transportation

All Work and No Play Makes Self-Driving Cars a Dull Ploy

Back in the 1950s and 60s, self-driving cars represented the fantastic life of luxury that was supposed to be just around the corner. But here in the 21st century we can’t even pretend that our driverless cars of the future will be filled with board games and light reading. No, our self-driving car of tomorrow…

Urgent NYC Coffee Subway Map Update: Brooklyn and Queens Now Included!

New Yorkers had a great time giggling at a new sort of subway map earlier this month. It looked just like the regular subway map only, instead of the real stops, the New York City Coffee map showed the best coffee shop found at each of those locations—unless that stop happened to be in Brooklyn…

Clever New Clothes To Protect You From Germs On The Subway

The news that measles might be spreading through San Francisco’s BART network not only triggered a warning from the transit authority itself, it is also a particularly alarming reminder that public transportation can be, well, disgusting. Winter’s runny noses, summer’s sweat, spring’s sneezing allergies—it doesn’t really matter the season. When you ride the bus or…

NYC’s Touchscreen Subway Maps Are Finally Here, and They’re Amazing

New York subway riders first were promised futuristic touchscreen wayfinding maps a year ago. But the plan to install the futuristic infrastructure stalled as the design team took a step back to improve the hardware. Six months overdue, the first batch is finally live in Grand Central Station. They were worth the wait. Over the…

Moby wants you to join his perpetual pool party in Los Angeles, and a group of scientists wants China to use “spatial economics” to design more walkable cities. Plus: informal transit in Nairobi, a failed utopia in California, radical ideas for the Vegas of 2034, and a significant prehistoric site that’s currently being uncovered in…

A Plan to Turn Abandoned Subway Stations Into Pools, Bars, and More

Abandoned subway stations have long been the playgrounds of squatters and urban explorers alike, but one French politician has higher hopes. Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, a candidate for mayor of Paris, wants to turn them into awesome entertainment and sports venues. Kosciusko-Morizet—or NKM, as she’s known by her supporters—just revealed a series of sketches for what these…

The Northeast Is a Mess Because It’s Running Out of Salt

The Northeast may have had its fun mocking the South’s recent descent into chaos in the face of snow, but now it’s our turn to fall apart. This newest storm has shut down I-84—one of the region’s biggest highways—and crippled countless other roads. The culprit? We’re running out of salt. Beginning last night, snow has…

Would you take a 56-hour bus trip to shrink your carbon footprint?

A meteorologist is quitting flying to reduce his personal impact on climate change. The upside: A smaller carbon footprint. The downside: A trip from Atlanta to Wisconsin now takes him 56 hours. Eric Holthaus, after looking over his personal climate impact, found flying to be his single biggest cause of CO2 emissions. Just quitting flying…

The Amtrak Dock Vertical Lift bridge spans the Passaic River in Newark, NJ. Built in 1937, the bridge carries train traffic as part of the Northeast Corridor. It is still capable of raising to it’s maximum clearance of 135 feet with prior notice of 24 hours, though it has not been raised since 2004. [Photo…

Why Do Pedestrians Have to Press ““Beg Buttons” to Cross the Street?

We were all taught how to cross a street: Look both ways. But, in some cities, you’ll also have to ask permission by pressing a tiny button and waiting your turn. Those little buttons on walk signals have been nicknamed “beg buttons”—because walkers are pretty much begging to be able to cross. Here in Los…

The Government Wants Our Cars and Trucks to Talk to One Another

The U.S. Department of Transportation brought us one step closer to that utopian future where cars never crash on Monday with the announcement that it will move ahead with vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2V) technology. In short, the government wants all the cars on the road to talk to one another. It makes perfect sense, especially where…

Can’t Choose Between Biking or Roller Blading? Now You Don’t Have To

The Segway opened the floodgates for countless personal mobility devices, with designs that range from conservative to downright crazy. And the Aeyo—a cross between a scooter, a bicycle, and a pair of inline skates—falls somewhere in the middle of that scale. The Aeyo is ridden in a standing position like a scooter, but instead of…

People Movers: The Great Transportation Promise of the 1970s

In the 1970s, personal rapid transit (PRT) was supposed to be America’s great transportation savior. It combined the privacy of a privately owned car with the efficiency of mass transit. But despite a great deal of hype, this futuristic transportation tech is still mostly relegated to the future that never was. Serious research on PRT…

How Good Data Makes Transit Feel More Efficient—Even When It’s Not

I tried a little experiment the other day—and I’m not sure why I hadn’t tried it before. Before I walked to the bus stop to go downtown, I checked the real-time arrivals for my stop. It turned out the bus wasn’t coming for another 11 minutes, so I did the dishes first and only then…

This Colorful Rubber Bike Rack Won’t Scratch Or Ding Your Favorite Ride

You might be able to get away with riding a scratch-free bike around the city, but locking up a scratch-free bike? Good luck, buddy; that’s gonna leave a mark. Ottawa-based design consultancy The Federal Inc. devised the colorful Loop rack to give your beloved frame a soft spot to rest against—a high-strength steel chain wrapped…

An interactive map of every plane in the air right now

It’s the 100-years anniversary of commercial flight travel. To celebrate, let’s all check out this lovely interactive map, that shows the flight paths and times of all the planes currently in the air. The interactive map was created by The Guardian, using data on both the times and routes taken by all the commercially-flown planes…

Martin Luther King’s 1956 tips for riding integrated buses, examining how design has helped an Alabama county, building instant cities in Accra and instant skyscrapers in Mumbai, and how two New York architects are tearing down the work of their former friends. It’s all this week in our favorite Urban Reads. “Do not deliberately sit…

A Tie with a Hidden Tokyo Subway Map is Nerdy and Brilliant

Nobody likes looking like a tourist, especially in their hometown—but with a public transportation system as complex as Tokyo’s, sometimes a map is entirely necessary. Need a simple solution to avoid getting lost while looking like a native? Wear your map in a hidden place. That’s exactly what this Bluebelland brand necktie offers. It looks…

5 of the Worst Traffic Jams in History

When not being used for poorly thought-out political revenge, traffic jams are making the lives of commuters suck on a daily basis. But sometimes, bad traffic can get spectacularly bad—even worse than fake traffic study bad. In honor of those times, we’ve collected some of the worst traffic jams in history. And these spectacularly bad…

A Map of the Futuristic Los Angeles Subway From Spike Jonze’s Her

One of the best moments in the new movie Her is watching Joaquin Phoenix ride an elevated train through a Los Angeles of the near-future, dance through a bustling subway station, and emerge at the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The scene got a surprised laugh from everyone at the screening I attended. After years…