Car Lite San Mateo
@carlitesanmateo.com
Getting around the suburbs of San Francisco with one car and too many electric bikes https://www.carlitesanmateo.com
As I was writing this blogpost, I was thinking about how drastically I am underestimating the average American's experience with traffic violence--I knew several dead by the time I was 18: maxmautner.com/2026/09/28/w...
When we talk about traffic violence
By 40, ~79% of Americans have lost someone they know to a crash. Most would trade faster driving for safer streets if someone asked them.
maxmautner.com
Be careful out there on your bike. If you're riding a legal e-bike and hit by a car you might be blamed for anything after that point. This framing will continue to be repeated and it's maddening. The ND comment is wild in general but especially wild to blame a child for riding their bike legally.
Car Lite San Mateo@carlitesanmateo.com · last mo.The connection of this 11-yr-old to this tragic incident is so unfair. They were legally riding a legal e-bike, hit by a car, and now are repeatedly accused of being the cause of this tragedy. Shameful reporting by @calmatters.org. I hope this kid has a good support system to work through this.
Walk to your local post office, you might see a new mail truck!
Car Lite San Mateo@carlitesanmateo.com · 3d agoThis is one of the paths that enables me to efficiently walk from my neighborhood to the local post office. I really wish pedestrian connectivity was a higher priority around here. Every few months these get “fixed” by the property owner and then it gets re-fixed to look like this.
This is one of the paths that enables me to efficiently walk from my neighborhood to the local post office. I really wish pedestrian connectivity was a higher priority around here. Every few months these get “fixed” by the property owner and then it gets re-fixed to look like this.
@samtrans.com these would help a bunch in speeding up the ECR!
Michael McLean@michaelmclean.me · 5d agoNeed hundreds of these around Chicago
this is a bit of an obsession of mine especially here in charlottesville. the cost of commercial real estate is prohibitive if you want to experiment and the city seems categorically opposed to small lots and small units that could allow people to start businesses without a huge capital investment
This year legislators introduced a slate of 17 bills intended to close California’s “license to kill” system of loopholes for dangerous driving and repeat offenders. Almost all of them failed: calmatters.org/tag/license-... @calmatters.org
License to Kill
calmatters.org
Kevin M. Kruse@kevinmkruse.bsky.social · last wk.Jesus Christ, this article will enrage you like nothing else
The story: maxmautner.com/2026/09/17/s...
A stop sign for $1,000
3 crashes at one intersection, photographed on my way to work. The all-way stop went in 178 days after I sent the city a notice of dangerous condition.
maxmautner.com
mmautner@maxmautner.com · 2w agoNew stop-sign-in-the-neighborhood celebration cake:
A statistic that haunts me because it is 100% true and shocking and useless in advocacy precisely because it is true and shocking: Policy that enables a 1-car lifestyle rather than 2 is equivalent to giving a family a $25,000 annual pay raise.
Peter Flax@pflax1.bsky.social · 2w agoThis story buries the lede, but if you pull out a calculator and do the math, AAA found that the average American spends $15,031 a year for a single car! www.cnbc.com/2026/09/14/c...
There was a San Mateo grand jury report calling this type of behavior out specifically and the City of San Mateo responded that it wasn’t an issue. It’s super frustrating when this plays out and the police refuse to report anything 🤬
OB Cycler@obcycler.bsky.social · 2w agoWhat's frustrating about this is the number of cyclists I know who were hit by cars, reported to the police who wouldn't record anything because they weren't taken to a hospital. Then when we complain to traffic engineers about a dangerous section of road they tell us "there's no history of crashes"
Great example of the effectiveness of raised crosswalks. Wish this was a more common solution in California. I do see them around but they need to be more common with how effective they are.
A. Zivarts@nondriver.bsky.social · 3w ago👉 The top speed at the crosswalk for the westbound I-90 off-ramp to southbound Rainier Avenue South dropped 45%, from 71 mph to 39 mph. 👉 The top speed at the crosswalk for the northbound Rainier Avenue South on-ramp to eastbound I-90 dropped 32%, from 68 mph to 46 mph.
Honestly if most households just had *a* family car and relied on anything else (walking, bike, bus, train) for their other mode we’d be in a much better world. The issue is where we have a 1:1 ratio of cars to household members 16+
I’m a firm believer in the huge upside of e-bikes enabling families to drop a car. Going from two to one car or three to two is much more possible for the average family than going car free.
David Zipper@davidzipper.bsky.social · 3w agoGoing car-free is great, but don't forget about families who could use a cargo bike (or minicar) as their second or third vehicle. The potential market is much, much bigger!
This is not the parking reform we need. I can’t believe this made it into a real discussion about parking 🤦♂️
Ryan Packer@typewriteralley.bsky.social · 3w ago"You can build less parking if more of the stalls are built for huge cars" might be the most Bellevue thing I've ever seen.
Only 5-6% of Californians blame roadway collisions on roadway design as most important factor. Human error & lack of enforcement is the majority choice (source is CA office of transportation safety, 2005 survey). The reality is that the electorate are not traffic engineers:
✅ SENT TO THE GOVERNOR: SB 1167 by Sen Blakespear that cracks down on high-powered “e-motos” being sold as e-bikes, changes ebike labelling, and makes sellers disclose when a vehicle is in fact an actual a motor vehicle.
Once again, the "difference of opinion" is that one side wants to be able to bike without dying and the other side wants to park wherever they want. It's incredible to reference the Civil Rights Movement while fighting to uphold the oppression of car dependency.
Martin Austermuhle@maustermuhle.bsky.social · last mo.Update: After being charged with assault for allegedly shoving a person at a meeting, Ward 5 ANC Karla Lewis says she was arrested because of a "difference of opinion." "We live in a time and age where we can no longer speak up for our rights without being bullied," she writes.
New York City could fix this by adopting three reforms. Doing so would make curb parking readily available on every block, and raise millions of dollars to improve public services.
Patrick Siegman@siegman.biz · 10mo agoOld #Pasadena is a parking benefit district. All the meter revenues from charging for curb parking are used to improve public services in the metered blocks. If you have a parking benefit district, you don’t need sidewalk fees. Perhaps best of all, visitors help pay for your neighborhood’s needs.😊
Curious to see how this all plays out in practice. Making small traffic calming changes and then iterating and hardening can be so impactful and cheap. I hope Seattle is setting a new normal that other cities can follow! southseattleemerald.org/news/2026/08...
Wilson Speeds Up Safety Projects on Some of South Seattle's Most Dangerous Streets
After years of community pressure, Seattle is accelerating traffic-calming projects in South Seattle — and promising safer streets, better crossings, and more equitable investments.
southseattleemerald.org
Why are ebikes blamed, & that teens be banned from riding ebikes? A teen driving a SUV killed the small child! Why not propose banning teens from driving SUVs? If the SUV teen was riding an ebike, it would have been a minor injury between two ebike riders. All 3 children would be alive & well today
Dr Grace S Peng@gspeng.bsky.social · last mo.A teen driver of an overpowered SUV pulled out of a parking lot & cut off a younger teen going straight on the street (where cyclists should be). The driver panicked and sped (confused brake & gas pedals?) into the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. This was a killing by SUV, not ebike
@calmatters.org You need to retract this story, apologize and write another story explaining the real facts with data. That road deaths doubled in 15 years, with the increase in prevalence of SUVs, taller/blunter hoods, fatter A pillars, faster acceleration. Interview real road safety experts
Watched some Premier League matches this morning and the ability of English announcer to weave together phrasing like “He plays like a possessed hamster in the middle” in a positive and interesting way is so fun to listen to. They must have a sports poet society that we’re missing in the US.
The connection of this 11-yr-old to this tragic incident is so unfair. They were legally riding a legal e-bike, hit by a car, and now are repeatedly accused of being the cause of this tragedy. Shameful reporting by @calmatters.org. I hope this kid has a good support system to work through this.
Robert Prinz@prinzrob.bsky.social · last mo.The Burlingame incident wasn’t “triggered by an 11-year-old riding an e-bike”. The teen driver who was found at fault failed to yield when exiting a parking lot, cut off the ebike rider then sped onto the sidewalk across the street. Your piece doesn’t refer to the driver at all, only the “SUV”.
A common rebuttal to speed cameras is that we should just redesign streets to slow people down. We should! But roads in cities across the US have been built to allow suburban commuters to drive as fast as possible. It will take time to undo that damage, and we know cameras work to slow down drivers.
The War on Cars@thewaroncars.bsky.social · last mo."Cameras issued nearly 200,000 citations — and more than half were mailed to an address outside of Oakland..."
"Motorists going at least 11 mph over the speed limit fell by 70%" Most cited motorists received a single citation then stopped speeding. Speed safety cameras work. www.sfchronicle.com/eastbay/arti...
Oakland installed new automated speed cameras. Drivers’ behavior changed dramatically
A new report shows that drivers are slowing down significantly on what have been some of the city’s most dangerous roads.
sfchronicle.com
This stance is common on Nextdoor but isn’t backed by studies or the eye test. I asked the city for anonymized sales tax data to compare our ped mall to the parking-heavy 25th and 42nd Ave areas. No luck yet, but hopefully someday.
Zooming in on San Mateo, this story doesn't change. The city has published GHG data since 2005, and its own plan states "in all years, the on-road transportation sector is the largest source of emissions." Yet the city keeps compromising its Bike Master Plan for parking and vehicle access.
Robert Prinz@prinzrob.bsky.social · last mo.I get that rebalancing street design away from car dominance is inconvenient to those whose lifestyle is fully oriented around driving. But personal passenger vehicles are the No 1 source of GHG emissions in CA. Taking action to address this isn't "environmentalism gone awry", it's a core component.
San Mateo's residential parking permit program has no price, no cap, and no way to adjust when a street fills up. I laid out my thoughts on where it fails and why. Check it out! www.carlitesanmateo.com/blog/residen...
Free Permits, Full Streets
The city's permit program has no price, no cap, and no way to respond when a street fills up
carlitesanmateo.com
