public transportation
-
Seattle's impending car-centric mega-tunnel: a chat with urbanist Cary Moon
Despite their ostentatious talk on climate, many Pacific Northwest political leaders don't seem to be making the transportation connection. Nowhere is that more evident than in the fight over how to replace Seattle's crumbling Alaskan Way Viaduct, a two-mile-long elevated stretch of State Route 99 running along the city's waterfront. The alternative with the most momentum is a gigantic bored tunnel -- a concrete-heavy, emissions-intensive, multi-billion-dollar piece of old-school highway infrastructure devoted almost entirely to cars, shuttling suburban drivers past the urban core. Sustainable urbanism advocate Cary Moon explains WTF.
-
LEGO lets you play with improving mass transit
Will having kids play with LEGO buses and trams (rather than Hot Wheels) foster the next generation of public-transit advocates?
-
New Mexico bus opera to give moving performances
The Crosstown #5 bus opera set to debut in Santa Fe will almost certainly be a ride you won't want to miss. Just sit back and let the music move you.
-
China to breed humongous bus-subway hybrid that swallows traffic
There may be 9 million bicycles in Beijing, but there's also a heck of a lot of traffic. To deal with all those wheels, Chinese innovators have come up with a Futurama-esque solution: a new breed of mass transit that lets cars drive through it. Take a look.
-
Why, yes, mass transit stations should always have a slide
I submit that slides automatically up the fun factor of nearly any place in the world. Try to think of a place that is solemn or ordinary. Say, a church or a transit tunnel. But then if you happen to be in Oruro, Bolivia, like I was, you could get a rush of glee from […]
-
Public service announcement: Don’t spit on the people transporting you
ghmss via Flickr Creative Commons Bus drivers put up with a lot of crap: cranky commuters in the early morning, drunk partiers late at night, and would-be passengers breathlessly demanding that they open-the-doors-right-this-minute-I-didn’t-chase-this-bus-three-blocks-for-nothing. Maybe even witnessing the occasional fight. But, to my surprise, one of the spit falls of working in mass transit appears to […]
-
‘Love seats’ flirt with creating better bus times
Kadaver off the Record Copenhagen’s buses are introducing another way of getting around while you get around town: “love seats,” or “kærlighedssæder.” (Gesundheit!) A social experiment of Danish bus company, Arriva, these special spots aim to make things a little cozier for those would-be cuddlers who haven’t been feeling the love on public transit. “You […]
-
‘Save transit’ rallies start up around U.S.
Courtesy Atlanta Journal ConstitutionThe rallies that get all the attention these days are about stopping new initiatives, like health-care reform. But here we’ve got rallies about defending part of the shared social fabric. Off-duty public transit workers in Atlanta plastered large red X’s on buses and trains (with permission) to highlight the severe budget shortfall […]
-
Do Americans really make the connection between transportation, oil use, and environmental impacts?
The national poll that Transportation for America released this week makes it clear that Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of increasing our access to transportation options, no matter where they live in America — big cities, suburbs, small towns, or rural areas. The majority believes that their community — and the country as a whole […]