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stephenkenny.bsky.social
Stephen Coleman Kenny
@stephenkenny.bsky.social
330 followers 590 following 77 posts
Cat dad, transportation policy professional; passionate about communities and institutions designed for people.🚶🚲🚍🚉🏳️‍🌈 he/him/his
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stephenkenny.bsky.social
Waymo blocking the bus stop (not to mention the bike lane) at Irving and Mt Pleasant in DC.

If these things are going to be on our roads they need to respect the infrastructure they’re using.
Waymo blocking the bus stop (not to mention the bike lane) at Irving and Mt Pleasant in DC.
September 13, 2025 at 12:00 AM
stephenkenny.bsky.social
TIL the term "windshield bias" from @davidzipper.bsky.social's new article. He's using it to refer to reporters' inclination to focus on the inconvenience of speed cameras rather than safety benefits.

He cites a survey of these attitudes among Americans:

findingspress.org/article/1229...
Comparison of Social Norms in the United States (binary agree/disagree, neutral response removed)
August 28, 2025 at 1:30 PM
stephenkenny.bsky.social
Once again standing in a cramped airport-style @amtrak.com line, knowing that it’s unnecessary.

For example, when I take intercity trains from Glasgow Central I just walk up, scan my ticket, and board. The waiting area is spacious and the departures boards are huge.

Why can’t we do this?!
Line to board the Northeast Regional at Union Station in DC. I’m in the middle of the serpentine line, which is slow-moving. People boarding trains at Glasgow Central station. Small turnstiles separate the wide open waiting area from the platform, creating a fast and convenient boarding process as soon as the train arrives.
August 26, 2025 at 2:04 PM
stephenkenny.bsky.social
It’s a real shame that the main hub of DC’s healthcare system can’t spare a few feet for a proper bus shelter amidst fields and fields of parking.

The (many) people who take the bus to and from their appointments should be able to do so in dignity and comfort!
Bus stop serving three routes, pole next to a narrow sidewalk with little shade. Bus stop serving three routes, pole in a thin patch of grass next to a metal fence, no sidewalk, and no shade.
July 25, 2025 at 4:12 PM
stephenkenny.bsky.social
Finally reading @jskstreet.bsky.social’s Streetfight and fascinated by how she pulls together the famously antagonistic philosophies of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs into a human-scale but results-driven theory of power.

It resembles the modern Abundance movement (I’m sure that’s no coincidence).
Streetfight by Janette Sadik-Khan
July 2, 2025 at 10:44 PM
stephenkenny.bsky.social
Philly @SEPTA forced into a brutal plan to eliminates massive swaths of service because the GOP-controlled PA legislature won't budge on funding.
Graphic showing the cuts approved by the SEPTA board: 50 bus routes eliminated, 5 regional rail routes eliminated, 20% reduction in remaining routes, 9pm curfew on metro and regional rail services, elimination of all special service (e.g. Sports Express) and closure of 66 services.
June 27, 2025 at 7:01 PM
stephenkenny.bsky.social
🚲Ridership surge on bikeshare in DC!!🚲

664k CaBi @bikeshare.bsky.social rides, making it the system's best April EVER, a 35.5% increase over 2024 and marking 40 consecutive months of ridership growth.

49% increase on Columbia Road after @ddotdc.bsky.social built bike lanes there last year.
Graph of year-over-year Capital Bikeshare ridership, prepared by Greater Greater Washington. Ridership was higher in January and February in 2025 than 2024, but the difference is most stark in March and April 2025, where ridership spikes above 600,000 while those months in 2024 carried just over 400,000 riders. Figure also includes the fact that in April 2025, 70.2% of all rides were taken by CaBi members and that 60.1% of rides were on e-bikes. Closer look at ridership growth along Columbia Road NW between Connecticut Ave and 16th St NW. The five stations along that corridor, which now includes a protected bike lane that DDOT built at the end of 2024, have recorded a 49% increase in trips since April 2024.
May 15, 2025 at 3:27 PM
stephenkenny.bsky.social
“Don’t ride on the sidewalk” - @bikeshare.bsky.social as if im supposed to veer out onto a major arterial with no PBL.

Maybe we should build out bikeway infrastructure before scolding cyclists about riding where they’re safest.
POV shot of me riding a DC Capital Bikeshare on the sidewalk next to an arterial street.
February 25, 2025 at 2:10 AM
stephenkenny.bsky.social
Not the most urgent problem right now, but ESPN is bragging that Americans are legally betting $1.3 BILLION on today’s Super Bowl.

Sports betting is getting out of control. People are betting money they can’t afford to lose.
ESPN broadcast graphic stating that there will be an estimated $1.39 billion legally gambled in the US on today’s Super Bowl
February 9, 2025 at 5:28 PM
stephenkenny.bsky.social
Pretty great headline though 😂
Trump Admin Trashes DEI... Then Orders DEI For Trad Wives ALTERNATIVE DEI Emell Derra Adolphus News Reporter
January 31, 2025 at 4:41 PM
stephenkenny.bsky.social
Not to mention the requirements to allow unvaccinated kids in schools and collaborate with ICE.
to the extent practicable, relevant, appropriate, and consistent with law, mitigate the unique impacts of DOT programs, policies, and activities on families and family-specific difficulties, such as the accessibility of transportation to families with young children, and give preference to communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average (including in administering the Federal Transit Administration's Capital Investment Grant program); prohibit recipients of DOT support or assistance from imposing vaccine and mask mandates; and require local compliance or cooperation with Federal immigration enforcement and with other goals and objectives specified by the President of the United States or the Secretary.
January 31, 2025 at 4:41 PM
stephenkenny.bsky.social
Trump DOT now funneling dollars to states with highest marriage and birth rates.

“Anti-DEI” DEI for these states, apparently:
Map showing difference in marriage rates among U.S. States, specifically whether they are below or above the national average. Texas, Missouri, and Colorado are among the states above the national average, while California, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania are among those below the national average. Map showing U.S. States by fertility rate. The rate is highest in Texas and South Dakota and lowest in California and Pennsylvania.
January 31, 2025 at 4:00 PM
stephenkenny.bsky.social
Appreciate @kendrawrites.com documenting the local and Biden admin wins on transit. This is the stuff that will last beyond this petulant administration.

“All told, the initiatives along with other wins earlier this year will raise roughly $25 billion”
List of local jurisdictions, their transit referendum wins by dollar value, and the percent of the vote they won. More info at the link in the quoted post.
January 26, 2025 at 3:58 AM
stephenkenny.bsky.social
Just concluded my 2-year term as Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in ANC 1A! Thank you to the people of District 5 and Columbia Heights for trusting me to serve you.
Group of Commissioners smiling, standing behind a table that reads “Advisory Neighborhood Commission 1A” at a community event. Community meeting of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 1A, held in a local elementary school library. DC Councilmember Brianne Nadeau rises to speak as Commissioners and community members listen. I’m standing next to DC Councilmember Brianne Nadeau, pointing out something beyond the frame, as she takes notes. A selfie I took on the sidewalk, next to a patch of mulch, holding a garbage bag and grabber while wearing blue rubber gloves.
January 3, 2025 at 9:08 PM
stephenkenny.bsky.social
New NIH review compiles the vast body of research on the 4 main ways that our subsidized system of excess parking is bad for public health:

🚘 auto-dependency
🛣️ impervious surfaces
🏡 housing affordability
🏗️ construction emissions

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
“Parking and Public Health”, a paper by Michael D Garber, Tarik Benmarhnia, Jacob Mason, Emily Morales‐Zamora, and David Rojas-Rueda. Link in the post leads to the paper. Next, we delineate four pathways linking parking with public health: 1) Promoting driving and car dependency, affecting air pollution, greenhouse-gas emissions, physical activity, traffic-related injuries and fatalities, and accessibility; 2) Creating impervious surfaces, with consequences for urban heat, flooding, water pollution, and green space; 3) Affecting housing affordability and associated health outcomes of this social determinant; and 4) Design, construction, and maintenance, the health impacts of which include on-street parking’s positive and negative impacts on safety for all roadway users, air-quality effects of parking’s construction and maintenance, and the potential for green parking lots to mitigate some health consequences of impervious surfaces. Chart depicting the various ways that parking impacts different measures of public health. Chart is in the paper and is outlined within the text.
December 16, 2024 at 8:55 PM
stephenkenny.bsky.social
NJ state police admitting they have no idea how to do their jobs without discriminating against non-white people.
Asked about the slowdown, leaders of the three labor unions that represent roughly 3,200 sworn State Police officers all pointed to the critical report by Matthew B. Ross, a Northeastern University professor hired in 2021 by a former attorney general to review 6.2 million traffic stops troopers made between 2009 and 2021. The analysis concluded that troopers were “engaged in enforcement practices that result in adverse treatment toward minority motorists.” That report, union leaders said, left troopers uncertain about how to do their work.
December 9, 2024 at 2:07 AM
stephenkenny.bsky.social
New data from DC on the Kenyon St bikeway shows very positive results:

🚲2x increase in bicycle ridership
🚗No change in vehicle speeds
🦺70% reduction in vehicle crashes
"Up to 2x increase in bicycle ridership after construction (2020 vs. 2023)" "No change in already near-zero bike/ped crashes and average vehicle speeds." "70% fewer vehicle crashes after construction (2021 vs. 2023)" Image of the Kenyon St cycletrack. Green, two-way cycletrack on a neighborhood street in northwest DC.
November 28, 2024 at 12:01 AM
stephenkenny.bsky.social
Can’t stop raving about DC’s redesign of Columbia Rd NW. DDOT managed to both speed up buses and make biking 100% safer on a very constrained right of way.

In this case the trick was bus bulbs!
Photo taken from my bike, going through a bike lane behind a bulbed-out bus stop on Columbia Rd NW in DC. Photo taken from my bike, going through a bike lane behind a bulbed-out bus stop on Columbia Rd NW in DC. Photo taken from my bike, going through a parking-protected bike lane on Columbia Rd NW in DC. Photo taken from my bike, going through a bike lane behind a bulbed-out bus stop on Columbia Rd NW in DC.
November 26, 2024 at 2:41 AM
stephenkenny.bsky.social
SEPTA is funded, for now…

State DOTs are notoriously reluctant to transfer federal highway dollars to anything but roads, so congrats to the PA transit advocates on this momentous win!!
Screenshot of a Tweet from Governor Josh Shapiro of PA posted on November 22, 2024 at 2:30pm: I’ve directed @PennDOTNews to immediately begin the process of transferring $153 million in federal highway funding to @SEPTA to prevent service cuts and delay dramatic fare increases. On top of that, every one of the five counties SEPTA serves agreed to provide additional funding and increase their local share. If you're one of the hundreds of thousands who use SEPTA every day to get to work, school, and home to see your family, we've got your back
November 22, 2024 at 8:33 PM
stephenkenny.bsky.social
Love these little guys in the 14th St-8th Ave subway station!!
November 8, 2024 at 10:56 PM