Kea Wilson
@keawilson.bsky.social
Senior editor + advocacy journalist at Streetsblog USA covering the movement to end universal car dependency. Based in STL, reporting nationally. Tips to: kea@streetsblog.org or kwilson.52 on signal. Opinions are my own.
Horrifying, heartbreaking, and something everyone who counts themselves as a member of the Safe Routes to School movement should absolutely be speaking out about.
October 16, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Horrifying, heartbreaking, and something everyone who counts themselves as a member of the Safe Routes to School movement should absolutely be speaking out about.
And it's not even a complete count! To highlight one that's very personal to me right now while my dad gets cancer treatment and has to take meds that prevent him from driving: 'temporary' disabilities are not always that temporary, and they impact so many who are still on the books as drivers.
October 2, 2025 at 1:05 PM
And it's not even a complete count! To highlight one that's very personal to me right now while my dad gets cancer treatment and has to take meds that prevent him from driving: 'temporary' disabilities are not always that temporary, and they impact so many who are still on the books as drivers.
This chart blew my mind a little.
October 2, 2025 at 1:02 PM
This chart blew my mind a little.
IMO, there's no better illustration why this is nonsense than the StreetView of Orange Avenue outside the Pulse Nightclub memorial in Orlando. Which is more dangerous: the decorative crosswalk *next to* the five lane, 35-mph arterial, or the lack of almost any crosswalks or traffic calming *on* it?
July 9, 2025 at 2:48 PM
IMO, there's no better illustration why this is nonsense than the StreetView of Orange Avenue outside the Pulse Nightclub memorial in Orlando. Which is more dangerous: the decorative crosswalk *next to* the five lane, 35-mph arterial, or the lack of almost any crosswalks or traffic calming *on* it?
Trump's deportation push also will have massive implications for road safety that are way too deep to get into on Bluesky. But suffice it to say: if you think traffic enforcement is a tough topic right now, wait until half the cops in the country are deputized to perform ICE functions.
July 8, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Trump's deportation push also will have massive implications for road safety that are way too deep to get into on Bluesky. But suffice it to say: if you think traffic enforcement is a tough topic right now, wait until half the cops in the country are deputized to perform ICE functions.
As Medicaid sheds enrollees, hospitals won't stop treating those patients — they'll just take losses and compromise care, up until the points when they're forced to close. Which induces more driving to further-flung hospitals, and more car crash deaths when victims can't access trauma care nearby.
July 8, 2025 at 3:11 PM
As Medicaid sheds enrollees, hospitals won't stop treating those patients — they'll just take losses and compromise care, up until the points when they're forced to close. Which induces more driving to further-flung hospitals, and more car crash deaths when victims can't access trauma care nearby.
Link to full above but if nothing else, check out this chart because it is SO helpful at dismantling all the counterintuitive ways that car dependency hurts our GDP.
July 1, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Link to full above but if nothing else, check out this chart because it is SO helpful at dismantling all the counterintuitive ways that car dependency hurts our GDP.
When ANY pedestrian has to walk a football-field's length away to access a crosswalk, the road is not designed well. Much less children who should have a right to navigate their neighborhoods streets independently.
June 25, 2025 at 2:40 PM
When ANY pedestrian has to walk a football-field's length away to access a crosswalk, the road is not designed well. Much less children who should have a right to navigate their neighborhoods streets independently.
And if we're supposed to be striving for an era of small government building great things with less red tape, a regional block grant program should be an absolute no brainer.
June 16, 2025 at 5:26 PM
And if we're supposed to be striving for an era of small government building great things with less red tape, a regional block grant program should be an absolute no brainer.
To be clear: state DOTs are important and a lot of them do a good job of giving cities and metro areas the money they need to support moving their people on multiple modes. But others don't, and they reroute virtually all of that money to highways.
June 16, 2025 at 5:17 PM
To be clear: state DOTs are important and a lot of them do a good job of giving cities and metro areas the money they need to support moving their people on multiple modes. But others don't, and they reroute virtually all of that money to highways.
Clearing sidewalks so people in wheelchairs can get through is an act of everyday mobility justice in normal times. In the wake of a storm that devastated black neighborhoods that were the targets of decades of destructive policy long before the storm, though, it means so much more.
May 21, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Clearing sidewalks so people in wheelchairs can get through is an act of everyday mobility justice in normal times. In the wake of a storm that devastated black neighborhoods that were the targets of decades of destructive policy long before the storm, though, it means so much more.
Yeah, they say they can adjust to be more or less strict about full stops as a community sees fit
May 13, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Yeah, they say they can adjust to be more or less strict about full stops as a community sees fit
The big takeaway for advocates, again, is this: you can't assume your transit money is safe at any step of the process anymore. Fight for it, organize for it, get your electeds to defend it, even if the press release has gone out and you think it's a done deal.
May 12, 2025 at 2:57 PM
The big takeaway for advocates, again, is this: you can't assume your transit money is safe at any step of the process anymore. Fight for it, organize for it, get your electeds to defend it, even if the press release has gone out and you think it's a done deal.
Secretary Duffy is pointing to that backlog to justify why he's not getting a lot of money out the door yet. Which is fair to a point — but it's really telling which projects he's picking out of the pile first (bridges and airports, mostly) and which ones he's letting languish (transit and safety).
May 12, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Secretary Duffy is pointing to that backlog to justify why he's not getting a lot of money out the door yet. Which is fair to a point — but it's really telling which projects he's picking out of the pile first (bridges and airports, mostly) and which ones he's letting languish (transit and safety).
Big takeaways: yep, Buttigieg issued a ton of press releases for new projects during his tenure that didn't actually get formal grant agreements signed (like 3,200 of them.) But that's mostly because the Bipartisan Infrastructure gave him WAY more discretionary money than any secretary before him.
May 12, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Big takeaways: yep, Buttigieg issued a ton of press releases for new projects during his tenure that didn't actually get formal grant agreements signed (like 3,200 of them.) But that's mostly because the Bipartisan Infrastructure gave him WAY more discretionary money than any secretary before him.
We also talked about the housing piece of the equation, and why more cities aren't marketing themselves as car-optional paradises where you can age in place and retain your freedom.
May 7, 2025 at 3:16 PM
We also talked about the housing piece of the equation, and why more cities aren't marketing themselves as car-optional paradises where you can age in place and retain your freedom.
Greg had some interesting, under-the-radar ideas on rapid ways to make the streets safe enough that older people might feel comfortable to give up the keys, including paying people who *don't* get speeding tickets in a given year part of the fees from those who do.
May 7, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Greg had some interesting, under-the-radar ideas on rapid ways to make the streets safe enough that older people might feel comfortable to give up the keys, including paying people who *don't* get speeding tickets in a given year part of the fees from those who do.
But we legally require so many cities to be built as if everyone will always be able to drive. Which they physically can't do forever — and our DMVs aren't equipped to figure out when that moment comes, at least not before something horrific happens.
May 7, 2025 at 3:11 PM
But we legally require so many cities to be built as if everyone will always be able to drive. Which they physically can't do forever — and our DMVs aren't equipped to figure out when that moment comes, at least not before something horrific happens.
For one: we talk a lot as transportation reform advocates about how car crashes (along with gun violence, drug overdoses, etc.) drag down our national life expectancy. But like most high-income countries, we also have a *ton* of seniors... in addition to a ton of people dying young and violently.
May 7, 2025 at 3:09 PM
For one: we talk a lot as transportation reform advocates about how car crashes (along with gun violence, drug overdoses, etc.) drag down our national life expectancy. But like most high-income countries, we also have a *ton* of seniors... in addition to a ton of people dying young and violently.
“So what do you do for a living, Kea” idk mostly have conversations like this
May 4, 2025 at 12:54 PM
“So what do you do for a living, Kea” idk mostly have conversations like this
this represents *billions* of dollars for communities divided by highways.
April 29, 2025 at 1:34 PM
this represents *billions* of dollars for communities divided by highways.
See last bullet lol
April 28, 2025 at 12:23 PM
See last bullet lol
Also, this defense of cities subsidizing free transit for the poorest among us was just 🔥
April 23, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Also, this defense of cities subsidizing free transit for the poorest among us was just 🔥
petition to expand the pope mobile and invite all your buddies to ride
April 22, 2025 at 5:33 PM
petition to expand the pope mobile and invite all your buddies to ride