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Steven Higashide

@stevenhigashide.com

273 followers 154 following 68 posts

Fighting for clean transportation at @ucs.org. Author, BETTER BUSES, BETTER CITIES + JUSTICE AND THE INTERSTATES. Posts my own opinion.

Posts Replies Media

Steven Higashide @stevenhigashide.com · 01/10/2026

Jfc

Screenshot of Google Photos pop-up where it asks to allow Gemini (AI) permission to "gain a deep understanding of your life"

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Steven Higashide @stevenhigashide.com · 05/08/2026

The EPA stopped updating an essential power-sector emissions dataset. But a group of researchers stepped in to recreate it - and @ucs.org analysis of the data shows that, nearly everywhere, the average electric vehicle is cleaner than the most efficient gas hybrid. blog.ucs.org/dave-reichmu...

A chart showing heat-trapping emissions from driving the average new electric vehicle, expressed as the fuel economy a gasoline car would need to match it, by grid region.

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Steven Higashide @stevenhigashide.com · 11/05/2026

Then there's industry-funded research and direct intervention in electoral campaigns. In internal case study research, produced for member companies, trade groups boast about electing a Houston city councilmember and stress the importance of making allies out of state Departments of Transportation.

Acknowledgment of the "ACEC Research Institute" funders, which inclue major engineering and infrastructure firms.

Billboard advertising campaign from Associated General Contractors in 2021, noting "Conor Lamb Voted to Keep you Stuck in Traffic"

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Steven Higashide @stevenhigashide.com · 27/03/2026

Ghost-in-the-machine-writing: AI company looking for "prestigious," award-winning writer... to do hourly gig work polishing AI-generated plays, novels, and short stories.

Screenshot of LinkedIn job posting for "Literary Writer" - an AI company looking for "prestigious," award-winning writer to do hourly gig work polishing up AI-generated plays, novels, and short stories.

Screenshot of LinkedIn job posting for "Literary Writer" - an AI company looking for "prestigious," award-winning writer to do hourly ($75-150/hour) gig work polishing up AI-generated plays, novels, and short stories.

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Steven Higashide @stevenhigashide.com · 14/02/2026

And also yelling repeatedly that public transit is unsafe, exactly what you hope to see from a federal transit official

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Steven Higashide @stevenhigashide.com · 27/05/2025

The OGs:

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Steven Higashide @stevenhigashide.com · 20/03/2025

Just looked back at my @ucsusa.bsky.social blog post on how Musk and team tried to sell cities on nonexistent tech (blog.ucs.org/steven-higas.... and there's Steve Davis (DOGE hatchet man profiled in the NY Times today).

Photograph of Elon Musk, then-mayor Rahm Emanuel, Musk staffer Steve Davis, and others walking in Chicago in 2018. Davis's face is circled for emphasis.

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Steven Higashide @stevenhigashide.com · 18/02/2025

The "electric skate" would supposedly cost $19 a ride and carry ~2,000 people per hour. That’s about the same number of people that a lane of highway traffic can carry. Per the classic @nacto.bsky.social graphic, it’s far fewer than you can carry on trains or even buses.

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Steven Higashide @stevenhigashide.com · 12/02/2025

Overwhelmingly, money we spend on transport goes to private interests - oil, gas, and auto companies. For a more detailed look, see this diagram to see how the money flows to oil companies, dealerships, insurance companies, and automakers - with a relative fraction going to public infrastructure.

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Steven Higashide @stevenhigashide.com · 12/02/2025

I have not stopped thinking about this chart since my @ucsusa.bsky.social colleague @ucsdave.bsky.social dropped it last year (part of the Freedom to Move report lead-authored by @kevshen.bsky.social - www.ucsusa.org/resources/fr...).

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Steven Higashide @stevenhigashide.com · 07/02/2025

Screenshot of a news headline: "Loon stabs bald eagle to death"

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