMEOWNER, let me please just state for the record…”
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Excited to announce the official launch of the MBTA Transit Priority Plan. It identifies the corridors with highest rider delay and lays the foundation for future priority projects.
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That’d be JFK Drive in San Francisco.
What's a street in your city that has recently been redesigned for the better?
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Reading through the updated MUTCD and I am ☠️ (as are all 🚲 who use this insane intersection.)
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I cannot get over how unusably bad weekend T service is. It’s really crushing.
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So news, as they say: my family moved back to New England recently and this will be my last week at
@SFMTA_Muni
and I’m going to miss it a lot.
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I desperately want transit advocates to better understand the incredible (ongoing) cost of adding substantial FTE to support high frequency transit.
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Opening
#NACTO2023
with a series of zingers: Jennifer Homemdy, Chair of the NTSB, just gave an impassioned speech about the need for speed limiters on cars saying that if the manufacturers won’t do it, it’s time for the federal government to require it.
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OMG the sidewalk and bike lane at Somerville/Prospect Aves near Union Sq are *finally* open. Look at this happy kid 🛴 ❤️
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Still love that this building ever made it through design review, in *Berkeley, CA*
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Morning 🌞 I just want to thank the Bay Area for sheltering in place. I gave birth to this cutie on the 1st in a hospital that had well-equipped staff and facilities. We got great care and attention in part because they aren't overrun by Corona cases.
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I saw this slide recently and I just can’t get it out of my mind. Here’s the breakdown of funding sources for some off the large Bay Area transit operators:
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Unbelievably excited that we get to work on this🫣. I can’t wait to make the buses better for the 37,000 daily Blue Hill Ave bus riders 🚍❤️
A notoriously traffic-snarled and dangerous three-mile stretch of Blue Hill Avenue through Mattapan and Dorchester could start to become a vision of transit efficiency. Buses will soon cruise down dedicated center lanes, the city announced Wednesday.
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@AndreaRussett
I had an ectopic pregnancy which had ruptured my Fallopian tube and was bleeding internally for three whole days before I saw a doctor because I was convinced it was just cramps. Hope you got checked out.
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We presently pay about $27,000 per year for childcare for our one single child. That’s not a typo and it’s not an unusually fancy spot, it’s just what it costs for full time care for a 3 y.o. This is simply not serious.
UPDATE full House tax plan gives gov some things, changes others:
— $600 child/dependent tax credit phased in over 3yrs
— Raise estate-tax threshold to $2M
— Cut short-term cap-gains tax to 5% over 2yrs
—⬆️EITC, sr circuit breaker, rent deduction & stabilization fund caps
#mapoli
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The effect of this is that people employed outside of the City may face retaliation from their mangers (remember most people work in at-will positions) for even considering attempting to take a test to get on a list to be eligible for a vacancy that may open in the next 2-3 years
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I find it deeply tedious to take a car anywhere but for the farthest of trips. I prefer to walk, to bike or to take transit. For us, driving is for when all those options fail. And, even living where we do, we do drive when it makes sense.
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@DalyShoshana
I swear one of the things that make people nostalgic about college is that it’s the first (only for many) time in their life they live in a walkable community. It’s really spectacular.
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Okay, I'm convinced. I want to swap out our gas stove for induction. Who's done it and what do I need to know? Particularly interested in hearing about electrical upgrades necessary.
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This city has so many resources, so many needs, and so many people who want to make a difference and the hiring process is designed to make them all run screaming with their hair on fire. It’s just really exhausting.
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What do I mean by shifts? We don’t do Costco/Target runs. Full stop. We buy groceries 3, 4 sometimes 5 times per week. Individual items may cost more, but we waste less. I swing by the market on the way home, usually it takes me 5-10 minutes.
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We have got to figure out a better strategy than this.
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Happy 2024 folks. Just want to kick off the year with a plea of sorts: For those thinking about their resolutions and how to be better stewards of our environment, may I propose supporting your local transit system.
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I just want to be able to spend an hour outside with my kid without being in mortal peril.
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The overall point of this article is spot on: EVs are not enough. Public Transit is an essential part of the climate solution, but continues to be ignored by policy makers at a level to make a real difference.
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Now she’s emphasizing the need for “vehicles to go on a diet” highlighting that the weight for the *battery alone* on one of the popular new e-truck models weighs more than a Honda Civic. She said we have a public health crisis on our roads.
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These letters are required for all the years of experience you're hoping to meet--for some more senior positions this experience may have to look backwards 10+ years. Do you still keep in touch with your manager from 10 years ago? Would they write you a letter?
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Transit is safe and has continued to operate globally throughout the pandemic. In the US all transit carriers have a mask mandate. On
@sfmta_muni
compliance has remained 95%+ since we began tracking in summer of 2020.
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Building an efficient and functional transportation future in this country has never been a technical challenge, but a political one.
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Nearly all applicants must provide a personalized letter from all prior employers, on employer letterhead, signed by fmr. manager confirming the tasks they were responsible for --this is to determine whether a candidate meets the MQs of the class they're applying to.
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I think for a lot of people used to driving, the mental shift is a big one. Some of it can be done short term, but a lot of the things that make this lifestyle sustainable for us is the reality that we’ve designed our life around a desire to not rely on a car.
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Despite last nights City council meeting, I really do think the tide has already turned on bikes in Cambridge.
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But, we've fully lost the forest for the trees. The sum result of layering new policies on old is that it's become a labyrinth that only the most well-resourced and well-informed could possibly navigate.
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I volunteer to drive this thing up and down Irving/Judah all day long.
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Today I walked 8 blocks to the playground with my 1.5 year old toddler. He likes to walk with me, which means we’re pretty slow making our way across the crosswalks.
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If I had any sense that literally anyone with the power or authority to address how utterly broken this all is either understood the issues or had a real plan to address them, I wouldn’t feel quite so hopeless. But I don’t.
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@IDoTheThinking
It’s definitely the space/light/sound, but it’s also the kitchen. Taking little kids out to eat for every meal when traveling is exhausting even if they’re accustomed to restaurants. The ability to cook at the house is *so* helpful.
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Something like a goal in a strategic plan that says, “In 2022 we have a target of removing/repurposing 10 miles of existing roadway for non-car/SOV use.”
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Fun fact,
@sfmta_muni
sees more daily boardings than
#SFO
sees passengers both pre COVID and now. We are averaging 175k daily boardings now and pre COVID carried ~750k. Muni is only one of 28 transit operators in the region 🚍👍
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Downtown SF has felt a lot busier during the last week or two. It's nice seeing people around, and I'm honestly thrilled that my bus has been full enough that I don't always get a seat. But, man, looking at the data for SF--the downtown commute is bleak.
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God I love American health insurance. I am 37 weeks pregnant and just switched insurers. I need a referral from a PCP in order to attend my OB appointment because it’s considered a “specialty” or I’ll be billed directly. I don’t have a PCP because I just switched insurers.
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And, it's easy to pass an audit of your hiring practices when you're barely hiring anyone at all!
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@junkspaces
I'll be honest that my core reason for asking this is that I suspect there are A LOT of people who would be surprised by how well the bus serves their needs who simply never consider it. (This is not to discount the many ways that they could be made better!)
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No busses running on the Van Ness BRT yet, but those concrete barriers are doing their thing 🙌
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We also looked for places with a local cafe. A playground. Some green space. Transit. It absolutely costs us more. But, we do save money by driving very rarely (more if we have up the car entirely.)
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This must be done PRIOR to the list creation process. This means people vaguely interested in joining the list must go to their employer and gather this information BEFORE they know whether they'll even be invited to the exam, let alone have an offer.
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People like to fixate on bus size as if the choice to go from a regular 40’ bus to an artic 60’ bus is somehow the reason you’re not able to pay for more bus drivers and like, the cost differential between these two choices are multiple orders of magnitude in difference.
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My child regularly wakes up at 5am and every morning, before any of you are awake, I have sat here for hours stewing, wondering WHY IS NOTHING OPEN BEFORE 8AM IN SAN FRANCISCO?!
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@WebDevLaw
For those who can't read the French, "To the memory of the young children of this daycare, deported between 1942 and 1944 because they were born Jewish, innocent victims of Nazi barbarism with the complicity of the Vichy government. They were killed in the death camps...
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The 5289 Sr. Transpo. Planner position took applications for the first time in nearly 3 years back in Feb 2022. There has been zero comms. w/applicants since. This week they reached out to saying the exam is 9/6, the day after Labor Day weekend, in person, in SF.
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This is literally the bare minimum. We need to be planning a hell of a lot more of it everywhere, like, immediately.
“It’s now or never, if we want to limit global warming to 1.5°C (2.7°F).” –
#IPCC
Working Group III Co-Chair Jim Skea on the release of IPCC’s latest
#ClimateReport
on the mitigation of
#climatechange
.
➡️
Watch the trailer 🎥
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What do I mean about long term planning? We live near a green grocer. That was by design, we chose a neighborhood with that in mind.
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I’ve been really salty lately re: the decision to deprioritize Transit operators’ access to vaccination. I’m so thrilled that the
#SF
Mayor and DPH have clarified that they ARE ultimately eligible in 1B 🚍🙌
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I got asked to guest lecture in a class that I was too intimidated to take when I was at Cal and I just am feeling pretty hot today.
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@wafoli
It’s the classic planning problem that every stop has a constituency but the benefits are diffused
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Exciting news! The
@MBTA
Better Bus Project is hiring! Want to help expand bus service? Make it faster? More reliable? Want to join an amazing team of dedicated planners and engineers?
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This craven abdication of responsibility is a slap in the face to every person who chipped away at that program for literally decades.
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As a transpo professional and parent I’m not liking the feeling I’m feeling in learning firearms have overtaken auto crashes as leading cause of death for the <4 age group
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I will say that our toddler ❤️s buses and trains. Going anywhere on transit is an adventure for him. It’s still hard to do it alone (he’s too big for a carrier but too little to fully ditch the stroller) but he’s a happy kid when we travel that way.
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This is a classic case of layering well-intentioned process on top of old. Each individual component of this system is intended to weed out opportunity for discrimination. This process DOES provide bullet-proof audit documentation for hiring selection.
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Sprinkle in a few potholes, a random cobblestone block or two and a few dirt roads and it’s a real winning recipe for reducing driving speeds.
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If the infrastructure deal doesn’t include operating $ for transit, it’s not an infrastructure deal.
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And, we've come full circle back to the exact situation we're trying to avoid. I want to ask: what about those people who don't fit that archetype? Those who can bring a new lens to the work and challenge us to think bigger and better and differently?
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So, we need to start being more honest about what it will take to get people who live in cities out of their cars: Making it harder and more expensive to drive everywhere.
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I worked on the public health messaging used on transit in SF and this is illustrative of a tension: early in pandemic, transit systems were partners in pushing public health messages. Today, they’re dealing with the fallout of passengers self policing their preferred policy.
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I do love Cambridge: I’m presently sitting in a coffee shop watching an elderly woman and her parakeet dance to Fleetwood Mac.
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