Kate Lowe (she/hers)
@kateontransport
Mobility justice/transportation equity/urban planning and policy. Chicago!!! Proud union member (UIC United Faculty). Day job @ @uiccuppa.bsky.social
From plagiarism to environmental destruction to cognitive surrender to misinformation, many reasons to oppose generative AI/LLMs and the data centers they spawn. Deeply troubling how IL public policy has enabled them with $983 million million of tax incentives in 4 yrs. We can make different choices
We all should have easy access to grocery stores. Subsidizing the for-profit sector has failed. Chi can show that the public sector can play a critical role in grocery access. Malasi of @economicsecurityproject.org in @chicago.suntimes.com chicago.suntimes.com/other-views/...
AVs will very likely drive up total miles traveled, & we shouldn't take industry safety claims at face value. New @huntercollege.bsky.social NYC study shows for-hire drivers had a better record on safety nextcity.org/urbanist-new...
Walkabililty again as proximity to sites of spending & reflecting differential (racialized) investment. I wish folks wouldn't use Walk Score so uncritically. Why: article with @annalivia.bsky.social & Frechette covered by @keawilson.bsky.social usa.streetsblog.org/2025/04/07/i...
Walkabililty again as proximity to sites of spending & reflecting differential (racialized) investment. I wish folks wouldn't use Walk Score so uncritically. Why: article with @annalivia.bsky.social & Frechette covered by @keawilson.bsky.social usa.streetsblog.org/2025/04/07/i...
Who am I to decide what a comfy sleeping position is? Penny dog!
Wonder if we'll see bifurcation of AI policies: elite institutions invest in critical thinking & limit AI (UC Berkeley Law policy on critical thinking banning ai, UChi Law screen ban), but less resourced places (like my own UIC) try to "keep up" and chase AI. www.law.berkeley.edu/academics/re...
I don't understand why the Creamsicle cat (Yak) finds this comfy, but it's newly his spot (even though we've had this water since getting some plumbing work done). Cats are going to cat!
oh gosh! Just trying to find an old Bluesky post and google did an AI take on me. I REALLY need to switch of the AI or switch broswers.
Spaulding and Yak want to know what Bluesky Chicagoland thinks about NITA, @chicagocta.bsky.social, Pace and Metra board proposed appointees by @mayorofchicago.bsky.social CC Board President Preckwinkle from @taliasoglin.bsky.social @chicagotribune.com www.chicagotribune.com/2026/07/07/b...
Metrics are rarely race-neutral "objective" data. (See original Divvy roll-out & density graphics.chicagotribune.com/bike-access/). Public and capital choices fuel racialized densification and de-densification. Implications for equity, public transit, and the use of ridership in decision-making!
Hopepilled is a nice characteristic! I'm also a Mamdani (and a neoluddite).
Once again, Transport Chicago was a great event! It was a delight to see so many transport folks (including lots of UPP alums) doing amazing work. I even got this moment with the outgoing and incoming UPPSA leadership!
Interesting read (as usual from @yonahfreemark.com): transit service levels, ridership & housing unit growth in large metros. Some surprises among ranking of transit service miles provided per capita by metro but less surprising a strong (not absolute) relationship between service levels & frequency
Excited about @mayorofchicago.bsky.social 's leadership on a plan for municipal ownership of a vital public good: Chicago's intercity bus terminal. It's important for so many with huge equity implications. More info from @blockclubchi.bsky.social blockclubchicago.org/2026/06/01/c...
Want to hear about whiteness, walk commuting, and Walk Score? I'll be in a session (Pedestrianism in Motion) with Irene Henry (Mead & Hunt) & Prithvi Hegde (CMAP) at 11am (Steamboat Hotel) at Transport Chicago next Friday 6/12 (register now! www.transportchicago.org/register)
What a delight! All three pets in one picture frame. We adore Penny, Yak and Spaudling, but they don't all three usually hang out together.
New, open access: How transport journals weed out qualitative research and why it matters. Klein, Linovski, Smart & I examine challenges to publishing qual research and how they limit understandings of critical transportation issues with potential implications for practice and policy. rdcu.be/flsWz
Should I be working on a manuscript revision? Yes. Am I taking pictures of my cats instead? Yes!
Clearing old emails: 2015 pic when my class won LA APA award for analysis of a proposed rerouting of freight scholarworks.uno.edu/plus_rpts/19/ What a great class! Forever grateful to those who had my back on the environmental justice project. Behind the scenes w/Ehrenfeucht doi.org/10.1177/0739...
Yup! @ucs.org report on ridehail showed so much deadheading with human operated ridehail too (part but not all of huge (negative) impacts of ridehail. www.ucs.org/resources/ri...
Empty (deadhead) Waymo miles down (but still high), most rides NOT shared & HIGH overall growth. Amplifies concerns about induced demand. Even if one is agnostic about AVs v. human operated EVs, more collective attention & resources needed for modes that fully support liveability & sustainability.
Hi friends! Has anyone seen or done an updated inventory on city v. suburbs and racial (under) representation on MPOs since the Sanchez @brookings.edu 2004 study (visuals below)? I found interesting Boston & TX case studies by following the citations, but not a national picture.
Solidarity & celebration! CUPPA 26 grads are amazing! UPP faculty wore @uicgeo.org pins in solidarity with their fight for a fair contract. GEO members make crucial contributions to UIC's research, teaching, and service. Their working conditions are our students' learning conditions!
Immigration and its enforcement are mobility justice issues, as Ruth Rosas powerfully wrote in @usa.streetsblog.org usa.streetsblog.org/2025/05/02/f... A terrible bus stop abduction makes it even more dramatically so.
Grading the low tech way: handwritten exams (thanks chatgpt). No TA for this class, so I'm not scabbing. I expect some good reading, as it was a great class!
UPP faculty are in solidarity with @uicgeo.org! Info on strike: www.uicgeo.org/2026-strike