When done right, public transit becomes more than just infrastructure. It becomes a symbol and a form of marketing itself. It becomes famous and accomplishes the same thing as any famous building, landmark or museum. Here then, are eight public transit vehicles/systems that have transcended being merely transportation and are instead signals of sophistication, ingenuity,...
When I was a child, my mother had a very simple rule when we were taking public transit: If I misbehaved, we walked . . . no matter how far from home we were. I knew perfectly well that my mother didn’t want to walk home any more than I did so one day I...
The above image was created by Andrew Burleson over at Neohouston.com. It’s a conceptual/theoretical CPT line he designed for a poorly-serviced area of Houston. Conceptual transit lines are a cottage industry for the transit enthusiast and hobbyist. They’re wonderful and exciting and they’re everywhere. I think every major city has a few people who do...
I just learned of something called ‘virtual kidnappings.’ The way it works is simple: The morally suspect troll around the internet looking for evidence that a certain person (any person) is visiting a certain place at a certain time. Facebook is great for this. During that certain time, the kidnappers then contact the certain family...
Well that didn’t take long at all. Matthew Thredgold of New Zealand was the first to figure out that at one time or another, The Grateful Dead, Rodney Dangerfield, Alvin & The Chipmunks and Andrea Bocelli all sang the famous Italian song Funiculi Funicula. Congrats, Matthew! 50 bucks is yours! Why does this matter? Well, apparently...
What do The Grateful Dead, Alvin & The Chipmunks, Rodney Dangerfield & Andrea Bocelli share in common? (as relates to cable?) Fifty bucks (Canadian) to the first person who can answer the above question. The winner will be announced either tomorrow or sometime in the near future, depending on whether this question is easier than I thought...
There are hundreds of ways public transit could pay for itself. Public transit operators have simply chosen the least effective and most out-dated of them all: Fares. The thing about fares is this: They always go up and customers are never happy about it. The airlines realized this years ago and stopped worrying about fares....
A Thought Experiment: Imagine no such thing as public transit had ever existed. Instead, you had a vision last night and dreamt up the concept today. You decide this is a great idea and call it “public transit.” You want to sell this public transit thing to an investor, (public or private, it doesn’t matter) and you...
It took me a while, but I’ve finally compiled all the comments left online to the Toronto Star article that appeared last month. Here, in a completely unscientific study, I present the results. Most of the comments left could be categorized in one of four ways: This is the worst idea I have ever heard...