Doug Gordon's avatar

Doug Gordon

@brooklynspoke.bsky.social

3420 followers 783 following 2332 posts

Co-host, The War on Cars podcast. Writer, TV producer, creator of other things. I run a lot. (he/him)

linktr.ee/brooklynspoke

Doug Gordon's avatar Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social
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Headed to DC for the Transportation and Climate Symposium at USDOT and my train was canceled. The next option on Amtrak is nearly two hours later for twice the price of my original ticket. This feels almost poetic.

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City Infinity's avatar City Infinity @cityinfinity.bsky.social
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This is a really interesting listen and it's worth noting that the idea of vehicular cycling was just as corrosive to UK discourse as in the USA and in some pockets is still in the minds of designers that we treat cycling as motor traffic. Always worth learning where ideas come from.

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Yonah Freemark's avatar Yonah Freemark @yfreemark.bsky.social
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Paris's policy choices have major impacts: —Car ownership & car trips declining in city & near suburbs since 2000 —City traffic down 50%, 2002–22 —Transit ridership increased 35%, 2000–19 —Crashes involving hospitalization declined by half 2007–22 —Net reduction in air pollution

1 replies 22 reposts 72 likes

Reposted by Doug Gordon

Yonah Freemark's avatar Yonah Freemark @yfreemark.bsky.social
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How has Paris reduced car-centric street space? It: —Banned cars from riverside highway —Made speed limit 19mph —Eliminated car space from plazas —Created 205 car-light/car-free school streets It's planning: —Elimination of 1/2 of street parking —A virtually car-free city center

2 replies 12 reposts 50 likes

Reposted by Doug Gordon

Reposted by Doug Gordon

Grudgie the Whale's avatar Grudgie the Whale @grudgie.bsky.social
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They were 1 vote away last time from reinstating all the pre-ACA hazards

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Grudgie the Whale's avatar Grudgie the Whale @grudgie.bsky.social
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One of the extremely underdiscussed risks is Trump utterly destroying healthcare in a way people already used to shitty care won’t believe

1 replies 13 reposts 36 likes

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Laura Routh's avatar Laura Routh @laurarouth.bsky.social
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“Most of the deaths have been reported in California, where the heat broke daily records late last week in a handful of major cities, including San Jose, Fresno and Oakland.” Not all of them were elderly or homeless. The number of deaths includes those in Oregon and Arizona. wapo.st/3WgZroZ

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Doug Gordon's avatar Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social
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It's a little bit of the first part and a lot of the second, I think.

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Doug Gordon's avatar Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social
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If Biden does step down I hope he makes the announcement just as Trump is about to take the stage at the RNC.

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John Pfaff's avatar John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social
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Ah, FB memories serving up some winners. This is what an itemized $1,330,000 NICU hospital bill looks like (only 96 days to get there). The apple is there for scale. Here’s why I share it. Too many ppl don’t know abt lifetime caps and pre-existing bans. Bc the STILL-VULNERABLE ACA banned them.

15 replies 188 reposts 527 likes

Reposted by Doug Gordon

Reposted by Doug Gordon

David McCreath's avatar David McCreath @mccreath.bsky.social
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I’d never heard the term, but with my first 10-speed in 1978, I learned the techniques of “vehicular cycling” (take the lane and obey traffic laws, particularly) because there were no bike lanes in Ft Worth. It never occurred to me that someone was arguing for THAT over actual infrastructure. Wild.

4 replies 2 reposts 41 likes

Reposted by Doug Gordon

Nolan Hicks's avatar Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social
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Would also like to point out that the city’s shade/tree program has made like zero progress since Bloomberg left office, which is something that could also be quickly fixed — and take the edge off the heat and help clean up the air a bit.

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Reposted by Doug Gordon

Marisa Kabas's avatar Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social
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i made this shareable version of my one sentence project 2025 summary so it can be easily shared across platforms. feel free to repost.

22 replies 471 reposts 881 likes

Doug Gordon's avatar Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social
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A few small things need to happen as our city gets hotter: - Extend lifeguard hours at beaches to 9 PM - Extend pool hours to 9 PM. - Open beaches before Memorial Day weekend - Open pools on Memorial Day weekend if not before. All of this would be pocket change compared to the city's budget.

1 replies 2 reposts 30 likes

Doug Gordon's avatar Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social
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"It's more about education" is the Eric Adams approach to everything — everything that doesn't involve funneling more money to the cops, of course — even as all evidence suggests it doesn't work.

3 replies 4 reposts 34 likes

Doug Gordon's avatar Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social
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I have to resist everything in me to not post this whenever people say that vehicular cycling helped them ride safely in the 80s and 90s through today.

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brooke bikes mke 's avatar brooke bikes mke @brookebikesmke.bsky.social
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It’s the elitism that gets me. Forester is the guy who, on social media, unironically responds “Skill issue” to every complaint. And to a degree he’s not wrong - I’m not a technically good cyclist. My vision is weird, my balance could be better. But I should still be able to bike to the store!

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Doug Gordon's avatar Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social
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Just like most car drivers! Very few people expect ALL motorists to know how to fix a transmission or even fix a flat.

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Doug Gordon's avatar Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social
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But I think if you look solely at where Forester was cycling, which was mostly in Palo Alto before it was as developed as it is today, then it sort of makes sense that he'd arrive at the idea that he didn't need bike infrastructure.

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Doug Gordon's avatar Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social
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It's a bit of a mixed bag. You're right that some aspects of vehicle safety were very different, but there were also around 700 - 1100 cycling deaths per year at the time Effective Cycling was written. Today there are about 800. Not apples-to-apples as there are lots of other factors, of course.

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Doug Gordon's avatar Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social
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Some people say it’s just a philosophical difference. But Forester argued from a place of what he said were empirical studies and research to prove that vehicular cycling was safer than protected bike lanes. None met even the most basic scientific criteria and all have been thoroughly debunked.

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Doug Gordon's avatar Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social
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Vehicular cycling is a decent skill to have in places where there isn’t a lot of good bicycle infrastructure but a big part of the reason we don’t have a lot of good bicycle infrastructure is because of vehicular cyclists. As we will get to in part two, Forester had a big impact on this for decades.

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brooke bikes mke 's avatar brooke bikes mke @brookebikesmke.bsky.social
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I have been thinking of this episode nonstop. I have to do a bit of “vehicular cycling” because my routes to cross the Menomonee River aren’t great. And guess what? I hate it! I know how to do it. I do not enjoy it at all. I cannot blame others who won’t cycle because this is their option.

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Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis's avatar Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.bsky.social
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"Only four people died by drowning at New York City beaches in all of last season. The four deaths about three weeks into this summer have spurred some elected officials to take up the perennial challenge of getting the city to extend lifeguard hours, even if only in some stretches of beaches."

6 replies 17 reposts 58 likes

Reposted by Doug Gordon

Reposted by Doug Gordon

Reposted by Doug Gordon

Rachel Burdin's avatar Rachel Burdin @rsburdin.bsky.social
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This chapter of The Power Broker is describing a neighborhood in the Bronx full of working class leftist Jews who are embracing integration as Black and Latino residents are moving in! I'm sure nothing bad will happen to them! Let me pull up Google Maps and see where the Cross Bronx Expressway is!

8 replies 57 reposts 225 likes

Reposted by Doug Gordon

Reposted by Doug Gordon

Cooper Lund's avatar Cooper Lund @cooperlund.bsky.social
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It’s so cool what the city can do with space that’s currently used for car storage

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Reposted by Doug Gordon