Category Archives: Rail infrastructure

Many—and probably most—French cities have engaged in large-scale urban renewal projects over the last thirty years or so. Obsolete industrial and port facilities have been replaced by offices and housing. Research centers, museums, and concert halls have been squeezed into … Continue reading →

I spent a week in Buenos Aires last month. This was my fourth (and longest) trip to the city. I had been there previously in 1986, 2002, and 2015. In the course of my recent trip, I tried to learn … Continue reading →

Dubai is known as a very car-oriented place. Exhibit number one is Sheikh Zayed Road, a 16-to-24-lane limited-access highway that extends through nearly the whole length of Dubai’s post-1990s neighborhoods including those containing most of the city’s famous skyscrapers. Pedestrian … Continue reading →

Hong Kong has four quite distinct urban rail systems: [1] the MTR (Mass Transit Railway), which consists of approximately 231 km of modern urban rail lines that run throughout the special administrative region; it incorporates the formerly separate lines of … Continue reading →

A simplistic view of post-World-War-II French urban transportation planning would identify two very different phases. In the 1950s and 1960s, and well into the 1970s, the government largely devoted itself to catering to the automobile. Limited-access highways were built to connect French … Continue reading →

When I was in Toronto, I also explored a much smaller project: the renovation of Queens Quay. Queens Quay is a short (3.3 km) street along Toronto’s “Harbourfront.” Over the last forty or so years most of its western 2 … Continue reading →

In the world of urban planning, Hamburg has perhaps become best known for HafenCity, which has been slowly replacing Hamburg’s obsolete 19th-century port in the years since 2003 (an enormous new container port has grown up across the Elbe). HafenCity is claimed to … Continue reading →