Henry Cook
@hmc3rd.bsky.social
I recommend https://wandrer.earth as a fun diversion to break up your exercise routine.
My attempt to hold MDOT SHA accountable to Vision Zero - Maryland’s Lethal Highways at https://henrycook3c637a682a.wordpress.com/
Member of baltpop.org
My attempt to hold MDOT SHA accountable to Vision Zero - Maryland’s Lethal Highways at https://henrycook3c637a682a.wordpress.com/
Member of baltpop.org
Reposted by Henry Cook
Good turnout for the Alex Pretti memorial ride in Baltimore today.
January 31, 2026 at 10:12 PM
Good turnout for the Alex Pretti memorial ride in Baltimore today.
This is great to see, a county executive advocating to enable balcony solar in Maryland! www.baltimoresun.com/2026/01/23/c...
Calvin Ball: Let’s empower Marylanders with balcony solar | GUEST COMMENTARY
Balcony solar panels, popular in Germany, could help Maryland renters keep energy costs down, writes Howard County Executive Calvin Ball.
www.baltimoresun.com
January 27, 2026 at 12:18 AM
This is great to see, a county executive advocating to enable balcony solar in Maryland! www.baltimoresun.com/2026/01/23/c...
Reposted by Henry Cook
It's funny that New York City is by far the largest and most dynamic city in the USA and also the only one with a comprehensive 24-hour transit network but Americans refuse to understand that there is a casual link from the transit and pedestrian infrastructure to the economic and cultural success.
January 3, 2026 at 5:31 PM
It's funny that New York City is by far the largest and most dynamic city in the USA and also the only one with a comprehensive 24-hour transit network but Americans refuse to understand that there is a casual link from the transit and pedestrian infrastructure to the economic and cultural success.
Reposted by Henry Cook
For those who actually care about evidence-based city-making, there’s a ton of evidence that decongestion pricing has been a massive success in New York City, by every measure of success, and many ways that can’t be measured.
Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan…
* Vehicle traffic: -11%
* Foot traffic: +3.4%
* Storefront vacancy: -0.9%
* Pollution: -22%
* Revenue for mass transit: $548M
So YES this has been a huge success.
* Vehicle traffic: -11%
* Foot traffic: +3.4%
* Storefront vacancy: -0.9%
* Pollution: -22%
* Revenue for mass transit: $548M
So YES this has been a huge success.
December 23, 2025 at 10:45 PM
For those who actually care about evidence-based city-making, there’s a ton of evidence that decongestion pricing has been a massive success in New York City, by every measure of success, and many ways that can’t be measured.
Reposted by Henry Cook
Insane but true fact: making US roads as safe as Canadian, Australian, or European roads would save more lives than eliminating murder from the US.
November 21, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Insane but true fact: making US roads as safe as Canadian, Australian, or European roads would save more lives than eliminating murder from the US.
Reposted by Henry Cook
New York’s congestion pricing program is without question one of 2025’s bright spots. It’ll be a long time before we see actual implementation in another city, but our goal should be to have it well in progress with at least one by the end of this decade.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
New York's Congestion Pricing Is Working. Five Charts Show How
Nearly a year ago, New York City embarked on a controversial program to toll drivers entering some of Manhattan’s busiest streets. The goal of the congestion pricing plan, the first of its kind in the...
www.bloomberg.com
December 22, 2025 at 11:54 AM
New York’s congestion pricing program is without question one of 2025’s bright spots. It’ll be a long time before we see actual implementation in another city, but our goal should be to have it well in progress with at least one by the end of this decade.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Reposted by Henry Cook
Look at how little yellow ribbon solidarity there is for these goons. People support the troops, they support their local cops, they may have romantic notions about the FBI or Marshals from the TV they watch but these rent-a-thug dopes have about as much thin blue line hagiography as Wagner Group.
A November YouGov poll had ICE favorability underwater by 14 points among all Americans and 37(!) points among political independents today.yougov.com/politics/art...
December 21, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Look at how little yellow ribbon solidarity there is for these goons. People support the troops, they support their local cops, they may have romantic notions about the FBI or Marshals from the TV they watch but these rent-a-thug dopes have about as much thin blue line hagiography as Wagner Group.
Reposted by Henry Cook
Cars are not as useful as people think they are in a widespread emergency or natural disaster. Driverless cars even less so.
Failed Waymo robot blocking emergency services during a widespread emergency:
Grant St at Sacramento, heart of Chinatown, San Francisco
I've been warning about this scenario for ~7 yrs. Safety drivers fix this in seconds. SFPD will prob have to drive this out of the way.
OP:tiktok.joolyana
Grant St at Sacramento, heart of Chinatown, San Francisco
I've been warning about this scenario for ~7 yrs. Safety drivers fix this in seconds. SFPD will prob have to drive this out of the way.
OP:tiktok.joolyana
December 21, 2025 at 3:34 AM
Cars are not as useful as people think they are in a widespread emergency or natural disaster. Driverless cars even less so.
I visited Montreal this summer and had my bike with me. We did a cheaper hotel out in the suburbs by the commuter rail, but I found the bike infrastructure to be awesome! I rode into the city a couple times and had no issues finding low-traffic-stress roads. This video jives with my experience.
Not Just Bikes vs. Montreal (Two Years Later)
Not Just Bikes vs. Montreal (Two Years Later)
YouTube video by Oh The Urbanity!
youtu.be
December 20, 2025 at 7:09 PM
I visited Montreal this summer and had my bike with me. We did a cheaper hotel out in the suburbs by the commuter rail, but I found the bike infrastructure to be awesome! I rode into the city a couple times and had no issues finding low-traffic-stress roads. This video jives with my experience.
Reposted by Henry Cook
This is the kind of reporting that kills public support for active transportation policy. Is an extra $1bn a lot of money? Well yeah. But read the article and you learn...well wait. When this project was proposed a year ago, the estimated cost was $7.8bn. Now it's $15 w/o the path. That's the story.
Bay Bridge pedestrian path could add $1 billion to cost
Preliminary estimates for a future replacement to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge show the proposal for a shared-use path for pedestrians and cyclists could add more than $1 billion to the overall project c...
www.thebanner.com
December 19, 2025 at 12:28 AM
This is the kind of reporting that kills public support for active transportation policy. Is an extra $1bn a lot of money? Well yeah. But read the article and you learn...well wait. When this project was proposed a year ago, the estimated cost was $7.8bn. Now it's $15 w/o the path. That's the story.
Reposted by Henry Cook
The city should hold firm here. Urban drive throughs are a nuisance land use that create precisely the kinds of negative externalities that zoning was invented to address.
I went deep on some drama over a DQ drive-thru in SE Portland. The franchisee is arguing with the city over his right to include a drive-thru, despite strict zoning rules. It’s sparked debate among neighbors, many of whom are nostalgic for the old DQ, which this business owner demolished in 2019.
Drive-Thru Debacle Threatens to Keep Historic Dairy Queen in a Deep Freeze
Over the past few years, Portlanders have heard little about the plan to rebuild the old Dairy Queen on Southeast Division and 56th Ave. The Dairy Queen, which was demolished in 2019 after more than 5...
www.portlandmercury.com
December 18, 2025 at 12:30 AM
The city should hold firm here. Urban drive throughs are a nuisance land use that create precisely the kinds of negative externalities that zoning was invented to address.
Reposted by Henry Cook
“Currently, more than 1,400 buses are now ACE-equipped covering 560 miles of routes, the MTA said, to catch drivers improperly using or parking in bus lanes in NYC. According to the agency, Bus routes with ACE, on average, have increased speeds by 5% with some corridors seeing gains as high as 30%.”
MTA expected to get $100 million worth of new buses. Will they be electric?
MTA is expected to get 100 new buses that will be outfitted with OMNY, driver enclosure and automated camera enforcement.
www.amny.com
December 16, 2025 at 3:44 AM
“Currently, more than 1,400 buses are now ACE-equipped covering 560 miles of routes, the MTA said, to catch drivers improperly using or parking in bus lanes in NYC. According to the agency, Bus routes with ACE, on average, have increased speeds by 5% with some corridors seeing gains as high as 30%.”
Reposted by Henry Cook
It’s important to contextualize just how much less safe American drivers are than everywhere else in the world, and it’s getting worse!
December 13, 2025 at 5:15 PM
It’s important to contextualize just how much less safe American drivers are than everywhere else in the world, and it’s getting worse!
This would be attractive to me, a guy who’ll be writing checks for college tuition in a few years.
Predicting that some universities will soon pledge to provide AI-free instruction, and that this will be an advantage in recruiting and training top students
Nothing will make you an education AI skeptic faster than grading some college take home assignments. Admins who haven’t been in a classroom in years push it as a learning tool. Students are laughing at them as they use it as a cheating tool. It’s all instructors are texting about with each other.
December 14, 2025 at 7:03 PM
This would be attractive to me, a guy who’ll be writing checks for college tuition in a few years.
Reposted by Henry Cook
My least popular (and most correct) view is that cars should be automatically limited to the local speed limit. Put the pedal to the floor and you still can't go over 25mph in a residential area.
(15 in Manhattan btw)
(15 in Manhattan btw)
There is no possible justification for limiting e-bikes to 15mph but not cars.
New York Has a New E-Bike Speed Limit—and No Way to Enforce It
August 9, 2025 at 4:47 PM
My least popular (and most correct) view is that cars should be automatically limited to the local speed limit. Put the pedal to the floor and you still can't go over 25mph in a residential area.
(15 in Manhattan btw)
(15 in Manhattan btw)
Air pollution dropped not just in the congestion pricing zone, but across the 5 boroughs and greater metro area. Quote from article "This tells us that congestion pricing didn't simply relocate air pollution to the suburbs by rerouting traffic.”
great outcome of a good policy that right-wingers reflexively resist
NYC congestion pricing cuts air pollution by 22% in Manhattan, study finds
Since New York City introduced congestion pricing in January 2025, the state has heralded significant reductions in traffic and rush hour delays, fewer crashes and noise complaints, and toll revenue p...
phys.org
December 11, 2025 at 3:49 AM
Air pollution dropped not just in the congestion pricing zone, but across the 5 boroughs and greater metro area. Quote from article "This tells us that congestion pricing didn't simply relocate air pollution to the suburbs by rerouting traffic.”
Reposted by Henry Cook
great outcome of a good policy that right-wingers reflexively resist
NYC congestion pricing cuts air pollution by 22% in Manhattan, study finds
Since New York City introduced congestion pricing in January 2025, the state has heralded significant reductions in traffic and rush hour delays, fewer crashes and noise complaints, and toll revenue p...
phys.org
December 11, 2025 at 3:24 AM
great outcome of a good policy that right-wingers reflexively resist
Reposted by Henry Cook
Just w/r/t the below - which is 100% true, i work currently in manufacturing (albeit on the Excel side) and get this ALL THE TIME - whenever someone starts pontificating about this I ask them if they can weld. Cause I can weld (mig, not that well), and have yet to meet someone pontificating who can.
December 7, 2025 at 2:09 AM
Just w/r/t the below - which is 100% true, i work currently in manufacturing (albeit on the Excel side) and get this ALL THE TIME - whenever someone starts pontificating about this I ask them if they can weld. Cause I can weld (mig, not that well), and have yet to meet someone pontificating who can.
Reposted by Henry Cook
EU vehicle safety regulations have supported a 36% reduction in European road deaths since 2010. By contrast, road deaths in the US over the same period increased 30%, with pedestrian deaths up 80% and cyclist deaths up 50%
December 3, 2025 at 9:17 AM
EU vehicle safety regulations have supported a 36% reduction in European road deaths since 2010. By contrast, road deaths in the US over the same period increased 30%, with pedestrian deaths up 80% and cyclist deaths up 50%
Reposted by Henry Cook
"A prerequisite for successfully "having vision" is recognizing the necessity of serving the needs of ALL the residents. [Cars] are great for working age people without kids, but seniors and young kids and the disabled need [sidewalks and bike lanes and public transportation]."
Seniors and young kids and disabled people need non-driving options.
islandpress.org/books/when-d...
islandpress.org/books/when-d...
When Driving Is Not an Option
islandpress.org
November 30, 2025 at 9:58 PM
"A prerequisite for successfully "having vision" is recognizing the necessity of serving the needs of ALL the residents. [Cars] are great for working age people without kids, but seniors and young kids and the disabled need [sidewalks and bike lanes and public transportation]."
Reposted by Henry Cook
Is there anything more anticlimactic than Black Friday, a day that has been happening for weeks?
November 28, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Is there anything more anticlimactic than Black Friday, a day that has been happening for weeks?
Reposted by Henry Cook
“One mile on a bike is a $.42 economic gain to society, one mile driving is a $.20 loss.”
“Which means that Copenhagen, a city of 1.2 million people, saves $357 million a year on health costs because something like 80% of its population commutes by bike.” #CityMakingMath
Some costs aren’t costs.
“Which means that Copenhagen, a city of 1.2 million people, saves $357 million a year on health costs because something like 80% of its population commutes by bike.” #CityMakingMath
Some costs aren’t costs.
One mile on a bike is a $.42 economic gain to society, one mile driving is a $.20 loss
Copenhagen, the bicycle-friendliest place on the planet, publishes a biannual Bicycle Account, and buried in its pages is a rather astonishing fact.
grist.org
November 21, 2025 at 12:40 AM
“One mile on a bike is a $.42 economic gain to society, one mile driving is a $.20 loss.”
“Which means that Copenhagen, a city of 1.2 million people, saves $357 million a year on health costs because something like 80% of its population commutes by bike.” #CityMakingMath
Some costs aren’t costs.
“Which means that Copenhagen, a city of 1.2 million people, saves $357 million a year on health costs because something like 80% of its population commutes by bike.” #CityMakingMath
Some costs aren’t costs.
Reposted by Henry Cook
Wauwatosa, WI — 175 years ago today
Solomon Juneau and other Milwaukee leaders arrive after the first train trip ever taken in Wisconsin. It took 12 minutes, which is faster than it takes today to drive between the two cities. There is currently no commuter rail option.
Solomon Juneau and other Milwaukee leaders arrive after the first train trip ever taken in Wisconsin. It took 12 minutes, which is faster than it takes today to drive between the two cities. There is currently no commuter rail option.
November 21, 2025 at 12:46 AM
Wauwatosa, WI — 175 years ago today
Solomon Juneau and other Milwaukee leaders arrive after the first train trip ever taken in Wisconsin. It took 12 minutes, which is faster than it takes today to drive between the two cities. There is currently no commuter rail option.
Solomon Juneau and other Milwaukee leaders arrive after the first train trip ever taken in Wisconsin. It took 12 minutes, which is faster than it takes today to drive between the two cities. There is currently no commuter rail option.
Reposted by Henry Cook
Keep this in mind when people claim cars mean business — closing Central #Madrid to cars over holidays resulted in a 9.5% boost in retail spending on its main shopping street: STUDY.
There was also a 71% drop in air pollution.
Via @carltonreid.com in @forbes.com. #citymakingmath #citiesforpeople
There was also a 71% drop in air pollution.
Via @carltonreid.com in @forbes.com. #citymakingmath #citiesforpeople
Closing Central Madrid To Cars Resulted In 9.5% Boost To Retail Spending, Finds Bank Analysis
City of Madrid significantly boosted the takings of its shops and restaurants last Christmas by banning cars from the CBD, finds an analysis by Spain's second largest bank.
www.forbes.com
November 20, 2025 at 6:21 AM
Keep this in mind when people claim cars mean business — closing Central #Madrid to cars over holidays resulted in a 9.5% boost in retail spending on its main shopping street: STUDY.
There was also a 71% drop in air pollution.
Via @carltonreid.com in @forbes.com. #citymakingmath #citiesforpeople
There was also a 71% drop in air pollution.
Via @carltonreid.com in @forbes.com. #citymakingmath #citiesforpeople