Charles Marohn
@clmarohn
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Dad. Husband. Engineer. Planner. Author. Books: Strong Towns | Confessions of a Recovering Engineer | Escaping the Housing Trap
Brainerd, MN
Joined September 2008
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Housing is an investment. And investment prices must go up.
Housing is shelter. When the price of shelter goes up, people experience distress.
Housing can’t be both a good investment and broadly affordable—yet we insist on both. This is the housing trap.
Escape on 4-23-24.
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Traffic engineers won't allow bollards at most US street intersections because cars will hit them and be damaged.
Yes, that will happen. It's not the worst outcome.
Note how this pedestrians life was saved by the bollards. Absolutely magnificent.
#WorldBollardAssociation
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Do you really get to decide the kind of place you want to live in? Let’s look at five ways Americans tell everyone how they have to live. Hint: it’s less about arrogance and more about ignorance. 🧵
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Engineer opposed to bollards along the sidewalks because automobiles might get damaged.
The only surprise is that this honestly and widely held belief among professional engineers was spoken publicly. It's usually just subtext.
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Anyone from any other country must be baffled by Americans driving SUVs worth tens of thousands of dollars idling in a line to get free food, yet here we are.
It was an insane folly to make a car the price of admission to fully participate in our society. We will all pay for it.
Thousands of cars lined up to collect food in Dallas, Texas, over the weekend, stretching as far as the eye can see.
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I got an email yesterday from a traffic engineer who said he loves my work but it's not possible "unless we're going to change the entire North American development pattern."
Yes, my friend, that's what we have to do.
Was told by a traffic engineer yesterday,
"We can't install speed bumps on this 25 mph road. People are already traveling 30, and additional vertical deflection might cause them to lose control."
🙃
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Houston is broke, but so are some of the richest cities in Silicon Valley.
What do they have in common? Not politics. Not governance.
It's the development pattern. The way they build their places has made them insolvent. 1/
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My friend Jason is taking some heat for this, but he's not wrong.
Most people think that "hope" means we take what we have and make it better. That's delusional. Most of what we have built is going away. It was never meant to endure. It was purely consumption.
What emerges out
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Suburbanization created an *enormous* number of transactions, but it's made nearly every US city - and, by extension, most US families - insolvent (more long-term liabilities than assets).
It's literally the opposite of creating wealth. Growth is not wealth. GDP is not wealth.
I, too, love walkable urbanism.
However, we should remember that suburbanization created *enormous* wealth for our country.
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We just announced $150 million in downpayment assistance for first-generation homebuyers.
Young people have lots of options as they start their lives. By making homeownership more achievable, we’re helping them decide the best place to call home is right here in Minnesota.
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Hey
@notjustbikes
-- Congratulations, the
@USDOT
will now help you learn American best practices so your country can tap into our transportation expertise.
Our hubris is only exceeded by our imprudence. In transportation, we should be asking for guidance, not offering it.
Today, we're launching Momentum, a new initiative to help countries around the world learn from our best practices and expertise in planning and modernizing transportation infrastructure.
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Last week, Houston officials said they were broke. That doesn't mean what you think it means (it's actually worse) and it's not caused by what they want you to think it's caused by.
This is what a Ponzi scheme looks like. 1/
Excellent article by
@clmarohn
from
@StrongTowns
on Houston's finances. Spoiler alert: the fire fighters are NOT the problem.
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This street won multiple Complete Streets awards. It's a horrible & deadly stroad that separates a residential neighborhood from a DC Metro transit stop. Check out these before and after photos (I double checked -- we don't have this backward).
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This is my backyard. The prior owners used this space for parking. When we bought this house seven years ago, I wanted to use what I learned from
@stevemouzon
to build multiple outdoor rooms. It's taken a lot of work, but I'm happy with how far it's come.
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For those outraged at this citizen action, check your anger. All cities need rapid reaction teams that can do this kind of necessary work. Instead, the typical response is committees and process.
I applaud these citizens for filling the vacuum left by local government inaction.
Community outrage for 4-y/o child killed at SF intersection; rebel group installs barriers
A group called Safe Street Rebel has installed a new barrier at 4th & King streets, saying they did not want to wait the 3 weeks the city said it would take to get the job done.
@JanaKTVU
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One half of one percent of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill is earmarked for carbon reduction strategies. The top strategy in this priority program: expand auto-based transportation systems to reduce congestion.
That's not a joke. That's the policy.
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I remember when we built this mall. A primary feature was LOTS OF PARKING. With the mall now way past its prime, it's even more awkwardly garish.
Parking regulations hurt small businesses to the benefit malls like this.
#blackfridayparking
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Want to build a 600 square foot starter home? No.
Want to rent out your spare bedroom to a college kid? No.
Want to build a small home in the backyard for your elderly mother-in-law? No.
Want to build a four car garage? Yeah, that you can probably do. LOL 9/
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My annual Black Friday Parking photos. As a young engineer, I was always told to build more parking because you're gonna want it on Black Friday. That's never been true. We have way too much parking, especially here in the Brainerd Lakes Area.
#BlackFridayParking
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I've received a bit of pushback on this. Politics bore me and I really have no time for it. Like I said at this press conference, I'll stand together with anyone who is serious about eliminating parking mandates.
@OmarFatehMN
and
@IlhanMN
are serious, so I'm here with them. This
Strong Towns founder
@clmarohn
: "I'm proud that Minnesota is leading this reform conversation."
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When the world gives you strip mall shopping and franchise food instead of neighborhood stores and a downtown, you can pretend you are deciding….
…..or you can wake up and see that it is the outcome of subsidies that dramatically favor one style of business over another. 7/
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The responses to this post have been particularly interesting.
There are a whole lot of people out there who think that suggesting you shouldn't HAVE to buy a car to do your daily tasks is a conspiracy, but building cities where you are FORCED to own a car isn't.
#NotTheEnemy
Most car trips in America are under 6 miles, and they’re for things like groceries, appointments, shopping, and dining.
Our built environment requires people to spend thousands of dollars a year on vehicles just to drive a few minutes away.
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@StrongTowns
Let’s go back to the original tweet and really identify what is at stake.
On the left, you have a bottom-up system where neighborhoods are shaped by many hands, a co-creative process resulting in evolution over time. It can be messy, but also adaptive and strong.
On the right,
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Current Affairs: Strong Towns is conservative pretending to be progressive.
Alpha News: Strong Towns is progressive pretending to be conservative.
Maybe parking mandates, endless highway expansions, zoning restrictions on housing, etc... are just dumb. Period.
@AlphaNewsMN
And to reinforce how intellectually lazy the
@curaffairs
article by
@ear2thepavement
was, the
@AlphaNewsMN
piece links to it as an example of me claiming to be a free market conservative, but actually being a climate crisis advocate. LOL
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Before the 1930s, housing was financed through local banks - 50% down payments, 5 year interest-only loans w/ balloon payments. That’s what a free market looks like; very conservative financing. 3/
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Ironically, the people most vocal about letting “people decide what kind of place they want to live in” are also the most vocal about opposing decisions unlike their own.
The result is the stagnation and then sudden intensification shown in the original post. 10/
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Narrator: This entire scene was created by central planning.
Sorry Tucker,
This photo is exponentially more beautiful than anything created by central planners.
The chaos of markets will always be preferable to the human suffering caused by centralization.
Cope and seeth.
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So, Houston is broke. Didn't see that coming (not).
I did a series of lectures in Houston a few years back. They knew they were broke then, but had enough growth to sustain the ponzi a while longer, so they said nothing publicly.
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Your street must meet the minimum traffic standards of the engineering profession. These are standards designed to move high volumes of vehicles at high speeds.
Safety is measured in terms of the driver, not the neighborhood overall. It’s a bias built into the practice. 12/
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@StrongTowns
What is arrogant (and ignorant) is believing that the North American development pattern is a byproduct of individual decisions made in a free and noncoercive market. You have the illusion of choice, but it is an illusion all the same. 18/
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And good luck affording it because the American housing finance system drives up housing prices (a feature, not a flaw). 5/
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The federal government has told you HOW you have to live: in a home that qualifies for a federally-subsidized mortgage product.
You can technically build something else, but good luck financing it.
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Did we stop building highways? Of course not. LOL
There was a big pot of money and insatiable demand for just one more lane so, why not? Plus, economists told us over and over that it was an easy way to create jobs and boost GDP.
Economists are wrong, BTW. 7/
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Dude looks really fit. Probably got home faster and certainly saved $$.
The question we should be asking: How do we make this trip easier?
Answer that and we start to shift everything.
"Please, tell me again why you need a car..."
🛴
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Why do we call good street design a road diet?
Nobody would take away your bowl of cold gruel and give you an ice cream sundae and then tell you it was a gruel diet.
Urbanists suck at branding.
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#4
: Safe Streets
I decide I want to live on a tree-lined street engineered for slow traffic. One that is so safe that the kids can play in it. Is that a choice that is available to me? Could my neighbors and I agree to make that available?
Of course not! 11/
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All of you licensed engineers upset with me for being critical of the profession, telling each other that I should be "working within the profession" to change things....
Where were you when I was brought in front of the licensing board, just for speaking up?
Cowards.
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The City Engineers Association of Minnesota did not need to weigh in on a parking reform bill being debated at the legislature. Yet, they did.
Their arguments show why engineers should not be consulted on public policy or be allowed to make value judgements. 🧵
"A case study in tone-deaf, echo-chamber thinking."
In a letter opposing parking reform, an engineers association exposed the faulty logic and misrepresentations they rely on—and showed why many engineers are breaking from the party line to support reform.
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#2
: Highway Expansions
Imagine a federal program that set out to build high speed rail everywhere. It was fully funded by user fees and so lots of HSR is built very quickly. So much, in fact, that after 20 years the entire system was constructed.
Now, instead of HSR, think
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These standards didn’t evolve out of our common culture; they were imposed by a set of carrots and sticks tied to funding. You drive to the megagrocer thinking you’ve made that choice, but that was a choice made for you.
Don’t believe it? Okay, so what is your other option? 13/
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Instead, we mandate a minimum amount of parking and force everyone to compete on that basis.
Who does that favor? (Hint: it's not the local small business.) 16/
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I hope everyone gets an opportunity to walk around their city now that there are so few cars on the road. Note how pleasant it is, and also how much safer. Also note all the unproductive space usually given over to moving and storing vehicles. That is where our money has gone.
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It gives me great joy that the
@StrongTowns
message is way bigger than me. We've come a long way, friends.
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At
@strongtowns
, we truly want people to decide for themselves the kind of place they want to live in. That’s not arrogance; it’s humility. 17/
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Prosper is in what we at
@StrongTowns
call the Illusion of Wealth phase of the Suburban Ponzi Scheme. Lots of growth provides lots of cash and the liabilities are decades in the future. This is what stupid money looks like.
The Prosper Police Department shows off their $689,000 multi-purpose vehicle at the annual Chrome and Coffee car show
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Parking is a temporary land use.
Wherever there is parking, the goal should be to eventually not have parking.
You give up parking when the land is so valuable, when the place is so desirable, that nobody would think of using it for parking.
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There is no way to make this a pleasant walk, but we can easily make it 100x safer by placing the guardrail between the sidewalk and the roadway.
When traffic engineers talk about “building forgiveness into the design” of roads, they are talking about building streets like this one, where negligent motorists can drive into bike lanes and onto sidewalks without scratching their cars’ paint.
Pic:
@conspacecase
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This is a
@StrongTowns
approach. Nailed it. Now let's get it passed.
NEW: Milwaukee, Wisconsin just proposed the most ambitious zoning code in the US. 🚨📰🏘️
-ALL residential parking mandates gone
-Small apartment buildings legal BY RIGHT in core (medium green)
-Triplexes, townhomes, & ADUs legal by right CITYWIDE
-Permitting FAST-TRACKED
🧵🧵🧵
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People drive the speed they feel comfortable driving, not the posted speed. If we want slower speeds, we need to make speeding less comfortable for drivers. Narrower lanes, tighter corners, etc...
Thank you
@MassDOT
for installing speed feedback signs on the Harvard Bridge and other
#charlesriverbridges
, and posting 25mph speed limits! Next, we’ll look to you for published data and countermeasures to stop the rampant speeding.
#visionzero
#speedkills
#mapoli
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In a world where we all get to decide for ourselves, there would be businesses that compete by having big parking lots on cheap land at the edge of town and others that compete on proximity by being within walking or biking distance.
That’s not North America. 15/
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There are two ways to reduce Deaths per Vehicle Miles Traveled.
1. Make things safer (reduce numerator)
2. Have people drive a lot more (increase denominator)
Guess which one engineers do?
This reply from a City Engineer explains why half of the USA is marked in red and black on this map
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An engineer recently told me that stroad is a made up word with no application to the real work that engineers do.
Dude, go talk to your boss.
First time seeing "stroads" highlighted in a presentation being given by the WSDOT Secretary to the state legislature, in the context of the most dangerous state highways in our state.
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What happens when you can't do the extreme building setbacks mandated by the fire code?
You get smaller vehicles.
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That's only a 5.7% total increase in two decades. For context, their margin of prediction error is many multiples of that. The math here is really dumb.
We have better things to do with $475 million. Alleviate traffic by building neighborhoods and help yourself in the process.
SR-55 is a vital north-south connector between Central Orange County and the coastal region, with more than 260,000 vehicles driving it every day. That number is expected to grow to nearly 275,000 vehicles by 2040!
Visit for more!
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Texas expands highways for the same reason people rob banks: that's where the money is.
If they didn't get a 9:1 federal match, they wouldn't do it. No state would.
@clmarohn
@StrongTowns
Unless you are in Texas and TXDOT is planning to expand multiple highways in the core of Houston and Austin
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There is nothing more incoherent than parking mandates for bars and nightclubs.
when I first wrote about parking mandates for
@StrongTowns
I learned just about how much space is needed for a single parking spot (which includes a means to access it). I honestly thought it was an exaggeration so I checked elsewhere, asked some colleagues, and..
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It's astounding to realize just how quiet the cities our ancestors lived in had to have been. The spring birds are almost deafening when they don't compete with the continuous background hum of automobiles. It's obvious in retrospect, but astounding to experience. I love it.
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If you've read "Confessions of a Recovering Engineer," this is the exact crossing I wrote at length about. Another person killed, a victim of negligent and deadly engineering. I am going to leave it at that because I have nothing nice to say right now.
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The posts must be flexible because, if a car were to collide with one, the driver would not be harmed. That's engineering values in action.
The kids walking on the other side of that plastic, colliding with them won't harm the driver either so, all good.
These are sick values.
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We are so focused on trying to build affordable housing that we aren't doing the simple things that would make housing affordable.
Here's a story from my hometown (Brainerd, MN) that will likely sound familiar. 🧵
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Oldest daughter is taking driver's training. Tonight she tells me that the instructor doesn't like pedestrians because "they have too many rights" and "just walk out in front of you."
Dude is teaching kids to drive in my community. Pathetic, but sadly not surprising.
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When you know the safe speed on a street is 20 mph, yet you design it for speeds of 50 mph, you are not providing a "safety margin" -- you are being grossly negligent. Your design is going to kill people.
The traffic engineering profession has institutionalized gross negligence.
Powerful article by my friend
@JeffSpeckFAICP
"Put simply, the roadway design standards enshrined by our nation’s professional civil engineers are unnecessarily deadly to the point of criminal negligence. It’s time to place blame and demand change."
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Target in Baxter, MN is my first stop this
#blackfridayparking
season. If parking spaces are not used today, when will they every be used?
Why do we regulate this into existence?
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If your city cannot financially sustain its essential infrastructure without outside support, your city is fragile and its future is tenuously dependent on others.
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I explained why this is the case in Confessions. It is probably the part of the book I've received the most professional pushback on.
Drive slower and get where you're going more quickly. Counterintuitive, but true.
One of the craziest findings in urban planning is that you can reach more jobs faster by car in Dutch cities than American cities — *and* walking, cycling, and transit are faster in Dutch cities.
Building cities for cars fails even cars.
@BrentToderian
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Engineers who install center guardrails on highways but won't allow bollards along sidewalks are grossly negligent in their duties and should lose their license to practice.
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Spending billions adding more highway capacity isn't a solution to any problem we face, let alone the problem of traffic congestion.
Seeing more and more national leaders speaking clearly on this is a hopeful sign.
"I cannot support [I-35 expansion]... Wider highways don't work." - US Congressman
@GregCasar
We are deeply grateful for Congressman Casar's powerful words against I-35 expansion at his town hall last Thursday.
THANK YOU Congressman for your strong leadership on I-35!
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I fought (and lost) to make this street more walkable and friendly but was told it had to be a wide highway for economic, pro-business reasons. Here's a snapshot of Brainerd's primary street at 11:20 a.m. on the 4th of July. When do we stop believing this theory?
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This is every city. Every. Single. City.
If you dedicate the entire capital budget to this backlog of need, it will take 108 years to catch up.
Nowhere are the numbers even close. History will record our obsession with building infrastructure as an act of mass delusion.
Looking over the Encinitas City Council meeting agenda for Next week.
Infrastructure projects...
Total city revenue $116.4M
"the amount available each year is insufficient to cover the costs"
Infrastructure needs throughout the city: $1.31B...with a B.
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@UrbanThree
Houston has more than 16,000 miles of streets. That’s 37 feet of street per person. Run that math and a Houston family of four is on the hook to maintain a half million dollars of essential local infrastructure. That's not viable. 5/
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Worth noting: when we needlessly make street safety into a partisan culture war issue, we make it infinitely harder for transformative leaders like Governor Burgum to make progress. And there are TONS of Red State leaders trying to make progress.
“We built cities all over America that are designed for automobiles and not designed for people... Our housing costs are high, in part because of the way that we've designed our cities."
-
@GovDougBurgum
North Dakota comments during the
@NatlGovsAssoc
winter meetings
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Mayor Pete at DOT. I am not going to burden him with predicting a revolution, but this is as close to a
@strongtowns
advocate we are likely to see in this position. Congratulations
@PeteButtigieg
.
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Show me you can competently build a city where people can walk safely and I'll take you seriously when you want us to plan for flying taxis.
Until then, please stop this
@APA_Planning
. You undermine your credibility even further with nonsense like this.
Advanced air mobility vehicles — think flying taxis — could be landing soon.
#PlanMag
looks at what planners and policy makers should be doing now to help clear the runway.
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Look at this over-engineered intersection and tell me that the easiest path to increasing safety is more tech on vehicles.
And all this effort is projected to save just 360 lives per year. What?
Had enough of this? A
@strongtowns
approach costs less, creates better places, and
We have a crisis of roadway deaths in this country—and today we’re taking a major step toward addressing this with our new rule on automatic emergency braking.
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Q. Are these installed correctly?
A. They meet the standard.
Q. Well, do they accomplish anything?
A. See prior answer.
@BHSafeStreets
Today’s inspection showed these humps meet our standards for height/length/width and were installed properly. We will be adding permanent white chevron markings soon to replace the temp tape marking them now - making them even more visible.
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Not a parody account.
I'm fascinated to know what
@aashtospeaks
believes is the "community development" aspect of this project.
Congratulations to
@UtahDOT
for taking home the top prize in the Quality of Life/Community Development, large project group!
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Credible speed camera program:
1. Focuses on ticketing the truly deviant - if large % of drivers are speeding, that's a design problem.
2. Is paired with an ethic of iterative engineering to reduce violations & improve safety.
3. Uses revenue near source for safety changes.
@RazzberryYams
I've not lambasted things for not being perfect. I reject the simplistic reaction of many who, in their war on cars, want to have a war on drivers of cars.
If this is about human prosperity, we're losing the plot thread.
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WTF? It's bad enough that they reduce humans to "pedestrians" -- just another transportation mode -- but now we are calling kids VRUs? 🤢
The US approach to transportation is dehumanizing at its core. I refuse to use their language.
Today is National Walk, Bike & Roll to School Day. Today—and every day—please watch out for blind zones. Most pedestrian and cyclist accidents occur in front of vehicles.
#BikeAndRollToSchoolDay
#NationalBikeMonth
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The financial struggles of Houston and the cities of the Silicon Valley area have the same underlying cause.
Rapid horizontal expansion of cities gives the local gov't lots of cash today. In exchange, they promise to service and maintain vast areas. This math doesn't work. 4/
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President Biden is calling on Congress to increase middle-class home prices by $10,000.
President Biden is calling on Congress to give middle-class first-time homebuyers a $10,000 tax credit to help lower their monthly mortgage costs.
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I've been blessed to present
@StrongTowns
ideas in 49 of the 50 states. Today, we made it 50.
Thank you, Anchorage, for your enthusiasm, generosity, and hard work. I love that you're working to be a stronger place. I can't wait to be back (February 2024).
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People (aka: pedestrians) are breakaway, so hitting them won't significantly damage a vehicle or driver, thus there is nothing to concern a traffic engineer about.
That's not hyperbole. That's truth.
@PoliticsAndEd
I just noticed they built a median to protect cars from oncoming cars, but nothing to protect pedestrians from cars. What is wrong with the engineering profession?
@StrongTowns
??
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What a wretched intersection. The fact that they claim it takes $20M to fix this proves they have no clue. And no sense of urgency.
Learned helplessness is everywhere when it comes to traffic safety.
Drivers crash into same store 3 times in 8 months. City says it can’t do anything unless Federal gov gives 20 million dollars to fix.
Pathetic governance, sad.
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Move the Curb, friends!
The streets in my neighborhood here in Brainerd (MN) were under construction this summer. The city did a wise thing when it moved the curbs in. Not only did it make the streets more pleasant, it saved a lot of money. Great leadership from city hall.
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This a "continuous flow" intersection. Engineers, I do not think that means what you think it means.
And, yes, this won the Academy Awards of the Engineering Industry. Prior award winners include the Bridge to Nowhere, the Berlin Wall, and Setting Fire to a Pile of Money.
This monstrosity won the "Academy Awards of the engineering industry." Imagine crossing this as a pedestrian.
@StrongTowns
@clmarohn
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TxDOT has nothing to do with traffic enforcement, only design and construction.
So, read this tone deaf scolding for what it is: a pathological deflection of blame onto the victim.
In their bubble, "keep everyone safe" just isn't part of
@TxDOT
's job.
Hey you, the one with the bike! 😍 Yes, cyclists have to observe traffic laws too. Use hand signals, stop at red lights and stop signs, and ride with traffic to keep everyone safe — including you. 🚴
#BeSafeBikeSmart
#EndTheStreakTX
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The process we use for hiring at
@StrongTowns
is unique, but it shouldn't be.
When people apply to work at Strong Towns, we only ask for their email address. No resume. No cover letter. No letters of recommendation. Just an email. We don't even want to know their name. (1/?)
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It's true. Every time I come up with what I think is a truly original insight on our development pattern -- there have been many, and they are painful -- I discover that people of the past had this figured out. When it comes to cities and their development, we live in a Dark Age.
I love this new article from
@StrongTowns
about how suburban style growth eliminates the tax base of our city centers.
Wait, this article is from 1954? 🧐
Seriously you could say this is a
@clmarohn
quote and I'd believe you.
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Kid: Why won't adults do anything about climate change?
Kid (later): Will you pick me up from school?
Me: It's a beautiful day. Why don't you walk. (It's 8 blocks.)
Kid: You're the worst parent ever. No other kid has to walk.
Sadly, on the last point, she's nearly 100% right.
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To protect the advocacy work that we do at
@StrongTowns
against future harassment from the Minnesota engineering licensing board, I've officially retired as a professional engineer. FWIW, I'm 48 years old.
Here's the letter I wrote the board.
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Another complaint filed against me with the board of licensing, another attempt to silence or discredit me. It's not going to work. The engineering profession needs reform. This kind of abuse of power only makes us stronger.
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Want to know how serious your city is about their financial success? It’s how fast they’re building protected bike lanes
Want to know how serious your city is about climate change? It’s how fast they’re building protected bike lanes
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PBS came out and did an interview with me about stroads and we got to walk around my hometown. Someone just sent me the video and it's great.
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Now, do public transit.
Taxpayers helped keep the airline industry – and its employees – afloat during the pandemic.
So I know you're frustrated with the service you're getting from them.
Today, I'm announcing two critical steps to protect air passengers.
It's time for you to get a better deal.
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As we enter another election year, here is the promise I make to you:
@StrongTowns
will always remain focused on our core issues. Housing, street safety, eliminating highway expansions, reducing parking, accessible local accounting. Period. 1/
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