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Prof B (Matthew Burke)

@weekendatburkys.bsky.social
1.4K followers 1.4K following 60 posts

CEO of Bicycle Queensland 🚲 🚲 🚲 Transport and urban planning Prof from Brisbane, Australia. Cycling, walking, micro-mobility, public transport, urbanism, electrification, and more.

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Reposted by Prof B (Matthew Burke)
Katja Diehl @katjadiehl.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
But the scooooters! Parked cars pose a far greater safety hazard to cyclists than previously known. While only five percent of all accidents are officially attributed to this cause, a new, in-depth study finds that one in five accidents is related to parked cars. www.udv.de/udv/presse/p...
udv.de
Parkende Autos gefährden Sicherheit von Fußgängern und Radfahrern
Parkende Autos sind für Radfahrer ein weit größeres Sicherheitsproblem, als bisher bekannt und in der amtlichen Statistik sichtbar. Während offiziell nur fünf Prozent aller Unfälle mit verletzten Fußg...
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Reposted by Prof B (Matthew Burke)
Space for Cycling Brisbane @space4cyclingbne.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
Act now to help defend the sensible use of safe legal pedal-assist bicycles in Queensland: Join others from across Brisbane this Wednesday 1st April at 5pm in Raymond Park, Kangaroo Point for the SNAP ACTION: Defend Legal e-Bikes - Critical Mass Ride www.facebook.com/events/26438...
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Reposted by Prof B (Matthew Burke)
Megan Ramey @bikabout.com · 10/03/2026
“I see it as potentially life-changing for teenagers who may choose an e-bike for transportation rather than getting a driver’s license. And that’s really positive for this generation.” Thanks to @wweek.com for my take on a bill we have worked for 3 years on. Article🔗 www.wweek.com/bikes/2026/0...
wweek.com
Oregon Lawmakers Lower Age for Riding an E-Bike From 16 to 14
The transportation bill HB 4007 passed the Oregon Senate March 5.
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Reposted by Prof B (Matthew Burke)
James @gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
how it feels taking public transit rn
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Most bicycle infrastructure projects have a cost-benefit ratio above four. Most motorways are lucky to get near two. Here's more evidence nothing's changing. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Most of England’s smart motorways are poor value for money, official reports find
AA says long-awaited evaluations show schemes are a ‘catastrophic waste of time, money and effort’
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 02/11/2025
That's a LOT of bikes in a year... japantoday.com/category/cri...
japantoday.com
Arrested man claims to have stolen some 2,000 bikes in Tokyo, vicinity
A man has been arrested for allegedly stealing a road bike from a parking lot in western Tokyo, police said, with the suspect admitting to having stolen about 1,000 to 2,000 bicycles since late last year. Police found records indicating Kenji Uehara, 38, had sold at least some 950 bikes…
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
I love the book Carter. I've been in this game 25 years and no-one has put together a better book to quickly help develop new walk, bike and transit advocates. Well done and thank you.
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Hi #bikesky folks. I'm the new CEO of Bicycle Queensland and more can I just say this new book is a cracker. Thanks Carter and the folks at #islandpress. #transport #advocacy #bikes #transportplanning
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
Greetings everyone. A quick FYI that as of this week I am the new CEO of Bicycle Queensland, our state's largest cycling organisation. We represent our 12,000 members. Dream job for me! I get to be a full-time sustainable transport activist. 😆
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Wuhu Old Town, Anhui Province, China. These photos are from the middle of the day in 95 degree heat. But by night you can't move for all the people. More proof all people want places to walk, wander and promenade away from cars. #wuhu #anhui #pedestrians #walking #urbanplanning #urbanism
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
A plea from me to add equity to any road user charge in Australia, and to ensure the legislation allows for congestion charging in future! www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
An EV road user charge is looming. Could it slam the brakes on Australia’s clean car transition?
The revenue from fuel excise is falling but it’s not only because of EVs, which make up less than 2% of cars on the roads
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 09/08/2025
Thirty years of struggle coming closer to an end ...
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Australians make similar mistakes en masse. Desire, created by car/SUV/pick-up advertisers, embedded in culture, then sold. Excessive #transport costs can be self inflicted. - "More Americans are car poor as they misjudge trade-in math and pile on debt" www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
washingtonpost.com
Column | More Americans are car poor as they misjudge trade-in math and pile on debt
More than 1 in 4 consumers owe more on their car loans than the vehicle is worth, while car payments of $1,000 have reached a record high.
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
Ah, the politics of automobility in Australia's car owning democracy. The NSW Government won't shut the Sydney Harbour Bridge for a one-off massive march. Every car is sacred. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
Pro-Palestine protest group says ‘we will see them in court’ after police block Sydney Harbour Bridge march
Sydney-based group say weekend demonstration ‘must go ahead’ despite police knocking back application
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Brilliant book that #urbanists will love! Now a major prize winner. Well deserved. #booksky #urbanism www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...
theguardian.com
Siang Lu wins Miles Franklin award for Ghost Cities, ‘a genuine landmark in Australian literature’
Author, who takes home $60,000, says finding out he won Australia’s most esteemed literary prize left him ‘in such shock that I lost all feeling in my hands and legs’
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
An unnecessary swim centre for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics is now costed at AUD$1.2 Billion (US$750m). It duplicates the 2018 Commonwealth Games Aquatic Centre already at Southport. No 2032 Olympic transport or urban legacy plan in sight, let alone works. GC airport light rail link still unfunded.
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
Huh? Light Rail would have added a new bridge over or tunnel under the Brisbane River. Metro buses were able to run on the Victoria Bridge after only minor reinforcement. That's a huge cost saving to this project. Please be truthful - this 'solution' was a much cheaper alternative.
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Yeah, still a long way to go. But it's a day to celebrate. Politically hard to make this scale of change in Brisbane. Yes, the Northside and Westside both need a similar step-change review of their networks. Let's see how much love these Southside changes get (after a few months' implementation)...
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Great new bus network for Brisbane began today. Some teething problems, including the Translink online journey planner being overwhelmed in morning peak hour. (The app was working well at 9am for me so all should be ok now). We'll hear from the angry but it's a huge improvement on what was before.
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
Australian journalist @laurentomasi.bsky.social keeping her cool when clearly and very deliberately shot by an LAPD officer with no provocation. Tough as teak!
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
The #trbam committees locked over a thousand of the rest-of-the-world's best transport experts into helping solve the USA's transport problems. A serious loss.
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Reposted by Prof B (Matthew Burke)
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Interesting-looking new study on people with high-carbon lifestyles doi.org/10.1016/j.er...
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Sometimes the walk to a #PedBikeTrans walking and cycling seminar is even better than the event itself. Great night last night.
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
So the 25-cent petrol excise cut promised by Australia's federal opposition failed to help them win outer-suburban seats. It may just have helped them lose more seats in the inner-city. The politics of automobility might just be shifting in Australia... #auspol #mobilty #transport #urbanism
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
Ha. Hadn't seen that one...
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
They do have their fuel inefficiency standards policy to keep polluting clunkers on Australian roads too, I guess.
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
The LNP Oz election slogan is 'Back on Track'. But they have no detailed transport policy other than their tax cut for six months on petroleum fuels, pushing up road congestion. There's no rail policy. No cycle tracks. Not even hiking trails. I'm one disappointed transport professor. #auspol
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Reposted by Prof B (Matthew Burke)
The War on Cars @thewaroncars.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
"...for every 30-second increase in traffic delay per mile traveled, there was a 1% increase in visits to fast food restaurants. While that may not seem like a lot, the researchers estimate that over a year, it amounts to about 1.2 million more fast food meals in Los Angeles."
fastcompany.com
The worse traffic gets, the more fast food people eat
The longer commutes get, the more people stop and get fast food on the way home. Which means ending gridlock could have far-reaching public health implications.
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
And so it begins... japantoday.com/category/tec...
japantoday.com
World’s first 3D-printed train station building planned by JR West
Japan is home to a wide variety of train stations, from tiny countryside sheds to sprawling urban complexes, stations with their own wineries and ones with giant ancient relics whose eyes glow. It’s g...
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Reposted by Prof B (Matthew Burke)
Santiago Mayer @santiagomayer.com · 16/03/2025
Someone made a Wiley E. Coyote style painted wall to see if Tesla’s autopilot would detect it and well…
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
New podcast alert. Why are things not improving for active and public transport on the fringes of Australian cities? I spent a week living in the City of Moreton Bay recently. Some of the key infrastructure is actually in place. But policy is lacking. Hear more via the link. tinyurl.com/4uzk2pxs
tinyurl.com
S2E8 P&P Matt Burke on the True Cost of Car-Centric Cities
Streets and People · Episode
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Oh dear... This can't be about budget savings given the tiny sums involved. It's not about congestion busting given space-efficiency of bikes. Just stupid. "U.S. DOT Orders Review of All Grants Related to Green Infrastructure, Bikes" - usa.streetsblog.org/2025/03/12/b...
usa.streetsblog.org
U.S. DOT Orders Review of All Grants Related to Green Infrastructure, Bikes — Streetsblog USA
Now U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is coming for our bike lanes!
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
We're okay at my place. Brisbane may have averted a major flooding event. But as usual, our Bikeway infrastructure will be a mess after Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
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Reposted by Prof B (Matthew Burke)
Phil @philmarfisi.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
The alt right has spent years conspiracy theorizing about the evils of walkable cities, when the oligarchs they idealize are planning in plain site to build entire cities into technofascist playgrounds where every aspect of your life is commoditized. www.wired.com/story/startu...
wired.com
‘Startup Nation’ Groups Say They’re Meeting Trump Officials to Push for Deregulated ‘Freedom Cities’
The architects of projects like Próspera are drafting legislation to create US cities that would be free from federal regulations.
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Because rail privatisation worked so well abroad... 😜
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Reposted by Prof B (Matthew Burke)
Reuters @reuters.com · 06/03/2025
Billionaire Elon Musk, who is advising President Donald Trump on plans to radically shrink the US government, said that the US Postal Service and passenger railroad Amtrak should be privatized reut.rs/4iruAxY
reut.rs
Elon Musk says Post Office, Amtrak should be privatized
Billionaire Elon Musk, who is advising President Donald Trump on plans to radically shrink the U.S. government, said on Wednesday that the U.S. Postal Service and passenger railroad Amtrak should be privatized.
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Yes, the Cat 2 Cyclone Alfred is on path to smack Brisbane. Yes, there is still potential it will grow into a Category 3 storm. Please don't worry too much about Alice and I. We are all prepared and our house should hold up well. Best wishes to others making preparations.
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Reposted by Prof B (Matthew Burke)
Mr Hounsell @hounsell.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Australia has a similar problem where economist, accountants, and journalists started over inflating engineering estimates with contingency and escalation. You can't say the "estimate" is $18bn if 1/2 of that is C&E - the "estimate" is $9bn with the rest is "risk management".
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Reposted by Prof B (Matthew Burke)
Michael Szell @mszll.datasci.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/03/2025
🎉 New paper in PNAS: Urban highways are barriers to social ties www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.24089… Highways are barriers that cut opportunities for social ties. We quantify this effect by overlaying the US highway network with millions of social ties from Twitter.
Map showing a highway section in red and social ties in space crossing the highway. Wherever a tie crosses the highway, there is a cross. There are 94 crosses.
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Reposted by Prof B (Matthew Burke)
NZ Transit Buzz @nztransitbuzz.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
#TicketingNews: Bus and train fares could increase by as much as 500% in some regions of Aotearoa if local councils have to meet new targets set by the government’s transport agency, official information documents revealed to Stuff have shown. MORE: www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3605...
stuff.co.nz
‘Taken for a ride’: The regions where bus fares could be hiked by 500%
Public transport fares could be hiked by as much as 500% in some parts of the country, as local councils struggle to meet new targets set by the Government.
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
Why should we keep going over to spend a week in D.C., at our own costs, to help the rich and powerful USA solve its transport problems? Especially if they now won't be trying to solve those problems themselves or investing properly in their own universities and research institutions?
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
The US Transportation Research Board was always reasonably apolitical. No more. www.linkedin.com/posts/matt-b...
linkedin.com
Matt Burke on LinkedIn: The Trump Administration Takes Aim at Transportation Research
Australian researchers will also be pondering whether to keep going to the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting in the USA, the world's largest…
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Reposted by Prof B (Matthew Burke)
Blair Lorenzo / The Fox and the City @thefoxandthecity.com · 25/02/2025
"TRB, a longtime bridge between academia and government, now faces existential questions about its future... "TRB appears to be in a particularly perilous position, reliant on funding from the Trump administration even as its longstanding reputation for academic independence is under threat."
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Reposted by Prof B (Matthew Burke)
McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 25/02/2025
"The 15-Hour City believes everything has its place. Houses go in one location, businesses in another, and in between is a dark sea of soul-crushing concrete and asphalt."
buff.ly
Introducing the 15-Hour City
“The 15-minute city principle suggests you should have your daily needs—work, food, healthcare, education, culture, and leisure—within a 15-minute ...
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
Battery electric ferries... www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02...
abc.net.au
This is no ordinary ferry. What's inside could transform shipping
Over the centuries ferries have evolved from using paddles to steam engines, to burning diesel and gas. Can the humble ferry go all electric?
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
But what is not being reported is the continuing disconnect in land use planning and high capacity public transport planning in the region. It is scandalous that yet another huge housing growth area (Warana in Caboolture West) has no planned public transport corridor and will again be car-based.
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Engineers are currently redrawing the standard car park to accommodate the bigger vehicles which is going to reduce the number of available spaces on-street and in your local shops, gym, school, uni, office, church, beach, etc.. It's getting worse.
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Motor vehicles here have just 1.1 to 1.2 humans per vehicle inside, on average. The vehicles are also now bigger in size. SEQ citizens are using precious lane and parking space more inefficiently than at any time in Australian history.
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
The 'Creative' solutions would invariably involve reallocating roadspace from cars to higher capacity and space-efficient modes of travel 🚌 🚲. Or road pricing / car restriction
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Prof B (Matthew Burke) @weekendatburkys.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
An early draft of the regional transport plan for South East Qld (including Brisbane) has been released to the local paper. www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/que...
brisbanetimes.com.au
Draft SEQ transport plan flags need to be ‘creative’ to avoid gridlock
The document says governments will need to make better use of existing services due to a lack of funding, land, and goodwill for new infrastructure.
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