Climate Cities

Finding the zone: The Zen of urban cycling

Whether you’re riding in the city or the remote mountain biking trails, cycling requires your complete focus. Do it right, and you feel invincible. Slip up, and you could be on a backboard getting a ride to the ER.

Sporty little MIT ‘city car’ is cute as an animal-themed butt plug

MIT’s 1,609-pound, all-electric wheeled pod thingy is actually going to be produced and sold, so we thought it could use a marketing campaign. Also, the whole web is kind of having a holiday right now, and we wanted to throw our party hats in the ring.

Seeing red: Where do the GOP candidates stand on urban issues?

For decades, the Republican strategy on cities has been to ignore them and hope they go away. This year appears to be no different, but the guys currently taking pot shots at each other in the presidential primary never cease to surprise.

Microsoft’s ‘avoid ghetto’ app is kind of gross

Microsoft has come up with an app for people traveling by foot that will route them around areas with high crime rates. This function is being called the “avoid ghetto” feature (not by Microsoft, of course, because they’re not that dense), and it’s, uh, controversial. As a person who sometimes walks around in cities at […]

How plug-in cars can face up to winter’s challenges

Plug-in and hybrid vehicles face particular challenges in cold weather. But new technologies in the works could help those cars cope.

Ride the line: What one activist learned biking the Keystone XL route

"Renewable rider" Tom Weis biked the over 2,000 miles of the U.S. portion of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline route, learning along the way that opposition to the project doesn't fall along party lines.

Cycles and cents: One city sets out to prove that bikes are good for business

Known as a car-addicted city, Long Beach, Calif., creates the nation’s first “bike-friendly” business districts, and it seems to be working.

Weird new all-electric cars debut at Detroit Auto Show

Volkswagen E-Bugster

Hitting the "on" button on this car (because in the future, all cars will be started the same way you start up a laptop) makes the interior flash blue like you've just stepped into a light cycle from TRON. Check the video, below, for the full effect.

Forget about San Francisco: Second-tier towns are where the action is

In down-and-out cities like Oakland, St. Louis, and Knoxville, there's more freedom to do your thing, and a hunger for fresh energy and ideas.

David Bowie riding the subway

The Thin White Duke turned 65 (I KNOW) yesterday, and Flavorwire has put together a slideshow of him doing normal stuff, just to prove he can. Here he is making use of public transportation, even though he could totally summon a shimmering gargoyle to fly him to wherever he's going. Going car-free: It's cool! David […]