Matt Schaeffer

Hey friends, I did a thing! I had the great fortune of being a guest on the Active Towns channel to talk about road design and its impact on bicycle safety and crash prevention. Take a listen! @gregsemon @SammyTrauma @BikeWalkDayton @mvrpc @cityofdayton podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/act…

Physical inactivity is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. New urbanism makes physical activity an easy choice. Design influences behavior. tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

@DanMurp57913179 The urban planning dept at Portland State has some folks who have research in this area. I also have a ppt of our team’s research looking at that and near misses

On bike separation it’s not just how safe it is but also how safe the rider, and their parents and children feel. Learning more and sharing findings would be good. Let me know if this data is out there. Will be looking.

@streetsblogkea I bring this up whenever I can. It’s astonishing how essentially nobody has any clue about the severity of auto loan debt.

Curious: do folks realize that Americans owe almost as much on their cars ($1.5 trillion) as they do on their student loans ($1.7 trillion)? Why do you think so many people consider the latter a national crisis, but not the former?

@DanMurp57913179 @bellachu10 Got it, have read it. That factoid must not have stuck out to me initially.

@1BlockDoc @bellachu10 Will check reference. It’s from Right of Way book

This is transit and pedestrian infrastructure in much of the US. When you spend 80 years and $Tns building our entire civilization around cars, it makes it much more difficult to do anything but drive everywhere all the time.

@DanMurp57913179 @bellachu10 Name and shame? I can’t find which states do this.

@bellachu10 I had no idea that 22 states ban use of road aid money for sidewalks. Amazing that anyone would think to make that law. Disgusting really, the historical contempt for low income folks who need to walk …

the fact that Los Angeles has more than 10x as many homeless people than Houston despite spending billions more on homelessness programs shows that the most effective policy to tackle homelessness is simply legalizing housing

@DanMurp57913179 Strange indeed

@1BlockDoc Policy here is Healthy Policy Initiative to build safe networks for all users yet DOT apparently isn’t willing to plow shared use or separated bike paths even on their own roads. ??

A big reason separated bike lanes are resisted by DOTs in northern places may be that they don’t want to maintain them with smaller plows and additional crews. They want to plow with the big road trucks and that’s why they prefer paint separation #plowseparatedlanesMassDOT

@DavidZipper @TheAthletic The @espn article was even worse. Had a full paragraph of victim blaming nonsense and completely ignored how stroads and trucks like those are so deadly. And to be clear, the fact that it was a pickup truck definitely matters.

None of this is relevant to what happened when a driver (not "a F-150") struck Dartmouth's football coach while he was biking. Teevens "suffered spinal cord injuries and his right leg was amputated." How would wearing a bike helmet prevent any of that? theathletic.com/4649923/2023/0…

👋🏽 Check out our brand new interns! #GenSurgMatch

@DanMurp57913179 The numbers are still bad when correcting per capita or VMT or both. It’ll be a long road (pun intended), but we can do better! I appreciate your work in this space. Keep going!

@1BlockDoc Agreed!! But don't forget we drive 2x as much as Europe. Norway model is good - well marked traffic cameras, 0.02 bac limit, much higher traffic fines, and much more centrally located housing are big pieces that deserve as much attention and support. We're making roads safer too!

Crashes, injuries, and fatalities just keep going up. The U.S. stands apart from other developed nations in these metrics. Who thinks it would be beneficial to get auto execs, civil engineers, and urban planners to spend time on a trauma service? npr.org/2023/06/26/118…

New report finds that over 8,000 pedestrians were killed on US roadways in 2022. Jimmy Carter was president the last time that happened. ghsa.org/resources/Pede…

@WSUBSOMSurgery Congrats Dr. Cabrales!

🎉 Congratulations to Dr Cabrales on matching into transplant fellowship at Wake Forest University! Time to celebrate 🎊

@JstnRobbins @WSUBSOMSurgery Yeah Justin! Keep it up!

Just out here representing @WSUBSOMSurgery and Miami Valley Hospital at #VAM23

Never forget, a 13-year study found that protected bike-lanes led to a drastic decline in fatalities for all road users. ALL ROAD USERS. And painted bike-lanes? No safety improvement at all. For sharrows, it’s safer to NOT have them. Via @StreetsblogUSA usa.streetsblog.org/2019/05/29/pro…

Stop framing the bike lanes debate around how drivers are affected. Data from @TfL shows cycling & walking: 🛍️ Boost sales for local businesses, increasing retail spend by up to 30% ⚕️ Improve health & productivity, reducing sick days by 27% 💚 Lower GHG emissions&air pollution

@foxyjewishmama They can’t. That’s why auto loans are the third largest share of national debt, just narrowly behind student loans. Source: visualcapitalist.com/the-growing-au…

@mnolangray @Steve_Lafleur I thought OTR was a great answer and then you nailed it with Covington. Amazing small scale, local urbanism. Check out Agave & Rye if ever in town. Also - OTR revitalization started with a road diet!

@Steve_Lafleur Supremely underrated, and yet, I think the urban sections Covington, Kentucky are even more underrated, especially the Main Street corridor. This is S-tier American urbanism for peanuts!

What's the most underrated neighborhood in the US?