Rory Koehler

When Grammy-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens begins playing “Old Corn Liquor,” a traditional Black American folk tune, acclaimed Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man recognizes similarities to Chinese pentatonic music and spontaneously joins in. The joy on their faces says it all.

International Cargo Bike Festival to host industry players in Utrecht next week in a strive to make cargo bikes mainstream. Read more: zagdaily.com/micromobilit...

Do you recognise this face? Supercute’s cargo bike stolen by brazen thief in Loughborough Junction, Sat 26th Sept 2026 www.brixtonbuzz.com/2026/09/do-y...

Just saw someone zoom by on a Solar powered recumbent e-bike, clearly homemade. I barely got a photo before he was away. Just commuting to work in Chippenham I think? Legend.

Car-free streets aren’t empty streets, they are full of life. People walking, cycling, browsing market stalls, sitting outside cafés, chatting and enjoying being in their city. Remove the cars, and you make space for people. 📍Middelburg, NL.

A mayor joins us on the bakfiets! In this episode of Urbanists on Bakfiets Talking Cities, I take Ricardo Rio (economist and former Mayor of Braga) on a cargo-bike ride through Ljubljana.

📰 "Scotland may have witnessed a landmark moment: for the first time in Edinburgh, cars were outnumbered by bicycles during morning rush hour on a key commuter route... a sign that, as a nation, we are beginning to embrace the health benefits of active travel." www.scotsman.com/news/opinion...

Very nice to hear a sane voice from Piddington. Serious respect to this woman, who is apparently already being othered by more bigoted villagers.

The Dutch don't just build cycle tracks, they build cycle networks. Over motorways, under junctions, then branching off to the gym, football pitches & other local destinations. Safe, direct routes connecting the places people need to go. This is how you make cycling a normal part of everyday life.

‘Scientists stunned by children's lung recovery in ultra low emission zone’ www.bbc.com/news/article...

Cities aren't loud, cars are loud.

“Extrapolated to the total # of passenger KMs driven, cycled or walked in the European Union, the cost of automobility is about €500 billion per year. Due to positive health effects, cycling is an external BENEFIT worth €24 billion/year & walking €66 billion/year.” Via @sciencedirect.bsky.social

I went to Paris to speak to Thomas Piketty - one of the world’s leading thinkers on inequality. We talk about why wealth keeps concentrating at the top, the case for public investment, and what it would take to build a fairer economy. A fascinating conversation. youtu.be/d_83pFubGvQ?...

Car-free streets are great for wheelchairs and mobility scooters.

The next front in The War on Cars: car reduction strategies. It's not enough to just add bike lanes and pedestrian space. Cities have to actively reduce the amount of cars that flood their streets. A lot of that can be done by going after parking.

Beijing’s bicycle comeback might be one of the world's most significant urban cycling revivals. After decades of decline, its mode share has climbed back to almost 30%, supported by over 3,200 kilometres of infrastructure, extensive bike-sharing systems, and an ambitious program of street redesign.🧵

It’s amazing how fast free market absolutionists give up the charade when their investments are threatened (AI in this instance). It seems their political ideology never considered external threats or basically any other path but the happy path.

Canicule: France records the hottest day of its recorded history

There’s been a lot of talk in this race about what makes a "real man." A man does what’s right when no one is watching. He upholds his commitments to his family and neighbors. He doesn’t lie, cheat, & steal his way through life. Real men serve others. Weak men serve themselves.

The benefits of switching to renewables are endless.

The world’s largest sand battery got through Finland’s harshest winter in years. 2,000 tonnes of sand, heated to 500-600°C by cheap power, feeding district heating in Pornainen. And it worked. Result from one install: oil down 100%, emissions down 70%. Industrial process heat is the real prize.

Riding bikes is 10X more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities. And that’s just the climate emissions. Doesn’t include the massive public & personal cost difference, the air & noise pollution difference, the massive space difference, etc, etc…Via @theconversation.bsky.social

For the first time ever in history fossil electricity ⚡️generation fell in EVERY OECD country, compared to its peak.

In 1953 Iran had a functioning democracy. A free press. Seven political parties. Women in universities. Women granted voting rights in municipal councils in 1952. A secular prime minister named Mosaddegh who believed Iran's oil belonged to Iran. The US and Britain decided he had to go.

How can the BBC justify how much coverage they give other marches which are significantly smaller in size? The bias is so obviously blatant. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live...

This report shows that cities can achieve what was once thought impossible: cutting toxic air pollution by 20-45% in a little over a decade. London, Beijing and San Francisco have done it with EV’s, bike lanes and shutting down fossil fuel burning. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

A message for 🇪🇺President @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu and 🇩🇪Chancellor Merz: "You can't support those who set the world on fire and then blame the smoke caused by the fire." In an era where most of Europe's leaders are so spineless, Pedro Sanchez really stands out.

I am frankly more concerned about the apathy of the American public and even more importantly the lack of leadership in the Democratic Party. This is not a dress rehearsal. Every single American must speak out against this Facist administration.

Scientific American has updated the figure, now grouped into swimmers, fliers, walkers/runners, and vehicles. A person on a bicycle remains the most efficient way to travel, compared to all forms of biological locomotion and mechanical transport. www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-hu...

US: assassinate the leaders of an Iran. Iran: **retaliates** BBC Headline: 'All red lines have been crossed': Gulf states weigh response to Iranian strikes What is wrong with the propagandists at the #BBC. Do they think we are idiots?

The EU should offer Anthropic an open invitation to relocate to the EU with the aim to continue research, help develop specialised chips and help shape AI policy, no strings attached. Maybe sweeten the deal with a legally binding grant. Cc @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu www.anthropic.com/news/stateme...

The big takeaway from the by-election is that left and centre left parties took over 65% of the vote. There’s no place in British politics for the far right racism and bigotry of the right.

Abolish the monarchy. Make all Crown lands common lands. Share their wealth out to all Britons and the former colonies. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c7...

Interesting urbanism happening in Ethiopia www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os0Q...

WATCH: Seriously, if you’re following ANY bike-lane debate, you HAVE TO WATCH this news story. You actually can’t make this up. Ford claims without evidence that bike-lanes are bad for small business, and THE ACTUAL BUSINESS ASSOCIATION obliterates him with data. Safe bike-lanes mean business.

Good morning.

the thing about traffic congestion is that it doesn’t cost money to solve it, but rather the opposite: solving it with congestion pricing *raises* money that’s because a critical mass of car trips are very low value and it’s essentially a coordination problem to get them off the road at scale

Vermont US Representative Becca Balint being interviewed by Drop Site News shortly after reviewing more, unreleased Epstein files saying "They're all a bunch of sick fucks"

The daft thing is that with Proportional Representation there'd be no need for this self-destructive war within Labour. It could split into its component parts - left and right - and people could vote for what they wanted. It's only First-Past-the-Post that forces these irreconcilables together.

Keep this in mind when people claim cars mean business — closing Central #Madrid to cars over holidays resulted in a 9.5% boost in retail spending on its main shopping street: STUDY. There was also a 71% drop in air pollution. Via @carltonreid.com in @forbes.com. #citymakingmath #citiesforpeople

In this week's column I seek to explain Keir Starmer's flat refusal to change our electoral system, even though its gross unfairness could put Reform UK in power on <30% of the vote. The reasons, I believe, are deeply cynical and disturbing. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Someone cycling along a footway next to a busy road is invariably just improvising safe infrastructure. Provide safe space and the "problem" will disappear. Not everybody can or wants to drive. Councils should have a mandate to provide them with safe spaces.

Next time someone asks you about energy and land use, maybe remind them that the ~35 million acres that currently grow corn for ethanol in the US could produce ~15 PWh per year of electricity from solar photovoltaics. That's ~3.5 times more than *total annual generation from all US power plants*.

every epstein file drop underscores how elite power operates through shared socio-economic networks, regardless of people's ideological differences, populist posturing, or public feuds

If London is going to become truly safe for cycling, we need candidates willing to support the cause 🚴‍♀️ 🫶 Donate to our local election fundraiser to help us campaign for just that: action.lcc.org.uk/donatenow

A strange but true finding about NYC congestion pricing: Drivers’ time savings have overwhelmingly gone to those traveling *outside* the toll zone (i.e., driving from Brooklyn to Queens or within NJ) – not those headed into Manhattan. Me, in Bloomberg 🧵

“We are heading into dictatorship if we are not already in dictatorship here in the United States.” America is in “much deeper trouble” than European leaders understand, and Europe should not expect the world to return to the old order after Donald Trump