Jarrett Walker
@humantransit.bsky.social
Public transit planning consultant and commentator. Author of the book “Human Transit” and the blog HumanTransit.org. The consulting firm is jarrettwalker.com. Also obsessed with literature and plants.
Do cities with metros have higher transit use? Well, of course, but that doesn't mean the metros cause the transit use, or that no other transit service matters. Amazed that someone can still publish this in an academic journal in 2025 ... 1/
techxplore.com/news/2025-11...
techxplore.com/news/2025-11...
November 11, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Do cities with metros have higher transit use? Well, of course, but that doesn't mean the metros cause the transit use, or that no other transit service matters. Amazed that someone can still publish this in an academic journal in 2025 ... 1/
techxplore.com/news/2025-11...
techxplore.com/news/2025-11...
The key move in transport historian Peter Norton's remarkable essay, defending against charges of "anti-conservative bias". The whole thing is worth your time.
November 9, 2025 at 4:13 PM
The key move in transport historian Peter Norton's remarkable essay, defending against charges of "anti-conservative bias". The whole thing is worth your time.
England has bus routes whose names sound like outlines of a novel.
November 7, 2025 at 5:59 PM
England has bus routes whose names sound like outlines of a novel.
In some far future America, our descendants are amazed that we allowed private freight train companies to just block major city streets for unlimited amounts of time, with trains that weren't even moving. (SE 11th Ave. in Portland).
November 5, 2025 at 11:40 PM
In some far future America, our descendants are amazed that we allowed private freight train companies to just block major city streets for unlimited amounts of time, with trains that weren't even moving. (SE 11th Ave. in Portland).
I am not the unsubscribing type, but even I reach my limits ...
October 28, 2025 at 5:03 PM
I am not the unsubscribing type, but even I reach my limits ...
Half the survey respondents say that they don't feel safe on transit, but this was not a scientific poll. It was a survey of whoever wants to respond. Still, look at this. People who use transit think it's much safer than people who don't.
trimet.org/research/pdf...
2/
trimet.org/research/pdf...
2/
October 21, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Half the survey respondents say that they don't feel safe on transit, but this was not a scientific poll. It was a survey of whoever wants to respond. Still, look at this. People who use transit think it's much safer than people who don't.
trimet.org/research/pdf...
2/
trimet.org/research/pdf...
2/
Do we want public transit to *be* safe or *feel* safe? This paragraph from an @opb.org article on transit security in Portland captures why this issue is so hard. Crime is way down since '20 but some people don't feel safe. Why? 🧵 1/
www.opb.org/article/2025...
www.opb.org/article/2025...
October 21, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Do we want public transit to *be* safe or *feel* safe? This paragraph from an @opb.org article on transit security in Portland captures why this issue is so hard. Crime is way down since '20 but some people don't feel safe. Why? 🧵 1/
www.opb.org/article/2025...
www.opb.org/article/2025...
October 18, 2025 at 6:52 PM
For Tolkien fans, a timely passage for No Kings Eve, from WH Auden’s review of Lord of the Rings.
October 18, 2025 at 4:13 AM
For Tolkien fans, a timely passage for No Kings Eve, from WH Auden’s review of Lord of the Rings.
No matter how much sense trolleybuses make as a zero emission solution, the debate always ends up dominated by someone like this.
October 15, 2025 at 8:17 PM
No matter how much sense trolleybuses make as a zero emission solution, the debate always ends up dominated by someone like this.
The terminal desperation of political fundraising texts in the US.
October 13, 2025 at 3:02 AM
The terminal desperation of political fundraising texts in the US.
Now this is interesting. The auto complete on the iPhone does not want us talking about fascism.
Yes, I must really have meant "fascia". Where would we be without computers to finish our thoughts for us?
Yes, I must really have meant "fascia". Where would we be without computers to finish our thoughts for us?
October 11, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Now this is interesting. The auto complete on the iPhone does not want us talking about fascism.
Yes, I must really have meant "fascia". Where would we be without computers to finish our thoughts for us?
Yes, I must really have meant "fascia". Where would we be without computers to finish our thoughts for us?
That feeling when one New York Times headline clearly explains another.
October 7, 2025 at 4:47 PM
That feeling when one New York Times headline clearly explains another.
Barbed wire protecting a large patch of nothing, right on the beach in downtown Ventura, California. If we taxed land instead of buildings, people would live and work here.
October 7, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Barbed wire protecting a large patch of nothing, right on the beach in downtown Ventura, California. If we taxed land instead of buildings, people would live and work here.
London's Victoria and Albert Museum feels like a grandparents attic for the entire British Empire. The quantity and crowding feel like part of the point.
October 5, 2025 at 6:51 PM
London's Victoria and Albert Museum feels like a grandparents attic for the entire British Empire. The quantity and crowding feel like part of the point.
"Save Twice as Many Dolphins!" (A 2005 post from my soon-defunct personal blog.) Have environmentalist fundraising comms evolved at all since then?
September 29, 2025 at 10:59 PM
"Save Twice as Many Dolphins!" (A 2005 post from my soon-defunct personal blog.) Have environmentalist fundraising comms evolved at all since then?
The personal blog I wrote for 15 years will vanish tomorrow, due to the shutdown of @typepad. It included travel narratives and essays on cities, books, and plants. For a few more hours, it's here: urbanist.typepad.com
Downloading it now, deciding what to save.
Downloading it now, deciding what to save.
September 29, 2025 at 6:32 PM
The personal blog I wrote for 15 years will vanish tomorrow, due to the shutdown of @typepad. It included travel narratives and essays on cities, books, and plants. For a few more hours, it's here: urbanist.typepad.com
Downloading it now, deciding what to save.
Downloading it now, deciding what to save.
Dearest @nytimes.com
It would be easier to cultivate serious alarm about the thing on the left if it weren't for the thing on the right.
Maybe there are news stories that deserve the whole front page?
It would be easier to cultivate serious alarm about the thing on the left if it weren't for the thing on the right.
Maybe there are news stories that deserve the whole front page?
September 26, 2025 at 6:57 AM
Dearest @nytimes.com
It would be easier to cultivate serious alarm about the thing on the left if it weren't for the thing on the right.
Maybe there are news stories that deserve the whole front page?
It would be easier to cultivate serious alarm about the thing on the left if it weren't for the thing on the right.
Maybe there are news stories that deserve the whole front page?
London's main museum of British art history, the Tate Britain, has rather a lot of buses.
September 23, 2025 at 3:12 PM
London's main museum of British art history, the Tate Britain, has rather a lot of buses.
As I look at London, I keep being reminded of the image of 2090 London from the TV series The Peripheral, based on @greatdismal's novel.
To someone from the London of even a century ago, this is just what today's London would feel like.
To someone from the London of even a century ago, this is just what today's London would feel like.
September 23, 2025 at 10:00 AM
As I look at London, I keep being reminded of the image of 2090 London from the TV series The Peripheral, based on @greatdismal's novel.
To someone from the London of even a century ago, this is just what today's London would feel like.
To someone from the London of even a century ago, this is just what today's London would feel like.
London would like to remind American visitors that hospitals do not have to be built as hilltop fortresses, buttressed by parking and difficult to reach on foot, bike, or by transit. You can put them right in the city actually.
September 22, 2025 at 4:31 PM
London would like to remind American visitors that hospitals do not have to be built as hilltop fortresses, buttressed by parking and difficult to reach on foot, bike, or by transit. You can put them right in the city actually.
Cranes upon cranes. London continues to double down on its most obvious contrast with Paris: it's willing to keep building right on top of its history.
September 22, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Cranes upon cranes. London continues to double down on its most obvious contrast with Paris: it's willing to keep building right on top of its history.
Morning rush-hour near London's Oval station. Trains pass underground every few minutes and there's a continuous flood of bicycles, but still there's one lane of gridlocked traffic. Your city will always have exactly as much gridlock as it makes room for.
September 22, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Morning rush-hour near London's Oval station. Trains pass underground every few minutes and there's a continuous flood of bicycles, but still there's one lane of gridlocked traffic. Your city will always have exactly as much gridlock as it makes room for.
Service information from the team at London's Oval underground station.
September 21, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Service information from the team at London's Oval underground station.