Photo Credit: Brick of Chicago
Selected Writing
Stop calling bike lanes "bike lanes"
May 2021
Spend enough time on urbanist Twitter and you will gradually assume the shape of a creature best described as the “bike lobbyist”. It feels strange writing that because most people I know who fall into this camp don’t parade around the streets wearing a suit and tie. Nor do they carry around meticulously constructed talking points. Read more
How “green” is Uber Green?
Jan 2021
Uber Green is one of Uber’s “four key actions” aimed at reducing the company’s carbon footprint. In addition to this new ride option, the company has pledged $800 million to help its drivers transition to EVs by 2025, to invest in its “multimodal network” to promote cleaner mobility options, and be more transparent and accountable to the ride-hailing public. All of this is part of Uber’s push to become a “fully zero-emissions platform” by 2040, with an even more ambitious goal to have 100% of rides take place in EVs by 2030. Read more
Does Prop 22 change everything?
Jan 2021
Tucked within the results of a seemingly never-ending Election Day was a state-level ballot initiative that sought to carve out a new labor classification. California’s Proposition 22 (“Prop 22”), while not nearly as consequential for that state’s finances as another referendum on the ballot, was unprecedented in the sense that it was labor law written expressly for a single industry (and what some could argue a select handful of companies). Read more
Life during Covid
April 2020
At a time like this, there is a tendency among the popular press to write stories that elicit strong emotional responses. Stories abound with titles like “Life after Covid-19” or “How Covid-19 could radically alter urban life”. In a world connected by the Internet, a pandemic has the two-fold effect of amplifying alarmist headlines and expanding the population susceptible to hyperbolic nonsense. Read more