Sandy Johnston
@sandypsj.bsky.social
Transit geek. Planner. Cat dad. Cubs fan. Deputy Director of Regional Transit Planning at MBTA. Blogging much less than I'd like at www.itineranturbanist.wordpress.com. Opinions my own.
Some things I've learned about legislative advocacy, and I think my record speaks for itself. 1. Start by asking for everything you want. Stop preemptively negotiating against yourself. The process of passing the bill will whittle it down. Why started with a whittled down product?
I think we should be growing rail freight and and am fond if it in Connecticut...and $87m is a huge number to spend on a bridge that's not on a through route and only serves, AFAIK, a couple of customers. www.wtnh.com/news/connect...
Middletown-Portland railroad bridge set to receive $87M refurbishment project
MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (WTNH) — After decades of carrying freight trains across the Connecticut River, the Middletown-Portland railroad bridge is set to receive a major rehabilitation project through th…
wtnh.com
This will get a fraction of the attention that Zohran Mamdani got for calling Netanyahu a war criminal.
Kyle Clark@kylec.bsky.social · yesterdayDepicting Jewish people with horns is a centuries-old, dehumanizing, antisemitic trope. Democratic Gov nominee Phil Weiser is outspoken about his mother’s birth in a Nazi concentration camp, his family members killed in the Holocaust, and the threat posed by antisemitism today.
A story of cause and effect: Last November, Ontario banned cities from using speed safety cameras to issue tickets. Reckless speeding immediately surged in Toronto, Ottawa, Guelph, and cities throughout the province. A 🧵 about my latest in Bloomberg (gift link)
What Happens When Speed Cameras Get Shut Off
In 2025, Ontario banned automated traffic enforcement. Now the number of drivers exceeding the speed limit has surged, according to traffic data.
bloomberg.com
Trump's strategic idiocy has laid bare a deeper failure in US defence manufacturing and procurement policy for which each President since Clinton shares some responsibility.
Aron Lund@aronlund.bsky.social · yesterdayIran has now gobbled up nearly all U.S. ATACMS and PrSM ballistic missiles, plus half of Tomahawk cruise missiles and a very considerable share of the THAAD and Patriot interceptors, sources tell @reuters.com’s Erin Banco, Jonathan Landay, and Michael Stone. www.reuters.com/world/us-has...
DSA-aligned Democrats are now the most pro-free-trade voting bloc in the United States, in an incredible turn of events www.theargumentmag.com/p/who-suppor...
Good morning. The past 42 hours have been something. Spokane Transit has been assisting with evacuations, from the VA Hospital to assisted living and retirement centers as recent as this AM. Multiple employees have lost their homes. I appreciate the thoughts and prayers for Spokane.
Good thread. I'll add that the Milwaukee sewer socialists and political progressives of the era, most famously FDR, were enthusiastically pro-car.
Jake Berman@lostsubways.com · 3d agothis is not true. there was no conspiracy. it didn't matter whether the streetcars were publicly owned (seattle, detroit) or private (los angeles, atlanta). a thread (because i wrote a whole-ass book on this): 1/?
This IMO is the best ongoing study of NYC congestion pricing. An update w/data thru 6/26 is encouraging: "The toll raised cordon-area speeds by 11%, with little effect on air quality, consumer spending, or foot traffic. Speeds also rose outside the cordon." shoshanavasserman.com/papers/the_n...
Jake is right. I also wrote about this in my book, more from the political angle. I argue that the streetcar conspiracy was actually a convenient scapegoat for those who wanted to minimize government's role in transit's failure, and the racism of whites who abandoned integrated systems.
Jake Berman@lostsubways.com · 3d agothis is not true. there was no conspiracy. it didn't matter whether the streetcars were publicly owned (seattle, detroit) or private (los angeles, atlanta). a thread (because i wrote a whole-ass book on this): 1/?
Suburban sprawl in the West is having a reckoning. What we are learning is that half-city, half-wild is a recipe for conflagration. You have to either build a city, or not a city at all. Otherwise you're just providing the fire a new fuel type.
Kelcie Moseley-Morris@kelciemmorris.bsky.social · 3d agoI was expecting a high number. I wasn't expecting it to be that high.
NEW: Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, facing ethics inquiries for misconduct, has threatened to strip state scholarships from Catholic schools unless the Church rewrites its vaccine doctrine. It is an unprecedented attack by an American state on the religious liberty of the Catholic Church.
Florida’s MAGA Attorney Threatens to Defund Catholic Schools Over Vaccine Mandate
Florida’s attorney general gave the bishops until August 7 to accept vaccine exemptions their own doctrine calls dishonest. Nearly nine in ten of the state’s Catholic school students sit downstream.
thelettersfromleo.com
Progressive LA Mayoral Candidate Nithya Raman told Vanity Fair that her main difference with DSA is on housing. www.vanityfair.com/story/nithya...
Kind of esoteric ? but … Are there any longer stretches of four track railroad operated as a single commuter line than the New Haven line? (Newark to Philly is longer but split between NJT and SEPTA.)
Started reorganizing my N scale locomotive storage. Still to come: probably another storage unit of the same size, covering Rock Island, Milwaukee, CB&Q, UP, and a variety of other smaller roads.
The Stadler release explicitly references those points as part of the rationale:
Stadler to supply 45 hybrid locomotives to Via Rail in landmark Canadian order | Stadler
Explore our latest press releases to stay informed about our company's recent announcements, product launches, and corporate updates.
stadlerrail.com
1. Can operate in yards and stations on battery alone, especially when making longer stops like Winnipeg. 2. Able to move at slow speed to self-rescue if diesel fails. 3. HEP can stay on, which means the lights and toilets continue to work. 2&3 are a big deal for remote routes.
Serious question: what is the point of the hybrid battery element of the new VIA locos? I can't imagine the battery will be useful for a very large part of the long distance journeys. railfan.com/via-selects-...
VIA Selects Stadler to Build New Long-Distance Locomotives
VIA Rail Canada has selected Swiss rail manufacturer Stadler to construct a fleet of 45 long-distance hybrid battery-diesel locomotives for use on long-distance and regional trains.
railfan.com
After a lengthy review process, our piece on the demand for technical/analytical skills in urban planning in the US is out! We find modest, though growing, demand for more advanced technical skills and the centrality of “core” technical skills journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Learning to Code? Technical Skills in the Planning Job Market - Jamaal Green, Camille Barchers, Henry Renski, 2026
It is widely believed that planning employers increasingly seek “data science” skills. We analyze more than 16,000 job ads posted to the American Planning Assoc...
journals.sagepub.com
In America, mass transit is widely considered to be an alternative of last resort for the extremely poor rather than a safer, cheaper, cleaner and more efficient means of moving people around a metropolitan area.
CAHSR's Strongest Soldier@emoscientist.bsky.social · last wk.One thing that stands out about the Metrolink fight is how much pressure there is to center transit-dependent riders. That's the only demo journalists or board members want to hear from, which is pretty hard to do for a commuter rail line. Nobody cares about giving people options or reducing VMT
With the proposed Rockridge, Marina, Palo Alto et al towers proposed under various recent housing laws, has there been any re-appraisal of the arguments of supply skeptical people that developers would ignore these communities to chase rent gaps in low income communities?
My favorite is the one still owned by Disney en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_C...
Grand Central Airport (California) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Berlin Tegel would like a word. Also Toronto’s CFB Downsview Airport is being redeveloped with a main road along the former runway.
