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  • How bicycles are fighting illiteracy and empowering women in India

    The Indian state of Bihar has only a 33 percent literacy rate for women — the lowest in the country. But the state government, headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, is turning education for girls around — with bicycles. In 2007 Kumar instituted a plan to give schoolgirls money to buy bicycles once they successfully […]

    Jess Zimmerman Transportation

  • Chris Christie takes a helicopter to a baseball game

    I was going to put a joke in the headline, but is it really necessary? I mean, here are the facts without jokes: Chris Christie, the transit-killing, mall-building, climate-initiative-withdrawing governor of New Jersey, hopped on a state helicopter to go to his kid's baseball game — and once he alit, a private car took him […]

    Jess Zimmerman Cities

  • A yarn bomb in Hell’s Kitchen [VIDEO]

    Yarn bombing — covering stuff on the street with crocheted or knitted cozies — has become a common enough practice that it merited the dreaded “trend” treatment in The New York Times a couple of weeks ago. That doesn’t mean that it can’t still be very cool. And this little video is about an especially […]

    Sarah Goodyear Cities

  • Rejecting high-speed rail is not a good political move

    Hey, it turns out people don't want to get divorced and die because of long car commutes! Actually, we're just guessing about that (makes sense, though, right?), but what's clear is that constituents won't thank you for nixing rail projects. Gas 2.0 checked in with the biggest rail refusenik governors, and they're all faltering in […]

    Jess Zimmerman Cities

  • Manhattanhenge makes life in the city a little more magical

    Today is Manhattanhenge, one of the two days a year when the setting sun lines up perfectly with the New York City street grid. Next to Central Park and possibly the High Line, it might be the best demonstration that living in the city doesn't rule out natural beauty … it just maybe makes it […]

    Jess Zimmerman Cities

  • Cycling survivor: A post-crash meditation on what really matters

    Be more human, less of a machine. Also, wear a helmet.Photo: Jorgen SchybergI was badly injured in a bike accident on April 13. Eyewitness reports differ, but it’s likely that a car ran over my head, and it’s more than likely that the helmet clasped around my head saved my life. The temporal bone on […]

    Will Craven Transportation

  • Need a new bike?

    In honor of bike to work month, one lucky Grist fan is going to get a $500 gift certificate to a bike shop in their area.

    Grist staff Transportation

  • The Yike Bike could make bike commuters of us all

    You undoubtedly know someone who would totally commute by bike if it weren't for a whole raft of concerns: It's too dangerous! They're too cumbersome! I don't want to get sweaty on the way to the office! It is now time for those people to shut it. The YikeBike folds to the size of a […]

    Jess Zimmerman Transportation

  • No bike lane? Make your own!

    "Safety First" is a video art installation in Prague, not an actual solution to the lack of bike lanes. We don't recommend projecting a custom bike lane off the front of your ride — or, I mean, go ahead, but that doesn't really make that staircase/train track/highway into a protected lane. But it's still cool […]

    Jess Zimmerman Transportation

  • Get ready for solar airplanes

    There’s nothing that exciting about a plane that uses no fuel and emits no CO2 — I’ve been folding those since the fourth grade. A plane that uses no fuel, emits no CO2, has the same wingspan as an Airbus A340, and can transport people on international flights, though: That’s a big deal. And that’s […]

    Jess Zimmerman Cities