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Amy Lee

@amyelee.com
5.8K followers 455 following 138 posts

Postdoc at the University of California, Davis. Studying policy and politics of transportation, land use, and travel behavior. She/her. amyelee.com 🏳️‍🌈

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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · 24/09/2026
And that in lieu of memorizing a sequence of numbers he instructs people to ask Janine or Lori, who’ve ostensibly memorized many things for him, and calls it “systems thinking”
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Sara C. Bronin @sarabronin.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
MAJOR PAPER DROP #2: Anyone claiming AI can read zoning codes is wrong. From academics offering chimerical metrics to private zoning-data companies producing AI slop, too many believe in AI shortcuts: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... This belief is only helping us misunderstand the law faster.
papers.ssrn.com
KEEPING AI IN ITS ZONE
With zoning-reform fever sweeping local governments, state legislatures, and even Congress, there is an urgent push to understand exactly how zoning works. Unfo
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 26/08/2026
They are lowering US flags to half-mast for a week, but if the government really wants to pay tribute to Dolly, they should fund education, the arts, and medical research instead of trying to eradicate them.
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Reo Eveleth @reveleth.com · 20/08/2026
If you're confused by the conversations around sex testing and trans athletes and all that, I made a podcast that traces the history of this debate from the very beginning. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts: www.tested-podcast.com/listen/
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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · 11/08/2026
I wanted to be miffed at the this but you’re not wrong 🫠
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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · 11/08/2026
Big new separated and protected bike lanes, sidewalks, and street trees running from central to south Sacramento on Franklin Blvd!
A newly road dieted street with curb-protected bike lanes, sidewalks, and a person riding a bike in the bike lane
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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · 28/07/2026
Interesting from a policy agenda perspective, but neither surprising nor irrational.
A screenshot of the US CDC's website on transportation safety stating that motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death in the US.
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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · 28/07/2026
Super interesting polling results: "One in three U.S. adults (34%) name road-related accidents as their most top-of-mind daily safety risk, more than twice the global average of 14%." Much higher than the one in five (19%) who point to crime and violence. news.gallup.com/poll/712673/...
Chart comparing what US adults feel most threatened by, compared to the global average. US adults see road-related accidents as the highest risk to their safety in their daily life - with 34% mentioning it - compared to 14% globally.
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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · 27/07/2026
I made myself log off after that one
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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · 25/07/2026
So what you're saying is that I... induced demand 🙃
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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · 25/07/2026
Let me see if I can get a preprint ready in time, but if not I can skim a chapter/section out of my dissertation
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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · 25/07/2026
You bet! If you want highway and labor content, I have that too ;)
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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · 24/07/2026
Also this work from @uclaits.bsky.social, which is exactly about transit and labor: its.ucla.edu/publication/...
its.ucla.edu
Transit, Belabored: Issues and Futures for California's Frontline Transit Workforce
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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · 24/07/2026
Not transit but The Daily from the NYT just did an episode about housing and labor that I put in my mental catalogue for an undergrad course.
nytimes.com
Trump’s Clashing Goals: More Housing, Fewer Immigrants (Gift Article)
A new law aims to speed up building housing around the country. At the same time, the construction sector is reliant on foreign-born workers.
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Prof. Ian Walker @ianwalker.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
We limit the speed of ebikes "for public safety", yet this study shows we'd need to limit SUVs to 5.7 km/h for them to pose the same risk to other people #motonormativity findingspress.org/article/1587...
findingspress.org
Motonormativity and Speed Limits | Published in Findings
By Jeremy de Sousa, Alessia Vinet & 3 more. Cars pose a far greater threat to other road users than e-micromobility, raising a basic question for traffic safety: which modes should actually be limited...
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Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
At the end of the term I asked my college creative wriing students to submit anonymous thoughts on AI. No real surprises: Mood ranges from resignation to despair, capitulation from embittered erosion of standards to total, feelings of betrayal from deep to furious. 1/
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Xavier Harmony @transitharmony.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
🚨 New paper! 🚨 Does talking about transportation help local election candidates win? 🗳️ Analysing candidates for local office across the United States, I found that transportation issues could be used as a strategic electoral advantage in local elections. Read the article: doi.org/10.1177/1078...
Title and abstract for a new academic journal article called "Are Transportation Issues Important in Local Elections?" just published in Urban Affairs Review.
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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · 09/06/2026
Congrats, Dr. Guy!
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Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · 04/06/2026
Seattle's light rail & streetcar lines carried 4.8 million riders in April—a 44% increase above March, after Link Line 2 was extended to connect Seattle & Bellevue across Lake Washington. Seattle's light rail & streetcar lines are now the most-ridden in the nation, above LA, Boston, or San Diego.
Ridership trends on Seattle's light rail and streetcar services, from 2002 to April 2026.
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Rachel Cole @rmartincole.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Cover of  “Slicing the Cake: The case for a Los Angeles–San Diego bullet train service. An Assessment by Jonathan Richmond,' featuring an illustration of a sliced cake with city infrastructure on top, including  highways and a bullet train.
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Madeline Brozen @mbrozen.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
I’ve taken the wheel from @shanedphillips.bsky.social on the Housing Voice podcast for the next four regular episodes to talk transportation! First up - how has cities responded to the state change in parking requirements around transit stops?
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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · 04/05/2026
I was going to say, I have excellent news for you!
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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · 24/04/2026
Super excited to hear about parking policy change in the PNW from Catie Gould. Tune in on May 7.
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Sightline Institute @sightline.org · 20/04/2026
What happens when states take the lead on parking reform? Join @uclaits.bsky.social on May 7, with @citizen-cate.bsky.social on passing WA's SB 5184 and @amyelee.com on how CA's AB 2097 is playing out on the ground. Sign up at the link below!
its.ucla.edu
State Preemption of Parking Minimums: Insights from Washington and California - UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
What happens when states take the lead on parking reform? This event explores the growing movement to preempt minimum parking requirements at the state level, with attention to how policy design varie...
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Leah Stokes @leahstokes.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
The EPA is no longer going to consider how many potential lives a pollution regulation would save -- just the costs to industry. This is directly counter to EPA's mission. And it will kill Americans. Great (depressing) scoop from @maxinejoselow.bsky.social. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/c...
nytimes.com
E.P.A. to Stop Considering Lives Saved When Setting Rules on Air Pollution
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Timmons Roberts @timmonsroberts.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Why is advancing ambitious climate legislation hard even in “deep blue” states? Here’s a systematic study of 6 years of lobbying data and 8 years of testimony in a state that sees itself as a climate leader, but is struggling with implementation of its bold targets. Guess who are obstructing?
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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · 07/01/2026
What! I've never seen the early seasons! Can I borrow it sometime?
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Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher, PhD @mbonsma.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
If you could snap your fingers and remove 10% of the vehicles causing traffic and clogging up the streets, would you do it? That power exists, and it's called congestion pricing.
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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · 07/01/2026
It sounds like you're describing Murder She Wrote. Or my go-to for a cozy, humorous, doesn't turn into a busman's holiday, 3-in-1-episode mystery: the GBBO.
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Prof. Ian Walker @ianwalker.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
Yet another evidence review argues very strongly that simply providing alternatives to driving doesn't reduce driving This isn't surprising, if only thanks to habit. If I unthinkingly jump in my car for every trip (as many do), new buses won't change that www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Reducing traffic with “carrots”: A review of the evidence
Reducing traffic volumes is one way to reduce carbon emissions from the transport sector. Since increasing driving costs is often met with public resi…
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 05/11/2025
Today on Volts: sustainable transportation policy is under comprehensive attack by the federal government, but states can soften the blow. Specifically, governors have a little-understood authority to transfer existing federal funds to EV charging, bike lanes, & transit. But time is running out!
volts.wtf
Hey governors: you can salvage sustainable transportation, but you need to do it quick!
Liya Rechtman lays out the playbook for governors to salvage clean transportation using existing federal funds before it's too late.
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Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 05/11/2025
tired: leaders throw folks under the bus wired: leaders invite folks on the bus in a dedicated lane
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Jack Cousteau ⚓️ @angrywaterman.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
Seattle No Kings from the monorail
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Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
This book finally got published today - free for download here cssn.org/news-researc... A monumental effort documenting climate obstruction across sectors, countries & governance levels, by 110 @cssn.org scholars I was chuffed to contribute to one of the chapters (thread)
cssn.org
Global Assessment - Brown Climate Social Science Network
Climate advocacy has not failed, climate policy has been sabotaged, explains a new open access book, Climate Obstruction: A Global Assessment.
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Peter Norton @norton.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
Happy centennial! It’s worth noting that originally this body, the first national traffic engineering institute, was funded 100% by one automobile manufacturer: Studebaker. It was named the Erskine Bureau after the company’s president. In 1935 the Automobile Manufacturers Association took it over.
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UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies @uclaits.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
The Jan 2025 LA fires showed how urban wildfires endanger transit riders and ppl w/o cars. 📊 Among transit riders surveyed: - 28% relied on rides from others - 21% used transit to evacuate - Black respondents were most likely to evacuate via transit (42%) www.its.ucla.edu/publication/...
Evacuation modes by subgroups: This bar chart figure shows how various population groups traveled to safety during the wildfire evacuation. While getting rides from others was most frequent among evacuees, public transit or walking/biking were more commonly used by transportation-disadvantaged groups, including low-income, Black, and carless residents
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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · 30/06/2025
Screenshot of a quote from the article: "Global climate modelers have a hard time incorporating policies like street design and bike lanes [into their estimates] because they're implemented by thousands of individual local governments, rather than the nation-state, which is a normally the unit of analysis," Millard-Ball added. "So as a result, a lot of the global climate policy discourse focuses more on technology in the transportation sector, like electrification and fuel efficiency. And certainly that's really important — but it doesn't capture the public transit, [or] the walking and biking policies."
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Madeline Brozen @mbrozen.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Our multi-campus research team shared preliminary results from our work about the evacuation experiences of transit riders with LA county transportation and emergency management professionals yesterday! Can’t wait to release these findings publicly later this summer
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Marcel Moran @marcelmoran.com · 20/06/2025
Same street, two years apart. Rue Charles Moureu.
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
There are no distractions. It's all bad. Systematically stripping trans people of their rights, guys in balaclavas shoving any brown person with a tattoo into a ummarked vans, ending healthcare for millions. It's all in service of fascism and technofeudalism. It's all one thing. That's the point.
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ETSC - European Transport Safety Council @etsc.eu · 03/06/2025
Study on London 20 mph limits shows: - collisions ⬇️ 35% - casualties ⬇️ 36% - fatal/serious injuries ⬇️ 34% - child casualties ⬇️ 46% - child deaths ⬇️ 75% - walkers, cyclists, motorcyclists killed/seriously injured ⬇️ 28% etsc.eu/20mph-limits...
etsc.eu
20mph limits in London linked to sharp fall in road injuries and deaths, new report finds
A new study published by Transport for London (TfL) has shown that the introduction of 20mph speed limits and zones on local authority-managed roads in London between 1989 and 2013 led to significant…
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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · 06/06/2025
A springtime trip to Buenos Aires was where I first encountered jacarandas, which is absolutely part of why I love LA’s so much
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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · 04/06/2025
Figure 2
blooming jacaranda trees in the UCLA sculpture garden
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Amy Lee @amyelee.com · 04/06/2025
So much is terrible these days but it's also jacaranda season in Los Angeles, which is beautiful from the ground and absolutely stunning from air.
a photo from an airplane with a corridor of jacaranda street trees blooming purple
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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
"Women are PIs on 58% of the canceled grants, although they are PIs on only 34% of all active NSF grants. Similarly, Blacks are PIs on 17% of the terminated grants, although they make only 4% of the total pool. Hispanic PIs and those with disabilities were twice as likely to lose a grant."
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Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
As federal data infrastructure is gutted, we'll lose a window into the vast local health disparities. But those disparities will remain because place is an engine of health provision and stratification, not just an analytic vessel. New essay from me in UAR: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
An Engine, Not a Vessel: Place, Politics, and Health in the United States
Philip Roccohttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-5971-7039
Abstract
Social scientists often treat places as containers for social and economic phenomena that shape health outcomes. Yet this analytic practice conceals more than it reveals. Local governments in the United States should be understood as engines of both health promotion and stratification. As the contributions to this symposium suggest, governments not only occupy a formal place in the U.S. public health system, their decisions on everything from housing to transportation infrastructure can also have profound impacts on health outcomes. Local political economies likewise renegotiate the parameters of acceptable health interventions, public understandings of health disparities, and the status of population health as a public good. By illustrating these linkages, the authors here suggest important future lines of research on both the promise and limits of local health governance, as well as how the allocation of local political power shapes health disparities.
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UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies @uclaits.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
🚨 Job alert: UCLA ITS is hiring a founding Staff Director for a new parking policy center! Work with top scholars, shape reform, and carry on the legacy of Donald Shoup. 🅿️ Learn more & apply by May 17: www.its.ucla.edu/202...
its.ucla.edu
New job opportunity: Parking Center Staff Director - UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
Join the UCLA ITS team. We're looking for a founding staff director to lead a newly established parking center.
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Hakeem Jefferson @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
A colleague at Stanford’s business school used The Stanford Daily to argue—poorly—against DEI. The piece was riddled with historical errors and left one searching for fact, so I broke my public writing hiatus to respond. I hope you’ll read and share the piece. stanforddaily.com/2025/04/22/w...
stanforddaily.com
What DEI threatens isn’t merit. It’s monopoly.
Political science professor Hakeem Jefferson argues for DEI's importance to de-monopolizing universities.
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Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Yes, the famously private freeway system and the famously private airport systems
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