Category Archives: Transportation

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

There has been talk of building a recreational path along the Chicago River for decades. The Friends of the Chicago River, a lobbying group, has been urging the construction of such a path since its inception in 1979. The second … Continue reading →

Chicago opened another “shared street” a couple of weeks ago: a 1.1-mile-long stretch of Dickens Avenue between Clark Street and Racine Avenue. Chicago uses the term “shared street” for what, in many American cities, would be called a “slow street”: … Continue reading →

Overcrowded sidewalks—a bad idea in a time of social distancing—have led many American cities to start a “slow streets” program, in which pedestrians and cyclists are encouraged to use the roadways of certain streets. Chicago came to this movement rather … Continue reading →