Andy Boenau
@urbanismspeakeasy.com
When I'm not engineering safe & healthy streets, I'm running my mouth about it.
urbanismspeakeasy.com
urbanismspeakeasy.com
The Highway Trust Fund is in a state of bankruptcy, but we keep chugging along as if there’s no real financial urgency.
www.fastcompany.com/91469982/ame... @fastcompany.com
www.fastcompany.com/91469982/ame... @fastcompany.com
America has a looming highway budget crisis
The Congressional Budget Office projects that balances in both the highway and transit accounts of the Highway Trust Fund will be exhausted in 2028.
www.fastcompany.com
January 23, 2026 at 11:41 AM
The Highway Trust Fund is in a state of bankruptcy, but we keep chugging along as if there’s no real financial urgency.
www.fastcompany.com/91469982/ame... @fastcompany.com
www.fastcompany.com/91469982/ame... @fastcompany.com
When people don’t feel secure on public transit, they opt out.
Some of you will want to get defensive about real vs. perceived security, but you can't ignore human nature. Go the extra mile to improve transit conditions.
www.fastcompany.com/91469963/wan... @fastcompany.com
Some of you will want to get defensive about real vs. perceived security, but you can't ignore human nature. Go the extra mile to improve transit conditions.
www.fastcompany.com/91469963/wan... @fastcompany.com
Want more people to use public transit? Make it safer
If people don’t feel safe and secure on public transit, they’re going to do what they can to opt out.
www.fastcompany.com
January 17, 2026 at 9:08 PM
When people don’t feel secure on public transit, they opt out.
Some of you will want to get defensive about real vs. perceived security, but you can't ignore human nature. Go the extra mile to improve transit conditions.
www.fastcompany.com/91469963/wan... @fastcompany.com
Some of you will want to get defensive about real vs. perceived security, but you can't ignore human nature. Go the extra mile to improve transit conditions.
www.fastcompany.com/91469963/wan... @fastcompany.com
We shouldn’t be aiming to nudge a few percentage points in public opinion. Our goal should be to make freedom of mobility so compelling that people demand it.
usa.streetsblog.org/2026/01/13/o...
usa.streetsblog.org/2026/01/13/o...
Opinion: Stop Asking If People Want to Ride Bikes — Streetsblog USA
"We shouldn’t be aiming to nudge a few percentage points in public opinion. Our goal should be to make freedom of mobility so compelling that people demand it."
usa.streetsblog.org
January 14, 2026 at 2:27 AM
We shouldn’t be aiming to nudge a few percentage points in public opinion. Our goal should be to make freedom of mobility so compelling that people demand it.
usa.streetsblog.org/2026/01/13/o...
usa.streetsblog.org/2026/01/13/o...
I hope you feel something between discomfort and rage when you hear about people being forced to let a road widening take over their front yard, or being forced to move out of their home to make way for some corporation.
www.urbanismspeakeasy.com/p/the-busine...
www.urbanismspeakeasy.com/p/the-busine...
The business case for stealing your house
and other fairy tales about the "greater good"
www.urbanismspeakeasy.com
January 5, 2026 at 1:05 AM
I hope you feel something between discomfort and rage when you hear about people being forced to let a road widening take over their front yard, or being forced to move out of their home to make way for some corporation.
www.urbanismspeakeasy.com/p/the-busine...
www.urbanismspeakeasy.com/p/the-busine...
After the Kelo case, many states reconsidered the whole "greater good" defense of eminent domain. But there are still lots of loopholes for taking property by force.
www.fastcompany.com/91463687/cas...
www.fastcompany.com/91463687/cas...
The case against eminent domain
Eminent domain, or taking property by force, is a power move that opens up all your other rights and protections for grabs.
www.fastcompany.com
December 26, 2025 at 3:46 PM
After the Kelo case, many states reconsidered the whole "greater good" defense of eminent domain. But there are still lots of loopholes for taking property by force.
www.fastcompany.com/91463687/cas...
www.fastcompany.com/91463687/cas...
In many states, you can get kicked out of your home if the local government thinks someone else will generate more tax revenue.
My latest in @fastcompany.com
www.fastcompany.com/91463687/cas...
My latest in @fastcompany.com
www.fastcompany.com/91463687/cas...
The case against eminent domain
Eminent domain, or taking property by force, is a power move that opens up all your other rights and protections for grabs.
www.fastcompany.com
December 24, 2025 at 9:20 PM
In many states, you can get kicked out of your home if the local government thinks someone else will generate more tax revenue.
My latest in @fastcompany.com
www.fastcompany.com/91463687/cas...
My latest in @fastcompany.com
www.fastcompany.com/91463687/cas...
Local regulations created (and continue to create) car-oriented sprawl in cities and the suburbs. This has been going on for nearly 100 years without taking a foot off the brake.
Planners need to confront zoning as the Villain.
www.fastcompany.com/91463800/bui...
Planners need to confront zoning as the Villain.
www.fastcompany.com/91463800/bui...
Our built environment is exacerbating the loneliness crisis
The psychological cost of zoning.
www.fastcompany.com
December 21, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Local regulations created (and continue to create) car-oriented sprawl in cities and the suburbs. This has been going on for nearly 100 years without taking a foot off the brake.
Planners need to confront zoning as the Villain.
www.fastcompany.com/91463800/bui...
Planners need to confront zoning as the Villain.
www.fastcompany.com/91463800/bui...
"Normal science" is the activity in which most scientists spend almost all of their time, and it's predicated on the assumption that the scientific community knows what the world is like. Zoning has a "normal science" problem.
www.fastcompany.com/91460628/zon...
www.fastcompany.com/91460628/zon...
Why zoning does more harm than good
In spite of all its harms, the zoning paradigm remains resilient among the experts.
www.fastcompany.com
December 20, 2025 at 12:43 PM
"Normal science" is the activity in which most scientists spend almost all of their time, and it's predicated on the assumption that the scientific community knows what the world is like. Zoning has a "normal science" problem.
www.fastcompany.com/91460628/zon...
www.fastcompany.com/91460628/zon...
I still can't believe Trump is going to Make Trucks Great Again. 🙌
December 19, 2025 at 12:03 PM
I still can't believe Trump is going to Make Trucks Great Again. 🙌
When you study history, you can’t help but be overwhelmed by how often things get better in the end—and how quickly the transformation can happen once it begins.
www.fastcompany.com/91450326/ber...
www.fastcompany.com/91450326/ber...
What the Berlin Wall teaches urban reformers
You can't hold onto cynicism if you allow yourself to learn the history of the built environment.
www.fastcompany.com
December 16, 2025 at 1:32 AM
When you study history, you can’t help but be overwhelmed by how often things get better in the end—and how quickly the transformation can happen once it begins.
www.fastcompany.com/91450326/ber...
www.fastcompany.com/91450326/ber...
Claim: Zoning helps more people than it hurts.
Evidence: Zoning hurts more people than it helps.
Planning Inc: Let’s keep trying more zoning.
Evidence: Zoning hurts more people than it helps.
Planning Inc: Let’s keep trying more zoning.
December 13, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Claim: Zoning helps more people than it hurts.
Evidence: Zoning hurts more people than it helps.
Planning Inc: Let’s keep trying more zoning.
Evidence: Zoning hurts more people than it helps.
Planning Inc: Let’s keep trying more zoning.
It’s disappointing that the intellectual energy to improve the built environment is still coming from outside Planning Inc. or from planners who first had to unlearn much of what they were taught.
open.substack.com/pub/speakeas...
open.substack.com/pub/speakeas...
The anti-planning heretics can save planning
Planning Inc. would do itself a favor by considering why its heroes aren't products of Planning Inc.
open.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 12:04 PM
It’s disappointing that the intellectual energy to improve the built environment is still coming from outside Planning Inc. or from planners who first had to unlearn much of what they were taught.
open.substack.com/pub/speakeas...
open.substack.com/pub/speakeas...
When the engineers became pro-roundabout, the planners became roundabout skeptics or flat-out anti-roundabout.
www.fastcompany.com/91448151/rou...
www.fastcompany.com/91448151/rou...
The safest intersection on Earth (and why half the infrastructure profession hates it)
Roundabouts happen to be a very important issue where emotions cloud good judgment.
www.fastcompany.com
December 9, 2025 at 1:56 PM
When the engineers became pro-roundabout, the planners became roundabout skeptics or flat-out anti-roundabout.
www.fastcompany.com/91448151/rou...
www.fastcompany.com/91448151/rou...
Planning Inc. would do itself a favor by considering why its heroes aren't products of Planning Inc.
open.substack.com/pub/speakeas...
open.substack.com/pub/speakeas...
The anti-planning heretics can save planning
Planning Inc. would do itself a favor by considering why its heroes aren't products of Planning Inc.
open.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Planning Inc. would do itself a favor by considering why its heroes aren't products of Planning Inc.
open.substack.com/pub/speakeas...
open.substack.com/pub/speakeas...
"The Death and Life of Great American Cities" by Jane Jacobs (redacted to avoid offending professional planners)
December 7, 2025 at 9:41 PM
"The Death and Life of Great American Cities" by Jane Jacobs (redacted to avoid offending professional planners)
In the US, we make sure that our 300 million motor vehicles have proper housing. Sometimes, there's even room for vehicle operators to be co-housed.
December 6, 2025 at 9:07 PM
In the US, we make sure that our 300 million motor vehicles have proper housing. Sometimes, there's even room for vehicle operators to be co-housed.
The promise of freedom and wealth held until cities and suburbs began optimizing for vehicle throughput instead of local access and mobility.
open.substack.com/pub/speakeas...
open.substack.com/pub/speakeas...
Why everything turns to asphalt
There’s a King Midas aspect to motor vehicles, this technological gift that promised and delivered abundance until it became a curse.
open.substack.com
December 6, 2025 at 3:08 PM
The promise of freedom and wealth held until cities and suburbs began optimizing for vehicle throughput instead of local access and mobility.
open.substack.com/pub/speakeas...
open.substack.com/pub/speakeas...
There's a King Midas aspect to motor vehicles. The Midas touch was great until he wanted to eat or drink or just hug his daughter.
My latest in @fastcompany.com
www.fastcompany.com/91443440/ame...
My latest in @fastcompany.com
www.fastcompany.com/91443440/ame...
American cities have too many streets, parking lots, and garages
We're discovering that car-dependent places can't sustain the human activities they were meant to enable.
www.fastcompany.com
December 2, 2025 at 2:06 AM
There's a King Midas aspect to motor vehicles. The Midas touch was great until he wanted to eat or drink or just hug his daughter.
My latest in @fastcompany.com
www.fastcompany.com/91443440/ame...
My latest in @fastcompany.com
www.fastcompany.com/91443440/ame...
The status quo believes the fantasy that traffic violence is inevitable. That there’s nothing we can do. The truth is, we can prevent severe crashes.
www.fastcompany.com/91443434/cha...
www.fastcompany.com/91443434/cha...
To change our safety culture, we need storytellers
Powerful personal narratives are key to reducing traffic deaths. For real change, the average person needs to know the stories of the victims of road accidents.
www.fastcompany.com
November 30, 2025 at 12:50 AM
The status quo believes the fantasy that traffic violence is inevitable. That there’s nothing we can do. The truth is, we can prevent severe crashes.
www.fastcompany.com/91443434/cha...
www.fastcompany.com/91443434/cha...
When DOTs refuse to use roundabouts, commercial corridors turn into this:
November 23, 2025 at 9:58 PM
When DOTs refuse to use roundabouts, commercial corridors turn into this:
The lack of diversity of thought on this site is why I spend so little time here. It's also why, I think, so many people are returning to X.
There’s a sort of Dunning-Kruger effect happening where people who read widely, consider various perspectives, and put in effort to understand views they disagree with worry that they don’t do that enough, while people who don’t do any of that accuse others of being in a bubble and call it a day.
November 2, 2025 at 6:14 PM
The lack of diversity of thought on this site is why I spend so little time here. It's also why, I think, so many people are returning to X.
The economics principle behind bad traffic can be used to create good traffic. I wrote about INDUCED DEMAND for @fastcompany.com 👇
www.fastcompany.com/91418253/eco...
www.fastcompany.com/91418253/eco...
The economics principle behind bad traffic can be used to create good traffic
There’s a way for departments of transportation to take advantage of induced demand.
www.fastcompany.com
October 21, 2025 at 10:11 AM
The economics principle behind bad traffic can be used to create good traffic. I wrote about INDUCED DEMAND for @fastcompany.com 👇
www.fastcompany.com/91418253/eco...
www.fastcompany.com/91418253/eco...
Normalizing good urbanism requires culture change, and culture change requires an advocacy long game that makes space for ideas that seem impossible today.
www.urbanismspeakeasy.com/p/your-advoc...
www.urbanismspeakeasy.com/p/your-advoc...
Your advocacy can help shift good urbanism from fringe to mainstream
Today’s unthinkable ideas can reshape our neighborhoods for the better.
www.urbanismspeakeasy.com
October 12, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Normalizing good urbanism requires culture change, and culture change requires an advocacy long game that makes space for ideas that seem impossible today.
www.urbanismspeakeasy.com/p/your-advoc...
www.urbanismspeakeasy.com/p/your-advoc...