“With ridership lagging and a fiscal reckoning looming, the L is in trouble. Here’s why our train is worth saving.”
public transportation
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Nonstop Gay Sex Party on the Mexico City Subway
“The city’s metro hosts—and authorities unofficially sanction—a queer institution unlike any other.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
“They Just Need a Safe Place to Be:” How Public Transit Became the Last Safety Net In America
“The surge in homelessness on transit systems creates a conundrum for agencies used to the old way of doing things.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
‘Why You Talking to a Bum?’
“When the very presence of unhoused people on the Chicago Transit Authority is considered a public safety concern, who is the public, and what are we keeping them safe from?”
Posted inCulture, Highlight, Nonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes, Science & Nature, Technology
Into the Wild On an E-Scooter
What happens when you ride an e-scooter out of the city limits — until its battery dies?
Posted inNonfiction, Story
Judgement and Epiphany on Pittsburgh’s Number 79 Bus
The seven stops on the bus lead one resident to an understanding about the way he views his neighbors.
Posted inBlog Post, Nonfiction
Riding the Rails: Celebrating Trains and Subway Commuter Life
My other half Rebekah and I recently returned from Japan, and we’re in that rapture phase where you wish the things you loved overseas were also available in America. I already miss the 24-hour action of Japanese cities, their automated restaurants, the street-side vending machines — and public transportation. In Japan, trains run on time. […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
How the MTA Introduced the Touch Screen to New York City
The first thing [the machine’s creator, industrial designer Masamichi] Udagawa did was to provide some context for the realities of New York City in the late 1990s, when the MTA ticket vending system was being developed. What I hadn’t realized before was exactly how novel these machines were at the time.
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
The Self-Driving Revolution
Let’s be honest: Humans never should have been allowed behind the wheel in the first place. There’s so much that can go wrong, so much room for negligence—it’s incredible to think that we managed human-controlled cars for as long as we did. Here’s a reading list covering the past, present and future of transportation.
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
The Self-Driving Revolution
Let’s be honest: Humans never should have been allowed behind the wheel in the first place. There’s so much that can go wrong, so much room for negligence—it’s incredible to think that we managed human-controlled cars for as long as we did. Here’s a reading list covering the past, present and future of transportation.