Xavier Harmony
@transitharmony.bsky.social
Australian-American 🇦🇺🇺🇸 | Transport Politics and Policy | PhD | Lover of cities 🌃, buses 🚌, trains 🚊, nature 🌳, and cats 🐈⬛ | He/him
“In London cyclists now outnumber cars in the City by 2 to 1. Paris, where they now outnumber motorists across the whole city, is catching up with Europe’s traditional bike capitals, Amsterdam & Copenhagen…In Copenhagen, bikes account for almost half of commuter trips to work/school.” @economist.com
Forget EVs. Cycling is revolutionising transport
Pedal power is booming, spinning up a new culture war
economist.com
If you're a cis person insisting that the prospect of trans children playing youth sports is not only "a problem" but in fact one of the biggest problems we currently face as a nation, I'd be happy to introduce you to literally a million other things that should be worrying you more.
We taught Miles how to ride a bike today. We also had to deal with an old man mad that we had them practicing in a school parking lot while he drove his monster truck. Once again, kids exist and have a right to take up space. Also, get rid of those damn monster trucks. None of you need that.
According to anti-cyclist replies, here's evidence that cars and bikes are equally dangerous: 🚗: They kill ~40000 people in the US annually 🚲: I saw a cyclist run a red light 30 years ago
The speed limit in any city should be 20 mph.
@khon2news.bsky.social · 4d agoThe city said recent sign installations have already been completed along Kalaheo Avenue in Kailua, Hawaiʻi Kai Drive, Waipahu Street and Hoʻomaeʻmae Street in Pearl City. More here: https://www.khon2.com/traffic/new-20mph-school-zone-signs/
I was talking to my neighbor when a group of cyclists came by at maybe 25 mph. “That’s so dangerous,” she exclaimed. In the meantime, quite a few drivers came by at 40 mph, and she’s completely unfazed. 🤦🏻♂️
Hey guys. Listen up. We can simultaneously hate cars and car dependency, dedicate our lives to fighting traffic violence, sprawl, and climate change, and sometimes need to have a car available. Stop cancelling your allies because they are dealing with different stuff in their life than you are.
So sad. Australians understand. We’re not looking forward to the upcoming summer.
Johnnie Jae@johnniejae.bsky.social · 3w agoI want people to understand the full impact of the devastation that First Nations in Canada are facing. It's NOT just that people and wildlife are losing their homes...it's the history that is being lost for generations to come.
You don’t have to dislike cars to realize that car dependency is a really bad thing.
The War on Cars@thewaroncars.bsky.social · 3w agoNobody disputes that having access to a car in a car-dominated society is good. It gives one access to jobs, healthcare, food, education, social opportunities and more. All we're asking is for people to go one step deeper and ask why access to such basic rights requires buying and operating a car.
Researchers found that for every 200 EV's added to a California neighborhood, NO₂ air pollution fell by 1.1%. Cleaner air isn't just a goal anymore - it's achievable. #CleanAir #ElectricVehicles #ESG @sciencex.bsky.social @momscleanairforce.org phys.org/news/2026-01...
Adoption of electric vehicles tied to real-world reductions in air pollution
When California neighborhoods increased their number of zero-emissions vehicles (ZEV) between 2019 and 2023, they also experienced a reduction in air pollution. For every 200 vehicles added, nitrogen ...
phys.org
Car accident PTSD is real. I add an extra 5–10 minutes to my morning commute every day just so I don’t have to drive past where my accident happened.
So, there are bicycles out there. If you can’t see them, your car might be too big. You might be going too fast. You might be texting or looking at your phone. Please pay attention to bicycles. Another near miss today, and I’m not just scared; I’m pissed. Pay fucking attention!
A guy in a minivan yelled at us (four people on two bikes), "You're taking up the whole road!" My husband, a quick thinker, yelled back, "How many people you got in there??"
China’s main research funding agency will increase its number of prestigious grants for early-career scientists by 50%, equivalent to a budget boost of around US$531 million. Meanwhile, the Trump regime is preventing the US National Science Foundation from funding anyone.
China boosts prestigious grants for young scientists — will it ease competition?
The National Natural Science Foundation of China says it will fund an extra 12,000 projects from this year.
nature.com
Traveling as a temporarily physically disabled person is very eye opening. EVERYONE should be fighting to make places more accessible because it doesn’t take much for any of us to become disabled. Accessibility shouldn’t be an afterthought.
A single day of extreme heat kills 3,400 people in India; a five-day heatwave kills nearly 30,000. Fossil Fuel burning is making heatwaves more frequent.
Frontiers | Estimating heatwave-induced excess mortality in India's districts
India is among the world’s most heat-exposed nations, with hundreds of millions of people facing dangerous temperatures each summer and a mortality burden th...
frontiersin.org
“Helsinki hasn’t registered a single traffic-related fatality in the past year…Citing data that shows the risk of pedestrian fatality is cut in half by reducing a car’s speed from 40 to 30km/hr, city officials imposed the lower limit in most of Helsinki’s residential areas and city center in 2021.”
Helsinki just went a full year without a single traffic death
The capital city is Finnish’ed with car-related fatalities.
politico.eu
The rise of larger vehicles like SUVs and pickup trucks, with their taller hoods and larger blind zones, has contributed to a 75% increase in pedestrian and cyclist deaths since 2009. Until we design better streets and ban these vehicles, people outside these vehicles will keep dying.
The Deadly Rise of Giant Trucks and S.U.V.s (Gift Article)
The vehicles on American roads have grown larger — and they are killing thousands more pedestrians, a Times investigation found.
nytimes.com
Me: Cities would be better for everyone, including drivers, if there was less car-dependency and more safe, viable choices in how to get around. Someone: But I have to drive because [insert reason]. Me: Cities would be better for everyone, including drivers, if there was less car-dependency and…
“The world is not going to be saved by big electric SUVs,” says Renault’s chief design officer…”The world is going to be saved by small electric cars. We need them to become as popular as other cars.” More small electric cars, but also fewer cars overall, driven much less thanks to more choices.
How Europe’s EV makers shrank their product to challenge the bloated SUVs
Smaller, cheaper cars built for narrow city streets are becoming more stylish – but require careful design decisions
theguardian.com
"These streets weren't made for bikes" says a guy driving a pick-up truck so large it can't fit into a standard parking space
“Conclusion: In the case of a crash, SUVs and LTVs cause more severe injuries to pedestrians and cyclists than passenger cars. This effect is larger for fatalities than for KSIs, and the fatality effect is particularly large for children.” Via @bmj.com. injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/32/1...
Do sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and light truck vehicles (LTVs) cause more severe injuries to pedestrians and cyclists than passenger cars in the case of a crash? A systematic review and meta-analys...
Questions In the case of a road traffic crash, do sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and light truck vehicles (LTVs) cause more severe injuries to pedestrians and cyclists than passenger cars? Does any ef...
injuryprevention.bmj.com
The idea that cyclists are less law-abiding than drivers has been discredited everywhere it's ever been studied but also it's a deeply weird argument: if it were true, it'd still mean legal driving is statistically far more dangerous than illegal cycling? This isn't a good argument for cars?
Oh look, New Zealand’s all-time June temperature record was broken today, with Bromley, Christchurch reaching 26°C (78.8°F) in the middle of winter — around 15°C above normal. #collapse
#SUVs: The psychopath's choice. “Buying whatever vehicle we like, and driving it wherever and whenever we please without having to think about the consequences for other people, has become normalised and ingrained across our society over decades." www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
SUV buyers undeterred by warnings of risk to pedestrians, UK study finds
Exclusive: Research suggests financial penalties necessary if number of large vehicles on roads is to be reduced
theguardian.com
Always was always will be. Never was monocultural.
Re-upping this key thread on electric vehicles and better cities.
Brent Toderian@brenttoderian.bsky.social · 2y agoAs I put it a few years ago in my blunt advice to Irish cities, “Your goal SHOULDN’T be to replace a million fossil fuel vehicles with a million electric vehicles. It should be to replace a million fossil fuel vehicles with 250,000 electric vehicles. The main answer MUST be FEWER cars driven LESS."
Don’t forget what REALLY “drives” a lot of regional growth and infrastructure politics. It’s pretty much this. Great drawing via Ian Lockwood.
