Seriously, though: even if you are someone who is skeptical of rail trails and wish we could just have our national railroad system back, you should watch this. They do get into it—and also the challenges of building a future transportation system when the past it's built upon was deeply troubled.

Also: Edward Norton narrated it!

Meant to type NY but you’re right it’s not the best shorthand

But even your city isn't: these projects getting cancelled is bad news for the climate we all our share, our national traffic violence stats, and our future as an equitable society. Not to mention any semblance of public trust that the federal government will actually follow the laws it passes. /🧵

@t4america.bsky.social has a list of the ~$500 million in projects that are under threat if this dirty resolution passes, if you want to look up if your community is one of them — and yes, this includes red districts.

Because the budget resolution that Duffy is pressuring Congress to pass — by dangling that $18 billion like a bargaining chip — is RIFE with transit clawbacks *all over the country.* And very likely in your community!

The 2nd Avenue Subway and Hudson Tunnel projects are huge deal on their own — as in, $18 billion, biggest-transit-projects-in-the-country huge.

But that's just the beginning.

Also: 3) the office of civil rights at DOT has listed the director position as "vacant" on its website since trump took office, so excuse me if I don't buy the "the democrats made us furlough the staff or else we would TOTALLY do this super-important review right now" line.

This is messed up on a bunch of levels, but basically:

1) New gov rules usually require a public comment period unless there's an emergency, which this ... isn't.
2) NY is basically now being punished for *following laws* re: hiring minority contractors, which the Trump admin can't just rewrite

BG: Sec. Duffy put out a release saying that "the Democrats' shutdown" will prevent him from conducting a civil rights review necessary to keep the 2nd Avenue Subway and Hudson Tunnel projects moving, because a government rule requires it.

But Duffy *wrote that rule* just hours before the release.

Also, one stat a source gave me that didn't make the final article: the UK and some European countries do annual surveys about the mobility needs of people with disabilities.

In the US, we only do it roughly *every ten years.*

And one in four Americans has a disability.

And it's not even a complete count! To highlight one that's very personal to me right now while my dad gets cancer treatment and has to take meds that prevent him from driving: 'temporary' disabilities are not always that temporary, and they impact so many who are still on the books as drivers.

It had never occurred to me that a full two percent of the US population was over 75 and self-reporting as periodically struggling with driving, e.g. after dark. The idea of that many people potentially losing their independence half the time is staggering.

This chart blew my mind a little.

no idea and I hope to never find out lolol.

It is shocking how much money it saves (+ obviously the CO2.) There are enough free/subsidized chargers that we really only spend about $15/month tops.

Yep, we drive almost exclusively with regen turned on. It also feels a lot safer because the car is literally slowing anytime you’re not actively hitting the accelerator. Obviously still not as safe as a bike or a bus or a walk but at least it’s some mild harm reduction.

We ended up with the Chevy Bolt EUV for a bunch of reasons, not least of which was we found a dealer that had one + would give us the credit at the point of sale, vs. trusting the Trump administration would honor the credit if we claimed it personally later.