benfulton

benfulton, 7 days ago to cycling

Bicycling grew more in Chicago than in any other major American city in the last five years

"According to an analysis sponsored by CDOT, bicycling has grown more in Chicago than in any other major American city in the last five years. The study showed a 119% increase in biking between fall 2019 and spring 2023, marking the largest jump among the country’s 10 largest cities."

#cycling #UrbanPlanning #Chicago

https://momentummag.com/bicycling-grew-more-in-chicago-than-in-any-other-major-american-city-in-the-last-five-years/

benfulton, 15 days ago to random

A bus with 49 passengers has a driver/passenger ratio of 0.02, so it might be considered "near-driverless". I wonder how the number of bus accidents compares to the number of driverless car accidents.

benfulton, 1 month ago to random

Anyone read this Cato article on induced demand? Anything interesting in it?

https://www.cato.org/blog/debunking-induced-demand-myth

benfulton, 1 month ago to cycling

Philadelphia: Activists partied to stop cars from parking in bike lanes

This story is depressing for its implicit assumption that churchgoers have no way to attend church if they don't drive cars. Sure, "Some are elderly with mobility challenges while others are young families" but that implies that some are not. Can they carpool? Take the bus? Ride bikes?

#cycling #Philadelphia #CarsRuinEverything

https://www.inquirer.com/transportation/philly-bike-protest-church-parking-20240414.html

pleaseclap, 1 month ago to academia

Any advice for reading 500+ pages/day?

Don't say log off

#academia

benfulton, 1 month ago to cycling

John Whitmire Is a 20th-Century Mayor in 21st-Century Houston.

"After two pedestrians were fatally struck by cars within 24 hours, Whitmire called for better enforcement of traffic laws and urged bicyclists to stay off the roads. “I think the bikers need to be protected from the traffic, and they need to do that on bike paths that are recreational and not try to compete with people going to work and school,” he told a local TV station."

#cycling #Houston

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/john-whitmire-mayor-houston/

sfwrtr, 1 month ago to Batteries

Want some #verisimilitude for your post-apocalyptic story? Four years after the pandemic started, 7 out of 7 examined #battery-powered candles had burst batteries. 3 out of 7 had destroyed circuitry and were irreparable. I restored four of the candles to working order with a lot of cleaning and scrubbing, but of course they required fresh #batteries.

Takeaway: Nothing battery-powered left for four years will work when found. Much of it will be destroyed.

Bonus: Gasoline has a shelf life and may be useless in 6-12 months. Sorry, no verisimilitude in Mad Max.

#BoostingIsSharing and #CommentingIsCool

#PostApocalypse #ScienceFiction #Writing #SF #Writer #Author #WritingCommunity #WritersAndMastodon #PostApocalyptic

kimlockhartga, 1 month ago to books

@bookstodon I am making a very long list of suggested book pairings, and I wondered if you all had any interest in them? These are read-alikes specifically in the sense of "If you liked this book, you 𝙢𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 also like this other book." I plan to alphabetize them by the titles of the first books in the pairings, so you can easily look for your favorites.

My criteria are my own (I even match up traditional books with graphic novels or short story collections) and it's super subjective, just by definition. But, you would be able to add your own book pairings as well. Books can be alike in (sub) genre, style, subject, thematic elements, even in ways that are not readily apparent.

#books #bookstodon #BooksWorthReading #BookList

benfulton, 1 month ago to random

@meganL Where would you put disabled cyclists in Geller's typology? Interested-concerned? Or would they have their own category? I'm thinking about how to rate routes for each type.

https://jenniferdill.net/types-of-cyclists/

benfulton, 2 months ago to random

Thailand

Wait...Thailand? Really?

Thailand!

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3256915/thailand-passes-bill-legalise-same-sex-marriage

benfulton, 2 months ago to random

The Designer Who’s Trying to Transform Your City Into a Sponge

"If engineers can slow the flow of that water and allow it to soak into the Earth instead of running away—using rain gardens, spreading grounds, permeable pavers, and urban wetlands—that simultaneously reduces flooding and refills underlying aquifers. That’ll be increasingly critical as the planet warms and droughts intensify: Sponge cities aim to bank water for a rainy day"

#UrbanPlanning

https://www.wired.com/story/the-designer-whos-trying-to-transform-your-city-into-a-sponge/

benfulton, 2 months ago to chicago

A New Path to Chicago – Milwaukee Regional Rail

"With just seven roundtrips daily, the Hiawatha is already the most popular state-supported Amtrak route in the Midwest. Hourly trains trains will bring Chicago and Milwaukee closer together, strengthen the economic and social ties between them, and help revitalize both city centers.

This corridor is also the foundation for building regional rail to Green Bay, Madison, and many other cities"

#chicago #milwaukee #trains

https://www.hsrail.org/blog/a-new-path-to-chicago-milwaukee-regional-rail/

benfulton, 2 months ago to Virginia

Arlington looks to curb crashes caused by fast left turns with new pilot program

"Hardened centerlines are designed to make intersections safer for pedestrians by encouraging drivers to make wider, “safer and more predictable” left turns at slower speeds"

From the comments: "If they don't want folks flying through intersections maybe they shouldn't call it "pilot program" 😂

#UrbanPlanning #Virginia

https://www.arlnow.com/2024/03/06/county-looks-to-curb-crashes-caused-by-fast-left-turns-with-new-pilot-program/

benfulton, 2 months ago to Trains

Fixed Seats Come to the Northeast Corridor

I'm fascinated by this. Apparently now, Amtrak crews spend three hours each trip reversing all the seats in the cars so they all will face forward for the trip. The change means that half the seats will face forward and half backward. This is a big "so what?" for me, but I guess there are people who get trainsick from sitting backwards. But man, three hours?

#trains #amtrak

https://www.narprail.org/happening-now/news/blog/fixed-seats-come-to-the-northeast-corridor/

Alon, 2 months ago to random

Per Haaretz, the US is saying Israel said yes to the hostage deal: 40 days of ceasefire, one hostage released per ceasefire day, release of Palestinian prisoners by a formula that depends on the hostage - the seven women who were included in the November ceasefire but weren't released because it was 10/day and there were only seven of them are at a 3:1 ratio, the others at higher ratios going up to 10:1, with female soldiers to be exchanged for actual Hamas terrorists. Ball's in Hamas's court.

benfulton, 2 months ago to random

benfulton, 3 months ago to LosAngeles

Firefighters contend a Los Angeles complete streets ballot measure would cost lives by slowing down fire trucks.

But drivers killed 336 people in L.A. last year, compared to 14 who died in fires.

"What's especially bonkers about the firefighters' opposition to HLA is that they are almost alone. The list of groups that have endorsed it is not just long -- it's also among the most diverse you could ever imagine in Los Angeles."

#LosAngeles #UrbanPlanning

https://www.cp-dr.com/articles/why-do-firefighters-oppose-safe-streets

benfulton, 3 months ago to Cleveland

How Cleveland Built a City Devoted to Parking—and How It’s Trying to Undo the Damage and Win Over Skeptics

"Since the 1960s, any single thing built in its borders was ordered by city code to include space for cars. The most glaring headache for developers—other than extending build time —is that parking lots and urban garages are, and have always been, insanely expensive"

#UrbanPlanning #Parking #Cleveland

https://www.clevescene.com/news/how-cleveland-built-a-city-devoted-to-parking-and-how-its-trying-to-undo-the-damage-and-win-over-skeptics-43709973?fbclid=IwAR31D9Yn3VJZpeyM4iBh1Fa_DgXcj-FncRrPZl6R_az1ySZ_61ed7z1erow_aem_AbbmXd-7BRebhlJPE6Ln2uWcGHO0oKjKD6Gd7nM1CK9UfDvsddc3hUKiPHlI8Kafeho

ajsadauskas, 3 months ago to fuckcars

What can you get to within a 15-minute walk of your house?

A recent YouGov survey asked Americans what they think they should be able to get to within a 15-minute walk of their house.

Of these choices, I can currently walk to all of them from my apartment, aside from a university (no biggie, I'm not currently studying, although there is a Tafe within walking distance), a hospital, and a sports arena.

How many can you get to with a 15 minute walk from your house?

#fuckcars #walkability #urbanism #UrbanPlanning @fuck_cars #walking

benfulton, 3 months ago to random

Driving to Isolation: Why Churches in American Struggle to Answer the Loneliness Epidemic

"The biggest enemy of connection, inside and outside the church, is not the Internet, or politics, or lack of opportunities to gather, give, and grow. That title belongs to one uniquely Western cultural force, one that we’re so accustomed to swimming in that we’ve forgotten we’re even in it: car-dependent sprawl."

#CarsRuinEverything

https://www.residenturbanist.com/p/driving-isolation?utm_source=ben&utm_medium=mastodon&utm_campaign=driving-to-isolation

benfulton, 3 months ago to Arizona

Arizona GOP lawmakers move to derail chance for Tucson-to-Phoenix commuter train

“People love their personal automobiles. They love the freedom that it entails them, they love the ability to go when they want, where they want, how they want.” - Arizona State Senator Jake Hoffman, who wants to spend a gazillion jillion taxpayer dollars on highways instead.

#Arizona #trains

https://tucson.com/news/local/government-politics/tucson-phoenix-commuter-train-jake-hoffman/article_32e22568-c9f3-11ee-a111-071dc300ee63.html

benfulton, 3 months ago to random

Bay Area considers removing bike/ped lanes from Richmond-San Rafael Bridge

"Bay Area transportation planners are taking another look at what it would take to open the westbound shoulder of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge for commuter traffic...Critics, mostly commuters and their employers, say traffic is worse than ever, while supporters maintain the path is a successful multimodal connection between the North Bay and the East Bay."

#NorthBay #BikeLanes

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/03/richmond-san-rafael-bridge-managers-reexamine-westbound-lane-options-2/