Category Archives: Transportation

Miami’s new Underline trail

I visited the new Underline trail when I was in Miami last week. The Underline is supposed to replace and to be a big improvement over the M-Path, the simple trail that was created under or next to the southern … Continue reading

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Has Paris really changed?

I made two short trips to Paris this fall. I particularly wanted to take a look at some of the changes in Paris introduced by the administration of Mayor Anne Hidalgo, which, since 2014, has garnered a huge amount of … Continue reading

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The geography of transport choices in small areas of big American cities

Here are four census-tract-level maps showing the “modal split” of journeys to work by workers 16 and over during the 2015/2019 period in the central parts of the New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco areas. All these maps … Continue reading

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Denver tries to mitigate its automobile dependence

Over the last thirty or so years, most of the urban areas of the Mountain West and Sunbelt have been taking some tentative steps to mitigate the less attractive aspects of their dependence on automobiles. They’ve built hiking and biking … Continue reading

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The geography of carfree households in the United States

A map of the United States by census tract suggests that–except in a few remote and nearly roadless parts of Alaska–few households are carfree: In fact, a closer look reveals a different story. In 351 (out of 74,002) tracts, 75 … Continue reading

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New York’s “open streets” vs. Chicago’s “shared streets”

I’ve reported in previous blog posts (here and here) on Chicago’s “shared streets” (which are comparable to what are called “slow streets” in most other cities). These are streets open only to local motor-vehicle traffic and intended chiefly for pedestrian … Continue reading

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Hiking and biking in Reykjavík

I made a brief trip in early July to Reykjavík. If you don’t count a couple of stops at Keflavík Airport many years ago, this was my first visit to Iceland. Reykjavík is a smallish city in a country with … Continue reading

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Dallas dreams of walkability

I spent a few days in the Dallas area earlier this month. It was my first time in Dallas since February 1997. On that earlier trip, I’d found the city deeply depressing. Dallas’s downtown, once apparently a lively place, had … Continue reading

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New Orleans has—slowly—improved its rail-transit and pedestrian infrastructure

I took my first post-vaccination trips in April and May, traveling twice to New Orleans. I’d been in New Orleans quite a number of times over the years but, for one reason or another, hadn’t been there since 1983. The … Continue reading

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Northeastern Lincoln Park in Chicago temporarily becomes a little less car-ridden

Many parks in large American cities seem to be set up more for automobile travel than for getting around on foot or even by bicycle. An example is Belle Isle Park in Detroit. The park has a very distinguished history. … Continue reading

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