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Tara Goddard, PhD

@drtaragoddard.com

16K followers 1.3K following 6.1K posts

Transportation engineering professor. Road safety, planning, behavior, & culture; wildfire planning and response; inclusive disaster evacuation; ethics of tech in transportation; planning in the Petropyrocene. She/her.

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Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · Jul 14

Re-sharing to pin to my profile. I was very grateful for the opportunity to join Sarah and Doug for a wide-ranging conversation on some of my favorite (if difficult) subjects. It encapsulates a lot of my research agenda and professional worldview that windshield bias affects so much of our world.

The War on Cars @thewaroncars.bsky.social · Dec 17

NEW EPISODE: "How Cars Change Us with Tara Goddard." Why do people behave so badly behind the wheel of a car? Why do reporters use passive language to describe traffic violence? @drtaragoddard.bsky.social joins us to talk about her fascinating research.

thewaroncars.org/2024/12/17/1...

Dr. Tara Goddard, wearing white shirt, standing behind bicycle on bike path lined by grass and green trees.

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Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 10h

This looks promising. But does it do live routing? (I can't think of the term.) Or do I need to download a route as a GeoJSON file and upload into Strava or Coros or something like that?

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Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 10h

hmmm, I wonder if this would make for a good student thesis or ITE student chapter project ... 🤔

Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 10h

Interestingly, I do have the AppleTV app on my phone. I wonder if Google doesn't allow apple maps in the app store because it is a direct competitor with Google maps, whereas there is no googleTV. 🤔

Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 10h

But still, that seems light-years ahead of most apps!

Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 10h

I looked in the store but no apple maps option. I'm sure it can be hacked, but I don't have the expertise or bandwidth. I use AllTrails all the time to find new hike/run trails, and Gaia for mapping while I'm out there. And I'm learning CalTopo and Avenza. Too many apps! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 10h

I didn't know you could add roads to Google maps!

Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 10h

Yes!! that's exactly what I mean. So cool. Anyone know how this data gets inputed? @cathytuttle.bsky.social @barbchamberlain.bsky.social would probably know if anyone does 😊

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Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 11h

I use Transit for, well, transit 😄 but I didn't know it did this with bike routing! Thank you! Even if it doesn't specify facility type, at least it uses some sort of LTS. Now I have more questions for @millerstephen.bsky.social when I get my act together to email him 😏

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Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 11h

Are the different colors different types of bike infra? Mine doesn't look like that, it is just the standard blue routing line.

Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 11h

I have an android phone, no apple maps app. But that's very interesting that apple maps is way better than Google, I wonder why.

I tried moving away from Google maps but it didn't last long. Couldn't find a good alternative. 😩

Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 11h

When I worked for the City of Davis, we had to provide the layer(s), but that was a long time ago (c. 2007-2011), not sure how it works now.

Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 11h

This looks promising! It suggested the route that my colleague recommended (I remember it now that I see it on the app). Thank you!

Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 11h

hey, a girl can dream (and a transportation engineering professor can try and manifest) 😉

Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 11h

I forgot about Citymapper, thank you! Unfortunately they don't cover my town (too bad, it is a busy college town), but it will be useful for my transit, ITS, and sustainable mobility classes.

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Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 11h

Please some rich person buy them all and donate them to a museum in perpetuity 🙏. That'd be a helluva legacy.

PBS News @pbsnews.org · 15h

Thirty paintings created by the bushy-haired, soft-spoken Bob Ross will soon be up for auction to defray the costs of programming for small and rural public television stations suffering under cuts in federal funding. https://to.pbs.org/4nEQMrw

Bob Ross paintings to be auctioned to support public TV stations after federal funding cuts

All profits will help public TV stations with licensing fees for popular programs that include "The Best of Joy of Painting" and "America's Test Kitchen."

www.pbs.org

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Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 11h

When I was asking about routes to work, my colleague looked at Google's suggestion and said it was terrible, and suggested a different route (he happens to live near me). Of course I forgot it. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Traveling by bike comfortably and safely shouldn't rely on insider knowledge.

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Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 11h

The different route options tell you which routes have fewer hills, which is nice, but with the proliferation of ebikes, seems less critical than other aspects of a route. Has any locality added a Bicycle Level of Comfort (BLC) or Level of Traffic Stress (LTS) to Google? @gregpgriffin.bsky.social?

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Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 11h

Seems like it wouldn't be *that* hard to add a note in each part of the step by step, like "separated bike way" and "route with sharrows". Of course the local jurisdiction would need to update the layer they provide to Google every time they change the infra.

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Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 11h

If I turn on the bicycling layer, the route line obscures the green lines. And I assume the green lines are bike lanes (of any type) when they are solid, and bike routes when they are dashed? I don't see a key.

If I open the step by step, there is a tiny streetview pic but no description.

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Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 11h

Are there cities where the Google maps bike routing feature tells you what class/type of bikeway each segment of your ride is? That is, if I want to prioritize routes with better bike infra, or avoid routes with mixed traffic, etc. So I don't have to toggle between Google and a local bike map.

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Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 11h

and you are right, openness is one of those five personality traits!

Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 11h

oh no, I think that must be something else. I'll have to find it later.

Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 11h

that one has authoritarian leanings, right? I think about that a lot.

Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 12h

I never thought of it quite like this, but the world seems to be made up of two kinds of people. Those who find the diversity in the world to be comforting and approach difference with curiosity even if they are cautious, and the opposite. Those scared by difference, who go in assuming the worst.

Kath Barbadoro @kathbarbadoro.bsky.social · 15h

I love living in a city full of immigrants and tons and tons of people who are not at all like me and not like each other. It makes us all better and it makes our city better. I know I’m preaching to the choir by saying this on the lib app but I sometimes just get so overwhelmed by how special it is

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Tara Goddard, PhD @drtaragoddard.com · 12h

that looks like the most predictable thing ever. 😡 what is the posted speed limit? The prevailing speeds? My low end guess is 35 mph/45 mph, and my high end guess is 45/58.

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