Author of Straphanger | Words @nytimes @natgeomag @guardian @wsj | Latest book @lostsupper | highspeed.blog | Talks: taras-grescoe.com/contact
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"A passionately argued and important book." —The Guardian
In #Straphanger, I travel world looking at best (and worst) in transportation + urbanism.
(NEW: Buying here directly funds my writing—and my new project, about the passenger rail revival.)
shorturl.at/oJpZu
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"A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich use public transportation."
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"In a quality city, a person should be able to live their entire life without a car, and not feel deprived."
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The #Istanbul Metro has outsourced its fare collection, and the new ticket inspectors are very strict.
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Siri, show me the most vivid conceivable example of Experimental Archaeology at work
nitter.app/JoaquimCampa/status/14…
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Sorry Erich von Däniken—you don’t need aliens to explain the Pyramids and Easter Island…just very determined and ingenious Homo sapiens. nitter.app/JoaquimCampa/status/14…
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"A jacked-up motorcycle in the middle of the night can easily wake up 10,000 people."
More cities in #France install "Méduse" anti-noise radars, which have 4 microphones, camera to automatically ticket vehicles that exceed a certain number of decibels
ouest-france.fr/pays-de-la-l…
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I'm fascinated by these. Paternoster Lifts. An open-doored elevator that’s on a loop, moving slowly and continually. Name inspired by a loop of rosary beads. This one is at #Prague City Hall...
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"A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich use public transportation."
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"A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich use public transportation."
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"A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich use public transportation." —@EnriquePenalosa
(Photo: #Strasbourg, France)
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THIS JUST IN:
#Paris's car-free zone announced.
Starting in 2024, cars will be banned in much of 1st-4th arrondissements.
Zone will be reserved for pedestrians, cyclists, transit, the handicapped, local residents.
Offenders will be automatically ticketed.
leparisien.fr/paris-75/on-ne…
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By 1920, the network of interurbans in the US was so dense that a determined commuter could hop interlinked streetcars from Waterville, Maine, to Sheboygan, Wisconsin—a journey of 1,000 miles—exclusively by electric trolley.
🧵🚋
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Where does this bike path lead?
To the train station, of course.
Because that's how you actually build urban transport infrastructure in the time of a climate crisis.
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This train platform in #Japan's Yamaguchi Prefecture has no ticket booth, no entrance or exit.
Why does it exist?
🇯🇵🚉🧵
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City of #Llubljana in #Slovenia, population 280,000, kicked cars out in 2007.
Since then, car use has dropped by 32%, black carbon emissions are down 70%, noise pollution is down by 6 decibels.
Unfortunately, going car-free has made the center a living hell, as this video shows:
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STUDY: Drivers of luxury cars found to give pedestrians the right of way 3x less than those driving less expensive vehicles; 4x more likely to cut off other drivers.
Call it "BMW Syndrome."
pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.11…
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I’ve been to Lago di Garda in northern #Italy—spectacular! (olive trees and lemons on a blue lake with the Dolomites looming).
Seeing the bicycle route they've built since makes me want to go back.
🧵 global bike path #bucketlist
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I lived in #Paris in the 90s. A city totally dominated by cars.
Hard to walk in, a nightmare to ride a bike in.
Look at it now: a city where cars, rather than people, have trouble moving.
Which, in the overheated, hurricane-plagued 2020s, is how a city *should* look.
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Back to School...
Two ways to do the school run.
An elementary school in North Carolina vs. one in #Holland.
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"NASA has declared automobiles are the largest net contributor of climate change pollution in the world."
Your regular reminder that cars aren't part of the problem—they *are* the problem.
giss.nasa.gov/research/news/…
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Is that last hill kicking your butt?
Scandinavia’s got you covered.
The Trampe, which transports cyclists, ski-lift-style, up a 20-degree incline in Trondheim, #Norway.
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This train platform in #Japan's Yamaguchi Prefecture has no ticket booth, no entrance or exit. Why does it exist?
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This year, cars will be banished from streets around 168 schools in the #Paris area—students and parents can access them on foot or by bicycle.
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"A jacked-up motorcycle in the middle of the night can easily wake up 10,000 Parisians."
#Paris joins other cities in #France in installing "Méduse" radars, which automatically ticket drivers whose vehicles exceed a certain number of decibels buff.ly/3D4Ue7l
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Picking up groceries with an F-150 is like...
Cracking nuts with a sledgehammer or
Making toast with a flamethrower.
6 out of 10 trips are under 5 miles.
Love this ad from the UK.
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#Spain offers a high-speed train service between Barcelona and Madrid called Avlo.
It covers the 625 km distance in 2 hours 30 minutes, top speed 330 km/h (185 mph). Fares start at €7.
By comparison...
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"In a quality city, a person should be able to live their entire life without a car, and not feel deprived." —Paul Bedford
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“Airplanes should no longer be means of transporting people in 1 hour 15 minutes, when the same trip could be done at lower cost of CO2 by train in 2.5 hours. This must be the rule, and we will enforce it.”
— #France's finance minister
railjournal.com/passenger/hi…
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You can drive in #Switzerland, sure. But if you want to get where you’re going on time, take public transport.
I rode the No. 6 trolley bus in #Lucerne, and made my appointment on time. If I’d been in a car, I’d still be waiting.
🇨🇭🧵
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"In a quality city, a person should be able to live their entire life without a car, and not feel deprived."
—Paul Bedford
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Until 1969, half of US children rode a bicycle or walked to school.
Today: 87% get driven.
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At any one time, there are 500 million empty parking spaces in the US—for 330m citizens. (Avg size: 153 sq ft—which adds up to a parking lot the size of Delaware + Rhode Island.)
Annual taxpayer subsidy to free parking: $374 billion.
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It's official. The Revolution happened and bicycles won.
Cyclists in #Paris now outnumber drivers.
www-institutparisregion-fr.t…
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When this #Singapore elevated train passes residential towers, its windows automatically "blank out," become opaque, to ensure residents' privacy.
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"We assume that car use is an incompressible liquid that must be routed somewhere. But it’s more like a gas that fills whatever space it is given.”
—Ian Lockwood, transport planner.
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BREAKING: #Canada's government is going ahead with high-speed—not just high-frequency—rail between #Quebec City and #Toronto
Trains to reach speeds of up to 300 kilometres (186 mph) per hour.
20 million people live in this corridor.
cbc.ca/news/politics/high-sp…
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There's a housing crisis in many cities.
But cars can park free.
Why not claim public street-space for those who need it?
If you disguise your shelter as a polluting, duly-licensed private vehicle, like artist Michael Rakowitz did...
...the authorities should be fine with it.
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"In a quality city, a person should be able to live their entire life without a car, and not feel deprived."
—Paul Bedford
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Spot the difference.
For those of us who want to build better cities, create more livable streets, reduce congestion, and improve public health and safety, there is none.
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Nice, #Nantes, #Toulouse and 5 other cities in #France are launching "radars anti-bruit" (noise cameras) to automatically ticket drivers whose vehicles exceed a certain number of decibels on city streets.
challenges.fr/france/les-mot…
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Reuters
The city of #Llubljana in #Slovenia, population 280,000, kicked cars out of its center 15 years ago.
It's become a paradise for walkers, children, bike-riders.
People with limited mobility can use the free Kavalier electric shuttles to take them where they need to go...
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Walt Disney World has significantly better transit than most cities in the US.
Its 12-train-set monorail, 325 buses would make it the 16th most ridden transit system in the nation.
America's fantasy world, it turns out, is a place you can get around without getting into a car.
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It's only purpose is to allow passengers to stop, get out, and enjoy the view of the Nishiki River.
Sigh...I love Japanese rail culture.
soranews24.com/2019/03/19/ne…
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A developed country isn't a place where the poor drive cars. It's where everybody—rich and poor alike—can use public transit.
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When you build cities for people, rather than cars, civic misdemeanors like "jaywalking" and "loitering" become civic virtues.
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"Cities are meant to stop traffic. That is their point. That is why they are there. That is why traders put outposts there, merchants put shops there, hoteliers erect inns there. Rationally one wants to have traffic *stop* there, not go *through*."
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You can see the exact moment when #Switzerland decided ramming highways into its cities was a stupid idea.
This is the Autobahnstummel, the "highway stub," for a huge expressway, one of 3 that was supposed to enter heart of Zürich.
Killed by popular referendum in 1973.
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STUDY: Drivers of luxury cars found to give pedestrians the right of way 3x less than those driving less expensive vehicles; 4x more likely to cut off other drivers.
Call it the "Audi Effect."
𝚃𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚜 𝙶𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚌𝚘𝚎 🚇
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It's only purpose is to allow passengers to stop, get out, and enjoy the view of the Nishiki River.
Sigh...I love Japanese rail culture.
soranews24.com/2019/03/19/ne…
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There have been 0 deaths on #Paris's bike paths so far in 2022.
The busiest of them now count 15,000+ riders a day.
Usage is up 17-30% over last year.
So successful city is now considering widening existing paths.
liberation.fr/societe/la-fre…
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"The automobile has dissolved the living tissue of the city. Its appetite for space is absolutely insatiable; moving & parked, it devours urban land, leaving buildings as mere islands of habitable space in a sea of dangerous & ugly traffic."
—James Marston Fitch, NY Times, 1960.
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Free winter tires for people choosing bikes over cars in #Sweden—public transport agency will give away studded tires for winter bicycle users.
themayor.eu/en/a/view/free-w…
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"Most mini trucks have the same roughly 6-foot bed size as the F-150."
Something Ford and GMC *definitely* don't want you to know.
I make the case for tiny trucks...
🧵
abc12.com/the-new-hot-truck-…
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"In a quality city, a person should be able to live their entire life without a car, and not feel deprived."
—Paul Bedford
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STUDY: Drivers of luxury cars found to give pedestrians the right of way 3x less than those driving less expensive vehicles; 4x more likely to cut off other drivers.
Call it the "Audi Effect."
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What *really* killed streetcars?
They stopped running efficiently because they were swamped by private automobiles.
This stunning colorized footage from 1930s Los Angeles shows it well...
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THIS JUST IN:
Car ban begins in the center of #Paris.
Starting on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024: no through-traffic will be allowed in four central arrondissements on the Right Bank. (Home to the Louvre, Notre-Dame, and the Marais).
This is a big deal.
urbanaccessregulations.eu/co…
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"A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich use public transportation."
Photo: Orléans, France.
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"Cities are meant to stop traffic. That is their point. That is why they are there. That is why traders put outposts there, merchants put shops there, hoteliers erect inns there. Rationally one wants to have traffic *stop* there, not go *through*."
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"It simply never occurs to us to make streets into oases rather than deserts."
Italy vs. the United States
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#Istanbul tried to use canine inspectors for a while, but they kept on getting distracted. Especially by the view of the Blue Mosque from the city ferries.
Cats stay focused.
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The city before the automobile.
Streetcars, bicycles, pedestrians, horses.
Quieter, more relaxed, and people still got where they needed to go. (And got some fresh air, too.)
A dreamy view of #Barcelona, Carrer Gran de Gràcia, 1909.
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Too foot-weary to pedal that last hill home?
Put your bike on the Zahnradbahn.
In #Germany, the Stuttgart to Degerloch open bike-car has been taking bike-commuters up and downhill since 1983.
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They say big trucks are just a reality if you want to make deliveries in the city.
I say there's other ways to solve the "last-mile" problem...
There's your beer kegs—sorted.
#London
🧵
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#France is serious about meeting climate commitments.
This year, banned domestic flight routes where an alternative rail journey under 2.5 hours is available.
It has also invested €61bn in railways in last 5 years, pledging to invest a further €6.5bn
railway-technology.com/analy…
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By 1910, the network of interurbans in the US was so dense that a determined commuter could hop interlinked streetcars from Elkhart, Wisconsin, to Oneonta, NY—a journey of 1,100 miles—exclusively by electric trolley. 🚋🧵
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Here's the *real* future of transport (sorry, Elon):
The Non-Polluting,
Autonomy-Building,
Fitness-Enhancing,
Happiness-Producing,
Self-Driven Vehicle.
...
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"The automobile has dissolved the living tissue of the city. Its appetite for space is absolutely insatiable; moving and parked, it devours urban land, leaving buildings as mere islands of habitable space in a sea of dangerous and ugly traffic."
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Reality check: b/c of embodied carbon + battery production, electric car only starts saving emissions after 40,000 miles.
Existing EV fleet stands to reduce global temperatures by just 1/100,000 of a degree Celsius by 2100.
Real solution: end car-dependency—and don't buy a Tesla.
Most importantly, every electric car, Tesla or otherwise, matters to the environment we all share. Every time someone chooses electric, the future gets a little bit brighter!
If not Tesla, please take a look at these other options:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List…
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Design your transit, service, and emergency vehicles to fit your city—not the other way around.
🧵
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"#Copenhagen took away three percent of inner city parking every year. If you do it slowly enough, nobody notices."
The Strøget, 1954 and today.
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What *really* killed streetcars? They stopped running efficiently because they were swamped by private automobiles. This stunning colorized footage from 1930s Los Angeles shows it well... 🚋🧵
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"The bicycle is the most efficient machine ever created. Converting calories into gas, a bicycle gets the equivalent of three thousand miles per gallon."
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"In the twentieth century, it became possible to travel to moon, but impossible to walk across the street."
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NEW STUDY: Children are 8 times more likely to be killed in crashes involving SUVs/pick-ups than regular cars. Altogether, SUVs/pickups account for 38% of pedestrian and cyclist fatalities.
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STUDY: Drivers of luxury cars found to give pedestrians the right of way 3x less than those driving less expensive vehicles; 4x more likely to cut off other drivers.
Call it the "Audi Effect" ... 🧵
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Thomas Schlijper
"Motorized vehicles create remoteness which they alone can shrink. They create distances for all, and shrink them for only a few."
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NEW STUDY: If everyone emulated the Dutch, cycling just 2.6 kilometres/day, world would reduce CO2 emissions by 686 million tonnes a year. #Netherlands
nature.com/articles/s43247-0…
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Picking up groceries with an F-150 is like...
Cracking nuts with a sledgehammer
or...Making toast with a flamethrower.
6 out of 10 trips are under 5 miles.
Bikes + cargobikes can do much of what people think they need cars + trucks for.
Love this ad from the UK.
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50 years ago, a transport revolution started in
#Zürich.
#Switzerland rejected urban freeways. Zurich decided not to build a metro, opting for an S-Bahn commuter train network.
And they gave *absolute* priority to trams over cars in center of Zurich. The result?
🇨🇭🚋🧵
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Which city quietly rules on public transport?
Hint: it's got 30 tram lines, 423 kms of tracks, serving more than 1,071 stops.
43 daytime bus routes, 23 nighttime bus routes, 10 regional rail lines, 181 stations.
And, if you're a resident with an annual pass, €1 a day to ride.
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"The right to access every building in a city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is actually the right to destroy the city."
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Here's the *real* future of transport (sorry, Elon):
The Non-Polluting,
Autonomy-Building,
Fitness-Enhancing,
Happiness-Producing,
Self-Driven Vehicle.
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This will sound unbelievable to most people. (Not to me!)
A classic study from #Denmark followed 30,000 people of all ages for 15 years.
Those who rode a bicycle to work were 40% less likely to die—of all causes—over the study period.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1084…
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As Bedford points out, the opposite is also true:
"A good sustainability and quality of life indicator: the average amount of time spent in a car."
(Elevated time car-commuting time also turns out to be a reliable metric of social isolation and general life dissatisfaction.)
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The fact that the "Beg Button" exists in so many cities is messed up.
For the privilege of crossing the street, pedestrians are required to press a button, wait, and then scurry across while cars + trucks give them a few seconds of grace.
Here's one I'd press in a second...
🧵
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