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Brigid Howe

@bnhowe.bsky.social

750 followers 480 following 410 posts

Mom to a teen & 3🐈. Advocate for education, road safety, & housing. DC-born, MoCo-grown, Maryland AF. Oxford comma fan. she/her. I ❤️ music, sewing & books.

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Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 2h

The intersection of Arcola and Lamberton has an all-red cycle for safer crossings on Saturdays. It’s a great infrastructure adjustment that keeps the community safer. But that civic association blocks infrastructure improvements a stone’s throw away because it slows their driving.

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 2h

Their ire about losing an unsafe slip lane is what shut down the protected bike lane pilot, which the state’s own studies showed only increased travel time by seconds.

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 2h

And when we try to make changes, neighbors organize with rhetoric like this. Kemp Mill Civic Association is riling up fear of having to pay tickets (avoidable by not speeding) while people are killed on these roads. It’s disgusting.

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 6d

Not to berate me or advise me on what he thought I should do. He just said, let me know what you need and I’ll help. My mom told the rabbi that my dad would have done anything for me, & I believe it.

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 6d

Anyway, my dad was a mensch. He helped people who are often under-resourced access the entitlements they deserved—veterans & people with disabilities.

He also loved me & my kiddo fiercely. I lost a job once & his response was to help me with my bills until I knew my next step.

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 6d

I think about my dad every single day but there are days I miss him more than others. Also, he’d be so pissed off about the shutdown.

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 6d

Grief is so weird. My dad died 9.5 months ago but today something triggered me to look at a Gmail exchange about him w/ the rabbi who spoke at his burial & now I’m crying. A friend sent me a screenshot from a fb group—I sent it to the rabbi to help him write his eulogy.

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 6d

In my previous life working with Girl Scouts, I got to engage with Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots institute regularly and always thought very highly of her as a leader and activist, and also truly as a sage.

Reposted by Brigid Howe

The Banner Montgomery @bannermoco.bsky.social · 7d

‘Let’s be nice, please’: Debate over sidewalks gets testy amid safety concerns

‘Let’s be nice, please’: Debate over sidewalks gets testy amid safety concerns

The Montgomery County Department of Transportation wants to add sidewalks in Kensington. Neighbors are turning on those who welcome the change.

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 7d

Here is the 10 year crash history map of the neighborhood. Some are property damage only. But every crash could be one that hurts a child.

Blue dot is K-P ES.

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 7d

Right? And even if I felt that way deep down in my shriveled husk of a heart, I wouldn’t admit it on the record.

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 7d

Kinda like people prioritizing trees over keeping children alive.

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 7d

Imagine telling a reporter you’re mad at the dad of a disabled youth for trying to improve safety in your community.

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 7d

I get it when they install sidewalks—it’s a pain. You might lose trees, construction takes time, and then you have to shovel snow. But you might also have a safer route to school and prevent pedestrian injuries and deaths. So why is this even a debate. Plus, sidewalks increase property values.

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 7d

These people are bad people.

They saying that they believe the aesthetics of their neighborhood matter more than the safety of children and people with disabilities.

Trees are replaceable. Children are not.

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 7d

My mortgage company just told me I need verbal authorization from Mr Howe to talk to them about my mortgage. I am not married. My ex is not on the mortgage (plus he’s technically Dr. Howe). I’m the only one on my mortgage. Wtf? Is this some new handmaids tale thing dreamed up by them?

Reposted by Brigid Howe

dan, crisp & juicy enjoyer 🦀🏳️‍🌈👋🏾 @justupthepike.bsky.social · 8d

I still have bruises from this driver's negligence. my dog has spots where his fur will never grow back. and five months later I am begging MCDOT to answer my emails, let alone to fix the intersection where it happened. at least the driver's insurance paid out. ggwash.org/view/99589/a...

A driver hit me and my dog, and here’s the proof

This month, my dog and I became members of a not-so-exclusive club: the 60,000 pedestrians who will be injured in a car crash each year. In the process of writing about this I get stuck: I want to bri...

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 8d

One year the county hosted a Walk to School Day event at an ES where my walk zone sidewalk requests have been languishing for nearly a decade.

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 8d

www.thebanner.com/community/lo...

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 8d

Every time I think I’ve heard the worst story about an affluent suburban area blocking something, another one comes along: www.thebanner.com/community/lo...

‘Let’s be nice, please’: Debate over sidewalks gets testy amid safety concerns

The Montgomery County Department of Transportation wants to add sidewalks in Kensington. Neighbors are turning on those who welcome the change.

www.thebanner.com

Reposted by Brigid Howe

Josh Linden @joshlinden.bsky.social · 8d

That doesn't mean that housing supply is everything. But a severe shortage of units (and diverse unit types) in opportunity-rich areas is an undeniable contributor to our multifaceted housing crisis (to say nothing of climate change, our transportation challenges, etc)

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 15d

Yes. I was telling my kid about Oscar and Frank and the fight for safer infrastructure this morning.

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 15d

When there is a bike trail crossing a busy state road at the bottom of a deep valley & there is no beacon or even a median where cyclists & pedestrians can stop, their deaths in crashes are predictable, not accidents. And when beacons or medians are installed…fewer deaths.

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 16d

#crashnotaccident

Almost no collision on University Boulevard is an accident. Sometimes the cause is easy to identify (drunk driver) but there are policy decisions at all levels that impact traffic safety.

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 15d

When a driver racks up the records driving citations & has a list of offenses a mile long but the consequences & enforcement doesn’t happen, and then six weeks after yet another ticket he strikes and kills an elderly woman on a state highway…that is entirely predictable, not an accident.

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 16d

#crashnotaccident

Almost no collision on University Boulevard is an accident. Sometimes the cause is easy to identify (drunk driver) but there are policy decisions at all levels that impact traffic safety.

Brigid Howe @bnhowe.bsky.social · 15d

Data shows that along the UBCP area since 2015 there have been 21 fatal or serious bike or ped injuries. There have been 4 in the neighborhood streets in the study areas. Our stroads and highways are deadly by design. Calming University Boulevard will save lives.