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Shivaji Shiva @shivajishivalaw.bsky.social · 6h

An interesting and helpful thread ...

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Shivaji Shiva @shivajishivalaw.bsky.social · 17h

Great to see everyone at the Life After Cars event last night.

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Kenny Uong @kennyuong.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Xenophobes were scared that Mayor Mamdani was going to implement Sharia law in NYC but instead, he brought transit euphoria!! 🚌

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Alex Turner @turnerinroc.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Reading "Life After Cars" and was blown away by this fact. A light rail station being added to a rural area in Japan reduced health care costs in that community to the tune of $600 per person per year!! 🤯

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Sarah Goodyear @sgoodyear.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

This was so so so much fun. Thanks to Oxford for showing us a good time!

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Shivaji Shiva @shivajishivalaw.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Great to see Sarah and Doug of @thewaroncars.bsky.social doing their thing in Oxford. I look forward to hearing from them at the London event on Monday. See you there? @brooklynspoke.bsky.social @sgoodyear.bsky.social

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John Munro @johnmunro.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Your city might not be as far gone as Birmingham, but no matter where you live, you're likely to find familiar many of the aspects of @sarahchaundler.bsky.social's brilliant and now publicly available short film "City of Cars." Stop what you're doing and watch this.

vimeo.com

City of Cars: shorter version

Please be aware that this film contains scenes which show the impact of road traffic collisions, which some people may find upsetting.

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Doug Gordon @brooklynspoke.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I like how @sarahchaundler.bsky.social talks about communities that "have been blighted by dangerous driving." That's exactly the way to think about car dominance: As a form of urban blight like any other we do not find acceptable.

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Jane @localnotail.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

TIL about the Evil May Day riot May 1 1517 Preacher “Dr Bell" made an inflammatory xenophobic speech about foreigners taking English jobs & food on Easter Tuesday at the instigation of broker John Lincoln. 2 wks on: anti-Migrant riot Under-sheriff of London Thomas Moore was sent to calm the rioters

On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Sir Ian McKellen shared a monologue that some believe Shakespeare may have written. The speech, known as The Strangers' Case, comes from an Elizabethan play, Sir Thomas More.

McKellen sets the scene:

It's all happening 400 years ago. In London, there's a riot happening. There's a mob out in the streets and they're complaining about the the presence of strangers in London, by which they mean the recent immigrants who've arrived there. And they're shouting the odds and complaining and saying that the immigrants should be sent back home wherever they came from. And the authorities send out this young lawyer, Thomas More, to put down the riot, which he does in two ways. One by saying that you can't riot like this. It's against the law. So, shut up, be quiet.

And also, being by Shakespeare, with an appeal to their humanity.
https://www.folger.edu/blogs/shakespeare-and-beyond/the-strangers-case/

From Act II, Scene 4 of Sir Thomas More:

You'll put down strangers, Grant them removed, and grant that this your noise Hath chid down all the majesty of England; Imagine that you see the wretched strangers, Their babies at their backs and their poor luggage, Plodding to the ports and coasts for transportation, And that you sit as kings in your desires, Authority quite silent by your brawl, And you in ruff of your opinions clothed; What had you got? I'll tell you: you had taught How insolence and strong hand should prevail, How order should be quelled; and by this pattern Not one of you should live an agèd man, For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought, With self same hand, self reasons, and self right, Would shark on you, and men like ravenous fishes Would feed on one another...
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1547

Say now the king, As he is clement if th'offender mourn, Should so much come too short of your great trespass As but to banish you, whither would you go? What country, by the nature of your error, Should give you harbor? Go you to France or Flanders, To any German province, to Spain or Portugal, Nay, anywhere that not adheres to England, Why, you must needs be strangers: would you be pleased To find a nation of such barbarous temper, That, breaking out in hideous violence, Would not afford you an abode on earth, Whet their detested knives against your throats, Spurn you like dogs, and like as if that God Owed not nor made not you, nor that the elements Were not all appropriate to your comforts, But chartered unto them, what would you think To be thus used? This is the strangers' case; And this your mountainish inhumanity.

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Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 03/10/2026

This will make kids a lot safer on Halloween. Other cities should do this!

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Shivaji Shiva @shivajishivalaw.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Carnage at Bournville Green today. How will local shops survive?

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Steven (with a PH) @sjksalisbury.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The fact that September is all that stands between August and October is ridiculous. Those are two very different states of being. Feel like there should be at least one more month in-between them to ensure a smooth handover.

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Shivaji Shiva @shivajishivalaw.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Hmmmn. 17:36 to Northampton cancelled. Will the 18:06 get me to @royalderngate.bsky.social in time to catch most of the show? It’s anyone’s guess, but the booking office / front of house team have been brilliant.

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Laurence Turner MP @larry-turner.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

'City of cars' is affecting, angering - and a call to action. I'd recommend it to anyone - especially those with an interest in Birmingham and/or road safety.

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Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 02/10/2026

Concept: a tactical urbanist group that just goes around pouring DIY concrete bell bollards.

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Shivaji Shiva @shivajishivalaw.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

So who else is going to Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile in London on Monday? @thewaroncars.bsky.social @brooklynspoke.bsky.social @sgoodyear.bsky.social

Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/life-after-cars-freeing-ourselves-from-the-tyranny-of-the-automobile-tickets-1993739132415

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Jay Zedbee @jayzedbee.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

i love conan. I was watching his thing on the rest is history where he said "all statues of real people should be made of durable soap, they should last a good 60 years and then we decide if we want to remake them or not".........i love that. i love that attitude to historical figures. it's so good

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Taras Grescoe 🚇 @taras-grescoe.com · 28/09/2026

“Bicycling is a big part of the future. It has to be. There's something wrong with a society that drives a car to work out in a gym." —Bill Nye, Science Guy.

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Søren Have @sorenhave.dk · 09/09/2026

"A Friends of the Earth senior figure described the Heathrow expansion plans as “the climate equivalent of pouring petrol on a raging wildfire” after summer 2026 was provisionally confirmed as the hottest on record in the UK, with widespread drought and wildfires across the country." 🎯

independent.co.uk

Government has ‘given the go-ahead’ to Heathrow expansion, says Chancellor

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has previously expressed concerns over the plans to build a third runway at the west London airport.

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World Bollard Association™️ @worldbollardassoc.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Probably the greatest parallel parking you’ll ever see. #WorldBollardAssociation

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Fietser @americanfietser.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

A week's worth of groceries, including two boxes of formula by bike? No, you don't need a car for that, just some enabling infrastructure and a bike designed for the task. We don't expect everyone to live this way, but we do expect cities to enable the decision if people make it.

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Mark On A Bike @mtonabike.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Well these are eye catching from Better Streets for Liverpool

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Senõr Mouse @bythor.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

So true: "Once our eyes are opened to all the ways we’ve prioritized cars over people, we can’t unsee it." Since I sold my car the way I see the world has changed. Cars everywhere. Fossil fuel burners (most of them, still), noise, smell, p-space they take, the priority they get at traffic lights. 🤓

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Cycling In Kilkenny @cyclinginkilkenny.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

These are great

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Fietser @americanfietser.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I'm 1.94m tall and I want this as our car for regional errands, paired with our e-cargo bikes that we use for local errands. Trips further out and the math makes sense to rent a larger vehicle. Smaller and practical design makes sense on our streets and our budgets. 📽️ @electricfelix.eurosky.social

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Lanrick Bennett @lanrickbennett.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

#IdeasAtWork “…from last night's Critical Mass ride is a stark illustration of why more cycling infrastructure reduces congestion, not increases it. On the uphill section visible in the photo, there are about 30 cars in the same space roughly 160 bikes.” - Brian Tao h/t @xkcd.com

Image of Critical Mass taking over street space

Brian Tao
...
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1h • J
This photo and many others from last night's Critical Mass ride is a stark illustration of why more cycling infrastructure reduces congestion, not increases it. On the uphill section visible in the photo, there are about 30 cars in the same space as roughly 160 bikes. Even assuming an average of 1.1 people per car, that's still roughly a 5x greater density achieved by bikes.
Both modes of transportation were travelling at roughly the same speed and taking up the same amount of room in this photo, so the difference is down to the traffic count per unit time. Major arterials like Bloor St can handle about 20,000 cars per day, peaking at 1000-1500 cars per hour of freeflowing traffic. The same amount of road space can accommodate over 10,000 bikes per hour, again while maintaining freeflowing traffic.
Congestion occurs when traffic demand exceeds traffic supply. Adding more lanes increases supply, but then induced demand inevitably also rises to meet the available supply, and we're back to square one.

There are two other approaches to solving this problem: decrease demand, or make the supply more efficient. Good bike (and transit!) infrastructure can do both. They offer more viable alternatives for people wanting to travel around the city, instead of pouring money into catering to the least efficient mode of transportation. It also repurposes the same land use with greater efficiency.
Imagine that we have, say, 30 meters between facing buildings on opposite sides of the road along Bloor St W. 15% of that is taken up by each sidewalk, 15% by two bike lanes, and the remaining 70% is made up of two rows of parking spots, two traffic lanes in either direction, and a shared turning lane.
To me, any street classified as a minor or major arterial road by the City of Toronto should _not_ have any parking on it. Why dedicate 20% of your roadway to something that moves exactly O people per hour? Eliminate those, and replace them with transit priority lanes while leaving bike lanes and sidewalks intact. There are still at least three traffic lanes available, but the capacity of the exact same stretch of road has now increased by 50-100%.
Bloor St would thus be usable by all modes of transport: on foot, by bike, in cars, surface transit, and subway. It is the logical choice, but for many who grew up in our heavily car-centric society, they can only ever envision driving anywhere and everywhere.

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Jane @localnotail.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

This artwork was created over the past year by a local Birmingham artist collective who wanted to bring unty from discord by repurposing the divisive Nationalist flags into a massive Brummie Reunion Jack. Suffice it to say, the inspiration for Goldship's magnificent work has not taken it well.

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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 26/09/2026

⚠️ "I think it is absurd that when we're talking about individuals being made to feel unsafe where they live" 🚨 "When we're looking at boats being slashed on camera, children chanting into megaphones, "Let them drown." You guys are just saying, "Well, it's about the small boats.""

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