Friday, May 9, 2025

Streetcars and urban renewal: Rolling blunder

LATE and over budget, streetcars are finally rumbling to life in Washington, DC. The long-awaited service, which has cost at least $135m to build,...

The Economist explains: Why trams are a waste of money

STREETCARS—otherwise known as trolleys or trams—had their golden age around 100 years ago, carrying urban workers to nascent suburbs around Europe and America. But...

Bob Crow: Union man

SOME people would resent being treated as the pantomime villain of London politics. Not Bob Crow, who died early this morning. The leader of...

New York: The subway, after Sandy

NEW YORK was warned. In 2011, a year before Superstorm Sandy hit the city, Klaus Jacob, a scientist at Columbia University, warned in a report that...

Fares: Maybe buses should be free

AFTER riding a tram in Strasbourg, Matt Yglesias, a blogger with Slate, has decided that proof-of-payment fare-collection systems—in which fares are enforced by inspectors who...

Latest articles

This US Company Just Successfully Tested a Reusable Hypersonic Rocket Plane

Stratolaunch has finally found a use for the world’s largest airplane.Twice in the past five months, the company launched a hypersonic vehicle over the...

Are Electric Two-Wheelers the Future?

Two-wheelers — mopeds, motorcycles, and other higher-speed, high-powered motorbikes — are gaining in popularity, especially the faster ones. They are quick and affordable, and...

Advancing Gender Inclusion in Nairobi’s Transport System

Accessibility in urban transport systems is greatly influenced by design choices. These choices can either facilitate or hinder the mobility of various user groups,...

Exploring the Possibilities of BRT with ITDP’s SCOPE Web Tool

In February, the 2025 Sustainable Transport Award was given to Dakar, Senegal, with an honorable mention for Mexico City, for their world-class bus rapid...