Amy Lee | Lightnews

Amy Lee

@amyelee.com

5.7K followers 440 following 120 posts

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

Videos

Education 31%

Communication & Media Studies 16%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Amy Lee

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 5d

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!

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.

www.volts.wtf

Reposted by Silvia Secchi, Daniel Huppmann, Paul Fisher , and 3 more Silvia Secchi, Daniel Huppmann, Paul Fisher, Alessandro Rigolon, Kate Lowe, Amy Lee

Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 6d

tired: leaders throw folks under the bus

wired: leaders invite folks on the bus in a dedicated lane

Reposted by Nancy Kanwisher, David Kaufman, Elizabeth Stokoe , and 3 more Nancy Kanwisher, David Kaufman, Elizabeth Stokoe, Christopher R. Matthews, Amy Lee, David Darmofal

Jack Cousteau ⚓️ @angrywaterman.bsky.social · 23d

Seattle No Kings from the monorail

Reposted by Anthony Burke, Tim Stephens, Amy Lee

Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 26d

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)

Reposted by Amy Lee, Darío Hidalgo

UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies @uclaits.bsky.social · 28d

🎉 Happy 100th birthday to transportation research at UCLA! 100 years ago today, the UC regents voted to establish the nation's first research center dedicated to street traffic issues. Learn more about our century-long tradition of transportation research www.its.ucla.edu/100...

Black-and-white newspaper clipping from the Los Angeles Times in 1925 with the headline “Research in Traffic for University: Studebaker Grant Gives Southern Branch First Bureau in Country.” The article announces the establishment of the first university-based street traffic research bureau at the Southern Branch of the University of California (now UCLA). A small portrait photo of Miller McClintock, the bureau’s first director, appears in the lower half of the article.

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan, Amy Lee, David Darmofal

Eric Klinenberg @ericklinenberg.bsky.social · Sep 27

It's a small step from here to prohibiting professors from teaching about climate change, slavery, colonialism, racial discrimination, evolution, and the efficacy of vaccines.

Texas Tech Moves to Limit Academic Discussion to 2 Genders

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Amy Lee

UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies @uclaits.bsky.social · Sep 26

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

Reposted by Ana Delicado, Amy Lee

Brooke Harrington @ebharrington.bsky.social · Nov 15

Listen, Broligarchy is not some cute synonym for oligarchy. It's genuinely different & WAY more dangerous.

I'm a sociologist who's been studying the ultra-rich globally for 17 yrs, entering their world as an offshore wealth mgr. Published 2 books abt them.

🧵Broligarchs are distinct in 3 ways:

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · Nov 15

There’s a sort of Trump apologist, a relatively small but loud subset, who probably don’t realize or intend to be, but are so attached to a previous hyperbolic claim that they deny anything important changed.

-US was already an oligarchy
-US was already fascist
-Biden gave Israel a blank check
-Etc

Reposted by Amy Lee

Madeline Brozen @mbrozen.bsky.social · Jun 25

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

Reposted by Amy Lee

Marcel Moran @marcelmoran.com · Jun 20

Same street, two years apart. Rue Charles Moureu.

Reposted by Amy Lee

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · Jun 18

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.

Amy Lee @amyelee.com · Jun 6

A springtime trip to Buenos Aires was where I first encountered jacarandas, which is absolutely part of why I love LA’s so much

Amy Lee @amyelee.com · Jun 4

Figure 2

blooming jacaranda trees in the UCLA sculpture garden

Amy Lee @amyelee.com · Jun 4

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

Reposted by Nick Pearce, Cameron Brick, Amy Lee

ETSC - European Transport Safety Council @etsc.eu · Jun 3

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...

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…

etsc.eu

Reposted by James Q. Wilson, Seema Jayachandran, Jamie Morgan , and 9 more James Q. Wilson, Seema Jayachandran, Jamie Morgan, Adam T. Perzynski, Jane E. Fountain, Michelle L. Mazurek, Dominic Boyer, David C. Kimball, Jessica Vitak, Tabitha Bonilla, Amy Lee, Ava M. Hoffman

Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · May 13

"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."

David Malakoff @davidmalakoff.bsky.social · May 13

Another scoop from Jeff Mervis (@policyhound.bsky.social): NSF's ~1400 grant terminations have disproportionately affected PIs from groups underrepresented in science: women, racial & ethnic minorities, & those with disabilities. 1/3
www.science.org/content/arti...

Trump officials take steps toward a radically different NSF

Efforts to shrink staff, budget, and focus have alarmed members of Congress

www.science.org

Reposted by Erika Franklin Fowler, Rita Hamad, Amy Lee

Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · May 8

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.

Reposted by Amy Lee

UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies @uclaits.bsky.social · Apr 28

🚨 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...

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.

www.its.ucla.edu

Reposted by Joanna Bourke, Jon H. Fiva, John Diamond , and 5 more Joanna Bourke, Jon H. Fiva, John Diamond, Tracey L. Meares, Amy Lee, Jeff Carter, Colin Tucker Smith, S. Laurel Weldon

Hakeem Jefferson @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · Apr 23

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...

What DEI threatens isn’t merit. It’s monopoly.

Political science professor Hakeem Jefferson argues for DEI's importance to de-monopolizing universities.

stanforddaily.com

Amy Lee @amyelee.com · Apr 16

Re-upping this, given news from the UK today, because it investigates what is and who decides the definition of "biological sex," which is anything but straightforward.

Amy Lee @amyelee.com · Apr 14

Just finished "Tested" and highly recommend. This theme, brought up about the 1936 Games in Nazi Germany, echos throughout: "Scholars of this period have argued that for sports officials, the point of all this concern…about fraudulent, incorrect women, wasn’t accuracy, or logic. It was control."

Tested | CBC Podcasts | CBC Listen

Who gets to compete? Since the beginning of women’s sports, there has been a struggle over who qualifies for the women’s category. Tested follows the unfolding story of elite female runners who have b...

www.cbc.ca

Reposted by Amy Lee

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Apr 16

"Private sector money is what should make these investments" -- Duffy on Fox indicates the federal government is likely to pull funding for a high-speed rail project in California

Amy Lee @amyelee.com · Apr 16

Phenomenal on every account. I learned to drive in my family's almost identical '91 240 wagon -- my dad still has it!

Amy Lee @amyelee.com · Apr 14

Ah bummer -- sorry, Dave

Amy Lee @amyelee.com · Apr 14

Tested | CBC Podcasts | CBC Listen

www.cbc.ca

Reposted by Amy Lee

Rachel Maddow @maddow.msnbc.com · Apr 14

“We are not monsters,” the officer told her after she asked if she was safe. “We do what the government tells us.”

www.cnn.com/2025/04/14/u...

Tufts University student details poor conditions in ICE detention ahead of Monday hearing | CNN

A federal judge in Vermont will hear arguments Monday on the legality of Rümeysa Öztürk’s detention at a Louisiana facility the Tufts University PhD student described as “unsanitary, unsafe, and inhum...

www.cnn.com

Reposted by Amy Lee

David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social · Apr 3

For “abundance” to improve transportation, supporters must consider the kinds of infrastructure that gets built – not just the quantity.

Without addressing externalities (esp from cars), a supply-side spigot of new construction would be a disaster.

Me, in Bloomberg CityLab 🧵

What Would ‘Transportation Abundance’ Look Like?

Fans of the abundance movement say that adding supply solves big problems in housing and health care. But when it comes to getting around, things get complicated.

www.bloomberg.com

Reposted by Amy Lee

Deborah Archer @deborahnarcher.bsky.social · Apr 1

It’s book release month!! I’m so excited. Get your copy here: wwnorton.com/books/978132...

Amy Lee @amyelee.com · Mar 29

I commuted on Amtrak for about a decade and came up with so many research ideas. Not sure how many I remember, but would be so interested in this someday- sabbatical project

Amy Lee @amyelee.com · Mar 26

Such a neat research idea & amazing findings:
- Nighttime pedestrian deaths fall 5% on nights w/ peak moonlight
- In cloud-free conditions, moonlight reduces pedestrian deaths by 17%
- Rural areas with low artificial lighting see a 39% drop in deaths under bright moonlight
- Links are causal

Justin Tyndall @justintyndall.bsky.social · Mar 26

My paper, Road Illumination and Nighttime Pedestrian Deaths: Evidence from Moonlight, is now published at Economics of Transportation. authors.elsevier.com/a/1kptw_oIvi...

Reposted by Amy Lee

Justin Tyndall @justintyndall.bsky.social · Mar 26

My paper, Road Illumination and Nighttime Pedestrian Deaths: Evidence from Moonlight, is now published at Economics of Transportation. authors.elsevier.com/a/1kptw_oIvi...

Light upyour news

Sign in to Lightnews

Sign up to start reading

Connect Bluesky

Connect with Bluesky

Light up
your news