Cities

Share and share a bike: A fresh way to find a rental cycle

A new peer-to-peer bike-sharing site connects bike owners with bike renters just about anywhere.

Andrew Zaleski Transportation

The new revolutionaries: Landscape architects reinvent urban parks

These designers are like Lady Gaga. They’re like Bob Dylan plugging in. They’re like the electric guitar after years and years of classical music. So why have you never heard of them?

Rebecca Messner Cities

What does your ideal street look like? A smart growth expert weighs in

Planner and smart-growth advocate Mike Lydon talks bike-friendly cities and bike-unfriendly cops, livable streets, and his ideal streetscape.

Matt Bevilacqua Cities

The ‘war on suburbia’ is a hoax

Saying that we’ve declared war on the suburbs is like a spoiled frat boy whining that his parents have declared war on his trust fund because they’ve cut him back to just one kegger and a pound of weed each week.

Greg Hanscom Cities

Everyone in Beijing is ditching bikes, except for the foreigners

In 1986, 60 percent of the citizens of Beijing rode bikes; now 17 percent do.

Christopher Mims Transportation

Gonzo urban bike racing cranks up camaraderie, community

In the spirit of friendly competition, urban cyclists cook up all manner of mad contests, then hold them in the most unlikely places. The result is a culture and community you could never create with cars.

Joel Gwadz Transportation

Smart Car goes on an ASCII adventure in the world’s coolest Twitter feed

Go to the Twitter feed of Smart Car of Argentina and hold down the J key. Go on. We’ll wait here for you.

Jess Zimmerman Technology

This is the coolest-looking, least practical bike helmet we’ve ever seen

Have you ever wanted to have a stunningly beautiful bike helmet that would shatter into dangerous splinters if you ever actually fell on your head? Well, you're in luck, because Instructables user Natalina has posted step-by-step procedures for making a helmet that looks like a disco ball.

Jess Zimmerman Transportation

Chris Christie’s strategy for killing public transit: Lies, lies, and lies

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ripped the beating heart out of a N.Y.C.-Jersey transit project that public officials had only been planning for since, oh, 1995. At the time, he said the project would cost New Jersey too much. But guess what? He lied about the costs, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

Sarah Laskow Transportation

Americans walk less than any other industrialized nation

Here are the juicy bits of Tom Vanderbilt's new series on walking.