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 🏳️🌈
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/...
We limit the speed of ebikes "for public safety", yet this study shows we'd need to limit SUVs to 5.7 km/h for them to pose the same risk to other people #motonormativity findingspress.org/article/1587...
Motonormativity and Speed Limits | Published in Findings
By Jeremy de Sousa, Alessia Vinet & 3 more. Cars pose a far greater threat to other road users than e-micromobility, raising a basic question for traffic safety: which modes should actually be limited...
findingspress.org
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/
🚨 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...
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.
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 · 3mo ago#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 · 4mo agoWhat 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!
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!
State Preemption of Parking Minimums: Insights from Washington and California - UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
What happens when states take the lead on parking reform? This event explores the growing movement to preempt minimum parking requirements at the state level, with attention to how policy design varie...
its.ucla.edu
The EPA is no longer going to consider how many potential lives a pollution regulation would save -- just the costs to industry. This is directly counter to EPA's mission. And it will kill Americans. Great (depressing) scoop from @maxinejoselow.bsky.social. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/c...
E.P.A. to Stop Considering Lives Saved When Setting Rules on Air Pollution
nytimes.com
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?
Timmons Roberts@timmonsroberts.bsky.social · 7mo agoOur big study is just up. www.climatedevlab.brown.edu/post/who-s-o...
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.
Transportation Alternatives@transalt.org · 7mo agoToday 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."
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...
Reducing traffic with “carrots”: A review of the evidence
Reducing traffic volumes is one way to reduce carbon emissions from the transport sector. Since increasing driving costs is often met with public resi…
sciencedirect.com
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!
Hey 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.
volts.wtf
tired: leaders throw folks under the bus wired: leaders invite folks on the bus in a dedicated lane
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)
Global Assessment - Brown Climate Social Science Network
Climate advocacy has not failed, climate policy has been sabotaged, explains a new open access book, Climate Obstruction: A Global Assessment.
cssn.org
Climate Social Science Network @cssn.org · 10mo agoIt'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...
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.
UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies@uclaits.bsky.social · 10mo ago🎉 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...
The Jan 2025 LA fires showed how urban wildfires endanger transit riders and ppl w/o cars. 📊 Among transit riders surveyed: - 28% relied on rides from others - 21% used transit to evacuate - Black respondents were most likely to evacuate via transit (42%) www.its.ucla.edu/publication/...
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
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.
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...
20mph limits in London linked to sharp fall in road injuries and deaths, new report finds
A 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…
etsc.eu
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.
"Women are PIs on 58% of the canceled grants, although they are PIs on only 34% of all active NSF grants. Similarly, Blacks are PIs on 17% of the terminated grants, although they make only 4% of the total pool. Hispanic PIs and those with disabilities were twice as likely to lose a grant."
David Malakoff@davidmalakoff.bsky.social · last yr.Another scoop from Jeff Mervis (@policyhound.bsky.social): NSF's ~1400 grant terminations have disproportionately affected PIs from groups underrepresented in science: women, racial & ethnic minorities, & those with disabilities. 1/3 www.science.org/content/arti...
As federal data infrastructure is gutted, we'll lose a window into the vast local health disparities. But those disparities will remain because place is an engine of health provision and stratification, not just an analytic vessel. New essay from me in UAR: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
🚨 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...
New job opportunity: Parking Center Staff Director - UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
Join the UCLA ITS team. We're looking for a founding staff director to lead a newly established parking center.
its.ucla.edu
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...
What DEI threatens isn’t merit. It’s monopoly.
Political science professor Hakeem Jefferson argues for DEI's importance to de-monopolizing universities.
stanforddaily.com
![Screenshot of a quote from the article: "Global climate modelers have a hard time incorporating policies like street design and bike lanes [into their estimates] because they're implemented by thousands of individual local governments, rather than the nation-state, which is a normally the unit of analysis," Millard-Ball added. "So as a result, a lot of the global climate policy discourse focuses more on technology in the transportation sector, like electrification and fuel efficiency. And certainly that's really important — but it doesn't capture the public transit, [or] the walking and biking policies."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:loeuoj4oplxis6axptgguarn/bafkreiha5t6z2djbvkakojoqtlx36vcrcg52zgz6ydeqozgmqvrqqjdh7i)
