Dr Aunt Tara Goddard
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drtaragoddard.com
Dr Aunt Tara Goddard
@drtaragoddard.com
16K followers 1.4K following 6.6K posts
Transportation engineering professor. Road safety, planning, behavior, & culture; wildfire planning and response; inclusive disaster evacuation; ethics of tech in transportation; planning in the Petropyrocene. She/her.
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drtaragoddard.com
ha. Looked on the forest site and the ad even uses measuring traffic noise from an apartment. Just goes to show you it is the biggest source of nuisance noise most of us deal with regularly...
An ad for a decibel meter on Amazon shows a person testing the meter with and without the window closed.
November 11, 2025 at 5:45 AM
drtaragoddard.com
Logging off for real. Reminding myself of these gorgeous views on my sunset hike tonight. I love how the fog rolls in and cascades down over the coastal mountains. Goodnight, all. Rest up, the fight continues.
Tiny California poppies are visible in the foreground, while Cerro San Luis rises in the background The setting sun is golden on the horizon as fog slides in between the inland hills and coastal mountains. A zoomed in view shows massive marine fog rolling over and down the mountains like waterfalls of cloud
November 10, 2025 at 4:11 AM
drtaragoddard.com
So I had a silly idea recently for some local merch, and this Mamdani logo generator just happened to drop at the right time, so here is the first version ™️ 😄
The gold text says "SLO Transit is for LOVRS", which is the common abbreviation for Los Osos Valley Road in San Luis Obispo.
November 9, 2025 at 3:49 AM
drtaragoddard.com
Apropos of pearl-clutching headlines about New York, I thought about one of my favorite stickers I bought from @blueheronfarm.bsky.social

blueheronfarmcajeta.com/products/bin...
A black and white stick shows a yelling goose (or duck?) with the text "No war but class war"
November 8, 2025 at 8:08 PM
drtaragoddard.com
Who was I just telling about this World Naked Bike Ride seat cover (unused!)? @rainsurname.bsky.social maybe? I found it yesterday when unpacking boxes in my office. 😄
A bright blue bicycle seat cover says World Naked Bike Ride Portland Oregon on it. There are two obviously joyfully naked cartoon people on bikes above the phrase "as bare as you dare".
November 8, 2025 at 7:07 PM
drtaragoddard.com
Reminder: another group of people who may rely on SNAP is students. If you live in a college town and/or feel connected to your alma mater, please consider calling up the campus food bank and asking what they need - money, types of food etc.

The paternalism of this flyer is painful when you see it.
A flyer at the register of an on-campus market at Cal Poly SLO explains how SNAP benefits can and can't be used at the store. Annoyingly, it can't be used for hot food.
October 31, 2025 at 4:48 PM
drtaragoddard.com
woohoo! It's my turn to get reading. (it took a while because apparently I forgot to finish the checkout of my bookshop.org cart 😄🤦🏻‍♀️). Thanks to @sgoodyear.bsky.social @brooklynspoke.bsky.social and @naparstek.bsky.social for writing this book, and for all you do!
The book Life After Cars, with its pretty cover art of a traffic signal overtaken by flowering vines by Alissa Rose Theodor.
October 28, 2025 at 10:25 PM
drtaragoddard.com
Because I live in such a beautiful place now, I try and get away from work and household chores and doomscrolling for at least a couple hours each week. Tonight I was working on my new creative hobby and enjoying watching the almost cartoonish long-billed curlews amid the blowing seafoam.
A wind-swept beach is partially covered in seaweed and seafoam. In the distance, Morro Rock rises above the ocean, gently shaded by the evening light. A zoomed in photo of a foamy beach and a long-billed curlew as it wades in the shallows. Its beak is skinny and curved and almost as long as its body. A roughly sketch, done on the beach, of the long-billed curlew. The shadow and feather definition needs a lot of work, but the proportions are good.
October 27, 2025 at 2:05 AM
drtaragoddard.com
I like this. People with disabilities are able to do many things, especially when we create environments for everyone. Disabled doesn't necessarily mean unhealthy. And many people are strong and fit. I'm going to stop using able-bodied and just use non-disabled.

#WordsMatter #DisabilityJustice
A graphic by Disabled By Society with 9 terms not to use for non-disabled people, including able-bodied, healthy, whole, fit, strong, better than, complete, standard, and normal.
October 25, 2025 at 7:11 PM
drtaragoddard.com
@silverpebble2.bsky.social you've created a monster, I can't stop drawing birds 😄. But I need to start working on other poses 😁
A quick sketch of a small bird done in green pen on a lined notebook page. It looks somewhat like a dark-eyed junco, perched on a branch and facing left like most of the OP's other sketches.
October 25, 2025 at 4:39 AM
drtaragoddard.com
If my entire personality was a series of text messages

(a friend suggested that kids should be encouraged to trick or treat the old school way)
A text convo reads: [person 1]: FROM THESE ABOMINATIONS, SOCIETY DEPENDS UPON IT, IF NOT HUMANITY ITSELF * non ironically [Person 2, the OP]: oh, do NOT get me non-ironically started on the car culture bullshit that trunk or treats both are complicit in and a response to! Did you know Halloween is the most dangerous day of the year for kids walking, by an order of magnitude at least? Don't do trunk or treat. KEEP PEOPLE FROM DRIVING THERE. Shit, I guess you got me started. ;) RCS message
October 24, 2025 at 11:22 PM
drtaragoddard.com
Fun question: For all my fellow nerds who have a collection of transit cards from around the country/world, what is a fun way you display them? All I have come up with is a standard frame or shadow box.

[pictured: two of my favorites, Istanbul for the heart and DeutscheBahn b/c my name is on it]
The post author holds transit cards to the Instanbul transit system and the German DeutscheBahn system.
October 22, 2025 at 12:21 AM
drtaragoddard.com
Seven million people in the streets yesterday and the NYT has this milquetoast cop-out explaining why their stories discuss "thousands" of protesters (they did say over 100k in NYC). Give me a break. No stats, only vibes, I guess.
A screenshot from an early morning New York Times story about yesterday's massive rallies and marches has a disclaimer saying that because crowd size is difficult to estimate, their writers "stick to rough estimates, and focus on conveying the mood of the event."
October 19, 2025 at 7:13 PM
drtaragoddard.com
I've been trying to do more creative activities for my mental health. I had so much fun in @silverpebble2.bsky.social's Little Musuems workshop (last pic) that I signed up for her bird illustration class. Absolute delight. I've never taken an art class & I often say I can't even draw stick figures.
Rough sketches in a notebook show a "generic bird" drawn with guidelines and a coal tit. The coal tit drawing is not highly skilled, but does indeed look like a coal tit. A somewhat rushed but not horrible sketch of a Carolina Wren, with its signature curved beak, white eyebrow, and sassy upright tail A slightly goofy but still recognizable sketch of a wood thrush A series of collected stones arranged in a roughly rectangular pattern, ranging from left to right in dark green, light green, white, to brown in an eye-pleasing ombre. The collection is punctuated at the bottom right with a single spiral shell.
October 18, 2025 at 9:30 PM
drtaragoddard.com
I'm home sick 😓 but finding so much hope and comfort in seeing all these photos and videos of the rallies and parades. Bing Bong says no kings, no masters. 🐐✊️

@blueheronfarm.bsky.social
A sticker on a white water bottle depicts a black and white image of Bing Bong, the rascally mascot of Blue Heron Farm, over the word Disobey, invoking the style of Shepherd Fairey's artwork
October 18, 2025 at 7:19 PM
drtaragoddard.com
Woohoo! It has been a long wait because I didn't want to get frames until after I moved, but my @theflytrapmedia.com posters are finally ready to hang in my new office. ❤️
Two framed photos from art that accompanied The Flytrap media articles. One says Trans on Trains in pastel blue and pink, and the other says Cities are Designed by Men and it Shows in gold text on a red background, with an aggressive muscle car and skeleton in a hood.
October 17, 2025 at 12:24 AM
drtaragoddard.com
I am. Technically it is Easy Motion, but I like your take. 😏
A close-up of the Easy Motion logo, which looks like E Motion from afar, on a BH Easy Motion Neo City ebike circa 2013
October 9, 2025 at 8:30 PM
drtaragoddard.com
Today in working on my mental health and/or avoiding household chores 🙏🐋🦭🐧🌊
Morro Rock towers above the eponymous bay, which is a dark green color. Wisps of fog play around the shoulders of the mountain. A trawler against a foggy backdrop creates a moody atmosphere heading into Morro Bay Churning ocean water is created by humpback whales and sea lions working together to force fish into a "bait ball" so they can feed. Small spouts and several whale backs are faintly visible, while hundreds of gulls circle around hoping to benefit from the feeding session A bright blue trawler docks in front of three former power plant stacks, which stretch towards the sky in patchy fog
October 5, 2025 at 11:35 PM
drtaragoddard.com
The aforementioned plate (scale? shell?)
A pretty white plate or shell in a roughly butterfly shape, possibly from a gumboot chiton
September 29, 2025 at 6:51 PM
drtaragoddard.com
Non (my) work question for the marine biologists. Yesterday I was on a bluffs trail north of SLO and the trail dipped onto the beach at one point and I found these. Are (were) these gumboot chiton?

I felt like I was desecrating a corpse, but I removed one plate and brought it home.
A roughly football sized and shaped whitish object on a beach A roughly football sized and shaped whitish object on a beach. The underside shows an empty innards, looking partially eaten A roughly football sized and shaped whitish object on a beach. Hard white plates are visible embedded in the surface. A roughly football sized and shaped whitish object on a beach. The underside is intact and appears "meaty".
September 29, 2025 at 6:48 PM
drtaragoddard.com
I haven't been ready to talk about this, partly because I've been trying to help the family get the county to make changes, but a 13 yr old girl was killed in June while crossing at an RRFB on a fast county road in Tahoe. I was incandescently angry when I visited the sign and found these signs.
A memorial for a 13 yr old girl is visible in the background. In the foreground a mini red stop sign says "Kindness starts here". It is attached to a bucket of short poles with flagging that people walking or bicycling at this major trail crossing are supposed to carry. There is no similar admonition to drivers on the road. A mini red stop sign says "Kindness starts here". It is attached to a bucket of short poles with flagging that people walking or bicycling at this major trail crossing are supposed to carry. There is no similar admonition to drivers on the road. The word STOP is spray painted on the shared use path along Sawmill Road where it approaches Lake Tahoe Boulevard. No one has painted YIELD on the road for drivers in a similar admonition. The word STOP is spray painted on the shared use path where it approaches the intersection of Lake Tahoe Boulevard and Sawmill Road. No one has painted YIELD on the road for drivers in a similar admonition.
September 27, 2025 at 5:52 PM
drtaragoddard.com
That said, observe good social etiquette, always
A tweet from jesuschristalmighty00 shows a woman in a head scarf holding a book with her headphones in, and the caption says "Patron saint of women who don't want to talk to you on transit"
September 24, 2025 at 5:25 PM
drtaragoddard.com
So both Google maps and Transit indicated I'd have to transfer, to the same # bus, which was confusing and partly why I didn't take the shorter route coming in. But while it stops briefly at the downtown station, it keeps going and you don't have to get off and on again. This seems like an easy fix.
A screenshot of Google maps showing a planned transit route indicates a rider would need to transfer from a 3B route to a 3B route.
September 23, 2025 at 8:23 PM
drtaragoddard.com
I now have the local transit app which shows real-time bus location and info. And look how cute these bus icons are! 🤓
A screenshot of the SLO Transit app shows cute cartoon buses to indicate real-time bus locations, and each route is color-coded. The info gives the route number, the major endpoint names and connection to Amtrak, and percent fullness of the bus.
September 23, 2025 at 8:12 PM
drtaragoddard.com
Interesting. Last night when I was planning ahead, headways were shown as hourly. Today in real time, they are 20-40 minutes. I wonder if that has to do with the academic schedule that went into effect a couple weeks ago not being reflected in the planning function. 🤔
A public notice in English and Spanish gives the start and end times for bus routes on the academic calendar.
September 23, 2025 at 4:28 PM