1/🚨⚠️The US freight system relies on heavy-duty vehicles like semis to move the goods we buy. Emissions control systems that cut 90 percent of diesel emissions from these vehicles are under attack by the Trump EPA and Congress. This is bad news for clean air. 🔗 act.ucs.org/4zdraIB

The MTA announced Thursday that the program, which began as a pilot in 2023, will now be available on all every local and Select Bus Service routes across the five boroughs. Read More: http://specne.ws/ZJRbo7 

MTA expands 'Open Stroller' program to all city buses

Parents and caregivers will be able to keep one stroller open while riding

specne.ws

The EPA stopped updating an essential power-sector emissions dataset. But a group of researchers stepped in to recreate it - and @ucs.org analysis of the data shows that, nearly everywhere, the average electric vehicle is cleaner than the most efficient gas hybrid. blog.ucs.org/dave-reichmu...

A change on a website doesn’t change what works on our streets. That's why NACTO has archived and compiled resources for the five proven safety countermeasures recently removed from the Federal Highway Administration's website. Access the documents: nacto.org/latest/the-e...

The evidence hasn't changed: Proven safety tools continue to be effective best practice - NACTO

NACTO makes available resources related to five proven safety countermeasures that were removed from FHWA website Earlier this month, the Federal Highway Administration pared down its list of proven s...

nacto.org

1/ Bloomberg Law reports that EPA is proposing major air pollution rules that don’t consider the health benefits of clean air while still calculating industry compliance costs. That’s not a balanced cost-benefit analysis. It’s only half of an equation.

EPA’s Truck Rule Extends Novel Approach to Cost-Benefit Analysis

The EPA’s new proposal to ease truck pollution standards marks at least the third time this year that the agency has floated a rule that doesn’t consider the monetized value of human health effects.

news.bloomberglaw.com

Trump’s war on science comes for bikes and Vision Zero. Proven Safety Countermeasures are a set of street design tools that FHWA career engineers judge to have been proven to improve safety. They delisted Bike Lanes, Road Diets, and three speed management tools. highways.dot.gov/safety/prove...

The EPA is asking Congress to invalidate California clean car standards that predate the iPhone and that have already been fully implemented. @davereichmuth.bsky.social has more on the pro-polluter agenda: blog.ucs.org/dave-reichmu...

Why the EPA Is Attacking California’s Clean Car Standards (Again)

Automakers are already complying with these standards, put into place before the first iPhone release. Why is the EPA targeting them?

blog.ucs.org

Starting today!

The Overhead Wire@theoverheadwire.com · 2mo ago

Our Talking Headways book club is where we list the books of over 100 authors that have kindly joined us on the podcast. Starting tomorrow through June 26 you can get free shipping on all the books @bookshop.org Any purchase helps out the authors and our show but not billionaires.

UCS Scientist Dr. Jessica Dunn testifies in Congress on how recycling electric vehicle batteries and strong environmental safeguards can support a sustainable transportation future. WATCH: m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul3e...

Join us as we launch Science Rising, a new initiative encouraging scientists to speak out and take action against the Trump administration's anti-science actions:

Uniting to Protect Science & Democracy: Science Rising National Launch Event

The Union of Concerned Scientists invites you to join the public launch of Science Rising, a new initiative mobilizing the science community to speak out and take action against the Trump administrati...

secure.ucs.org

Don't look now, but the 90-day delinquency rate for auto loans is higher than at any point since at least 2004 (and probably earlier). Per www.newyorkfed.org/microeconomi...

1/ As the EPA continues to fall short, a solution to curb freight pollution at the source could improve air quality for millions and help transition away from fossil fuels use.

Addressing Freight Pollution at the Source

Indirect Source Rules (ISRs) provide state and local governments a tool to address inequitable pollution impacts from the freight system.

ucs.org

🚌 Transportation in the US has historically been a bipartisan issue, but not under the second Trump administration. Steven Higashide, director of our Clean Transportation program, explains how Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is weaponizing the department to advance Trump’s authoritarian agenda.

When I first started bringing nondrivers to our state legislature transportation committees, I remember, it was a shock for legislators to hear from dozens of people outside the transportation consulting firm lobby

The Highway Lobby Spends Millions to Make Sure We Pay Billions

Our car-dependent transportation system is no accident.

blog.ucs.org

One reason Congress writes checks for bigger highways despite the public demanding different choices? The influence game played by the road lobby. New research summarized by @kevshen.bsky.social here (blog.ucs.org/kshen/the-hi...) scrutinizes the tactics of the DC groups pushing road construction.

The Highway Lobby Spends Millions to Make Sure We Pay Billions

Our car-dependent transportation system is no accident.

blog.ucs.org

Ghost-in-the-machine-writing: AI company looking for "prestigious," award-winning writer... to do hourly gig work polishing AI-generated plays, novels, and short stories.

www.curbed.com/article/mta-... A common issue that pervades a lot of app design - people in SV don’t seem to conceive of worlds where you don’t have service bc you’re underground, you run out of data completely, etc. Really great to see @mta.info move this in-house!

"To commit to building public transit infrastructure is to decide to keep being a society." -David Alff www.nytimes.com/2026/03/15/n...

Commuters, Rejoice! The New Portal Bridge Is Ready for Riders.

nytimes.com

Everything the US moves around needs diesel fuel to power the trucks, trains, & boats: food, goods, crops, commodities, everything. Oil products powers ~90% of US transport. It's why we should electrify transport as a national security imperative: to reduce the risk of price shocks to the economy.

Patrick De Haan@gasbuddyguy.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Average diesel prices today versus a year ago: Texas ⬆️$1.06/gal Ohio ⬆️$1.05/gal Michigan ⬆️$1.02/gal New Mexico ⬆️99c/gal Washington ⬆️97c/gal Maryland ⬆️96c/gal Indiana ⬆️95c/gal Iowa ⬆️95c/gal Oregon ⬆️94c/gal North Carolina ⬆️93c/gal

#EVs are a critical grid reliability and electricity affordability solution. New @latimes.com opinion piece calls for #EV investments to deliver benefits. #CALeg, @assemblydems.bsky.social, @casendems.bsky.social, use the budget to invest in EV car and truck incentives! #InvestInCleanAir

Contributor: In wildfire country, EVs aren’t a grid problem — they’re a power solution

California needs a smarter, more flexible power grid — and EVs are actually one of the most powerful tools we have to strengthen it.

latimes.com

* U.S. JUDGE RULES TRUMP ADMINISTRATION UNLAWFULLY SOUGHT TO UNDO NEW YORK'S MANHATTAN CONGESTION PRICING PROGRAM @reuters.com

As the guy who wrote the book on zoning abolition, I'd like to go on record as saying: if you can use zoning to stop the concentration camps, fucking go for it.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez@aoc.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Local zoning is the way! A lot of these are being stopped or stalled by neighborhood organizing. These warehouses often need to be purchased, permitted, approved for occupancy and specs. Each one of those steps can be interrupted. Ppl are pressuring corps not to sell, counties to deny permits, etc

He'll be remembered for his accomplishments, such as "being an administrator"

Casey Seiler@caseyseiler.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Yeesh: Molinaro leaving the Trump administration for the mere prospect of winning a place in the glamorous and powerful world of the state Assembly's GOP minority, a chamber he has already served in for five years. If this is a prank, it's an elaborate one.

Thank you, @dorismatsui.bsky.social, for standing up for strong fuel-economy standards that save families money, cut pollution, and reduce oil dependence. Clean transportation is affordable transportation. #CleanerCars #RouteZero

💰🚗For more than a half century, fuel efficiency standards have saved US drivers money. How much money? TRILLIONS. Fuel efficient vehicles mean less expensive trips to the gas pump and more money for education, for family outings, for groceries. (🧵👇)

Another fact underscoring the descent of USDOT: Elaine Chao (Trump 1 transpo secretary) resigned in protest after the January 6 attacks. Sean Duffy described the 1/6 insurrectionists as people "peacefully walking, giving themselves a tour of the Capitol." www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox...

Steven Higashide@stevenhigashide.com · 7mo ago

Why is the Dept of Transportation trying to torpedo NYC congestion pricing? Why - in God’s name - is Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on TV smearing the Minnesotans killed by ICE? For @newrepublic.com, I show Trump has turned USDOT into an authoritarian weapon. newrepublic.com/article/2051...

"Nobody feels like it's safe to ride the public transport, the buses, the light rail" because federal agents are stalking transit stops. "We shouldn’t have to worry if we’re going to have guns pulled on us on the way to work at all, but this is our reality.” www.youtube.com/shorts/b9Rnd...

Famed Indigenous chef Sean Sherman: My employee was taken.

“We were just trying to get him medication… But he was already gone.” Last week, the internationally renowned Indigenous chef Sean Sherman told reporter Nate Halverson that federal agents detained…

youtube.com

Can't stress enough that no arm of any GOP-controlled governing body is actively at work doing anything to improve the lives of Americans. Even the typically staid and bipartisan USDoT has been transformed into an instrument of self-dealing and revenge. newrepublic.com/article/2051...

How Trump Weaponized the Department of Transportation

The policies that govern how we get from place to place are usually immune to partisanship. This administration is using them to advance Trump’s authoritarian agenda.

newrepublic.com

Interesting finding - another reminder that transportation is a network and a change in one link has wide-ranging ripples. And underscores how parochialism is the death of good transportation - politicians all want projects in "their" district but that's often not what brings the most benefit.

David Zipper@davidzipper.bsky.social · 7mo ago

A strange but true finding about NYC congestion pricing: Drivers’ time savings have overwhelmingly gone to those traveling *outside* the toll zone (i.e., driving from Brooklyn to Queens or within NJ) – not those headed into Manhattan. Me, in Bloomberg 🧵

Political scientists have a term for how Trump governs: “Competitive authoritarianism.” Like Hungary under Orbán, he was elected but uses the gov't to abuse the law. trib.al/hY3VbAW The DOT is usually immune from this partisanship. Instead, they're using it to advance Trump’s authoritarian agenda.