Today I met with officials in Helsinki, which has had a ~75% drop in road deaths over the last thirty years (including recent years with no ped/cyclist deaths at all). Me: “How much of a role has IT played in reducing crashes?” City official: “Zero. We simply slowed down cars.”

An aspect of this issue underdiscussed here is street safety—if you can't comfortably let your kid leave your house and roam around, a lot of the benefits of urban child-rearing go away. It's a crime issue, but it's also a traffic violence issue. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

imagine controlling 1 big barrier stopping housing choices being built for people. Then telling people you're sleeping in your car for a night instead.

youtube.com/live/WPM3HFKXx… I got you fam.

Did you know we have a newsletter?! We just sent out our bumper winter edition with all the work our volunteers have done over the last few months. preview.mailerlite.io/preview/768635…

The NIMBY mindset: new housing has to be either low-density or affordable. Low-density: affordability is irrelevant, since it maintains the neighborhood character. High-density: it's violating the neighborhood character, so needs to be affordable to compensate.

Delft, population 100k, will have soon have 28 trains per hour from dawn till midnight:

Me normally: We shouldn't goldplate transit projects with unnecessary ornation. Me post Sydney Metro: Cathedrals. Cathedrals we shall have, testaments that our grandest places are not palaces, but gateways promising mobility for all. Monuments to the glory of the Commonwealth.

Meetup today! 11:30 @ Vic Park Bistro, KG. Let's talk housing, planning, transport and climate issues in the lead up to the Olympics… and the state election! See you there!

Athens is one of the world's best references for great city building, but not for the reasons you might think. While it's home to some of the most important works of Classical Architecture, the city's average blocks are more easily emulated, and just as worthy.

Unlock $500 for e-bikes and $200 for e-scooters with the new E-Mobility Rebate Scheme 🚴‍️🛴 We're supporting Queenslanders in switching to greener, more sustainable transport options.

The great thing is we could have private and public developers build this if we had better city planning

One thing I think of with this constant requirement to have low density forever is that few people have the housing options their parents did. Increasingly, people don't have housing options because some people continue to make biased assumptions on what other people want.

"In cities, there are enough cameras in some zones that many drivers give up trying to game the system. When enough drivers default to the limit, even those willing to take ticket risk tend to slow. Over time new habits form and the old speeds may feel too fast."

Before and after satellite images showing the catastrophic flooding happening in Valencia, Spain

C. S. Lewis on why we need to read old books

Important to remember - we need to change the underlying planning scheme that makes this new housing impact assessable to begin with. Why are these bland complaints given influence over some of the most amenity rich areas of the inner city?

A Greater Brisbane? In this economy? Join us tonight 6pm, at Isles Lane in Post Office Square for a snack, chat and social, all welcome.