Wednesday, January 7, 2026

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

Unlocking Better Bus Service Starts with Electric Buses

Buses are the backbone of public transport. Yet in many cities, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), bus services remain slow, unreliable, crowded,...

How Ready Are Brazil’s Cities for Climate Change?

Each storm that floods a bus terminal, or a heat wave that makes walking and cycling a challenge, demonstrates that climate change is fundamentally...

ITDP Mexico’s 2025 Ciclociudades Monitor Assesses Cycling Across Latin America

Since 2011, Ciclociudades has been a key initiative of ITDP Mexico to measure the progress of cycling mobility across cities — originally focused on...

ITDP Mexico’s 2025 Ciclociudades Monitor Assesses Cycling Across Latin America

Since 2011, Ciclociudades has been a key initiative of ITDP Mexico to measure the progress of cycling mobility across cities — originally focused on...