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Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile
Taras Grescoe rides the rails all over the world and makes an elegant and impassioned case for the imminent end of car culture and the coming transportation revolution"I am proud to call myself a straphanger," writes Taras Grescoe. The perception of public transportation in America is often unflattering—a squalid last resort for those with one too many drunk-driving charges, too poor to afford insurance, or too decrepit to get behind the wheel of a car. Indeed, a century of auto-centric culture and city planning has left most of the country with public transportation that is underfunded, ill maintained, and ill conceived. But as the demand for petroleum is fast outpacing the world's supply, a revolution in transportation is under way. Grescoe explores the ascendance of the straphangers—the growing number of people who rely on public transportation to go about the business of their daily lives. On a journey that takes him around the world—from New York to Moscow, Paris, Copenhagen, Tokyo, Bogotá, Phoenix, Portland, Vancouver, and Philadelphia—Grescoe profiles public transportation here and abroad, highlighting the people and ideas that may help undo the damage that car-centric planning has done to our cities and create convenient, affordable, and sustainable urban transportation—and better city living—for all.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published September 9, 2011
58 people are currently reading
2245 people want to read
About the author
Taras Grescoe
14 books72 followersTaras Grescoe was born in 1967. He writes essays, articles, and books. He is something of a non-fiction specialist.
His first book was Sacré Blues, a portrait of contemporary Quebec that won Canada's Edna Staebler Award for Non-Fiction, two Quebec Writers' Federation Awards, a National Magazine Award (for an excerpted chapter), and was short-listed for the Writers' Trust Award. It was published in 2000 by Macfarlane, Walter & Ross, and became a Canadian bestseller. Sacré Blues helped Taras fall in love with Quebec, and explained the origins of poutine to an eternally grateful country. The publisher let it go out of print, but used copies can be found starting at $89.23 on Amazon.
His second book, The End of Elsewhere: Travels Among the Tourists (2003), which was published by McClelland & Stewart, involved a gruelling nine-month journey by foot, rented Renault, India railway 2A sleeper, and túk-túk, from one End of the Earth (Finisterre in Galicia) to the other (Tianya Haijiao, the End of the Earth in Hainan, China). An exploration of the origins and consequences of mass tourism, The End of Elsewhere saw Taras walking from west to east along a thousand-year-old east-to-west pilgrimmage route, stuffing his belly on a cruise ship from Venice to Istanbul, and observing the antics of sex tourists in the flesh-pots of Thailand. It failed to win any prizes in Quebec, but was nominated for a national Writers' Trust Award, and was then published to great critical acclaim in England by Serpent's Tail. The New Yorker called it "A gloriously trivia-strewn history of tourism."
His third book, The Devil's Picnic: Around the World in Pursuit of Forbidden Fruit, was a real labor of love. Taras revived a post-adolescent interest in debauchery and (temporarily) turned it into a vocation, chewing coca leaves in Bolivia, scoring moonshine in Norway, and puffing on Cuban cigars in the smoke-easys in San Francisco. This one was published by Bloomsbury in New York, Macmillan in London, and HarperCollins in Toronto in 2005. The Picnic, critics seemed to agree, was a rollicking good read, with a serious subtext about the nanny state and the limits of individual liberty. It sold quite well, and was translated into German, French, Chinese, and Japanese, but didn't get nominated for anything. Apparently nobody wants to give writers prizes for having a really, really, good time (even with a serious subtext).
As for his fourth and latest book, Bottomfeeder, he really shouldn't have to tell you about it. You're soaking in it.
Taras is also a frequent contributor to the New York Times, the Independent, and National Geographic Traveler. He has written features for Saveur, Gourmet, Salon, Wired, the Guardian, the Globe and Mail, Maclean's, Men's Health, the Chicago Tribune Magazine, the International Herald Tribune, the Times of London, and Condé Nast Traveller. He has prowled nocturnally in the footsteps of Dalî and Buñuel in Toledo, Spain for National Geographic Traveler, eaten bugs for The Independent, and substituted for William Safire in the New York Times Magazine. His travel essays have been published in several anthologies.
He has twice been invited to appear at the Edinburgh Book Festival (where he learned to love brown sauce and vegetarian haggis), done the amazing Literary Journalism program at the Banff Centre (where he got the other writers ripped on authentic absinthe from the Val de Travers), and has led seminars on travel and food writing from the depths of Westmount to the heights of Haida Gwaii.
He lives on an island called Montreal, which can be found at the confluence of the Ottawa and Saint Lawrence Rivers.
His first book was Sacré Blues, a portrait of contemporary Quebec that won Canada's Edna Staebler Award for Non-Fiction, two Quebec Writers' Federation Awards, a National Magazine Award (for an excerpted chapter), and was short-listed for the Writers' Trust Award. It was published in 2000 by Macfarlane, Walter & Ross, and became a Canadian bestseller. Sacré Blues helped Taras fall in love with Quebec, and explained the origins of poutine to an eternally grateful country. The publisher let it go out of print, but used copies can be found starting at $89.23 on Amazon.
His second book, The End of Elsewhere: Travels Among the Tourists (2003), which was published by McClelland & Stewart, involved a gruelling nine-month journey by foot, rented Renault, India railway 2A sleeper, and túk-túk, from one End of the Earth (Finisterre in Galicia) to the other (Tianya Haijiao, the End of the Earth in Hainan, China). An exploration of the origins and consequences of mass tourism, The End of Elsewhere saw Taras walking from west to east along a thousand-year-old east-to-west pilgrimmage route, stuffing his belly on a cruise ship from Venice to Istanbul, and observing the antics of sex tourists in the flesh-pots of Thailand. It failed to win any prizes in Quebec, but was nominated for a national Writers' Trust Award, and was then published to great critical acclaim in England by Serpent's Tail. The New Yorker called it "A gloriously trivia-strewn history of tourism."
His third book, The Devil's Picnic: Around the World in Pursuit of Forbidden Fruit, was a real labor of love. Taras revived a post-adolescent interest in debauchery and (temporarily) turned it into a vocation, chewing coca leaves in Bolivia, scoring moonshine in Norway, and puffing on Cuban cigars in the smoke-easys in San Francisco. This one was published by Bloomsbury in New York, Macmillan in London, and HarperCollins in Toronto in 2005. The Picnic, critics seemed to agree, was a rollicking good read, with a serious subtext about the nanny state and the limits of individual liberty. It sold quite well, and was translated into German, French, Chinese, and Japanese, but didn't get nominated for anything. Apparently nobody wants to give writers prizes for having a really, really, good time (even with a serious subtext).
As for his fourth and latest book, Bottomfeeder, he really shouldn't have to tell you about it. You're soaking in it.
Taras is also a frequent contributor to the New York Times, the Independent, and National Geographic Traveler. He has written features for Saveur, Gourmet, Salon, Wired, the Guardian, the Globe and Mail, Maclean's, Men's Health, the Chicago Tribune Magazine, the International Herald Tribune, the Times of London, and Condé Nast Traveller. He has prowled nocturnally in the footsteps of Dalî and Buñuel in Toledo, Spain for National Geographic Traveler, eaten bugs for The Independent, and substituted for William Safire in the New York Times Magazine. His travel essays have been published in several anthologies.
He has twice been invited to appear at the Edinburgh Book Festival (where he learned to love brown sauce and vegetarian haggis), done the amazing Literary Journalism program at the Banff Centre (where he got the other writers ripped on authentic absinthe from the Val de Travers), and has led seminars on travel and food writing from the depths of Westmount to the heights of Haida Gwaii.
He lives on an island called Montreal, which can be found at the confluence of the Ottawa and Saint Lawrence Rivers.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 120 reviews
November 27, 2021
The book highly regards transportation system for the fans, but poorly suggests any fact to persuade his skeptics. The author mostly uses anecdotes and personal experience about specific cities and how Americans should mimic foreign public transportation system--which cannot represent "unbiased" study.
For example, the author mentions that how young generation favors public transportation without any research on other possible reasons. He also states that half of the population of big cities and most people of Asia and Africa travel by public transportation. However, this fact does not necessarily suggest that public transportations are very popular. How can we jump into conclusion without considering other factors, like economical, social, cultural, and political situation of a country? We can't.
For example, the author mentions that how young generation favors public transportation without any research on other possible reasons. He also states that half of the population of big cities and most people of Asia and Africa travel by public transportation. However, this fact does not necessarily suggest that public transportations are very popular. How can we jump into conclusion without considering other factors, like economical, social, cultural, and political situation of a country? We can't.
December 30, 2013
Offers a few quick outlines of American transportation history, as well as anecdotes about specific cities, but all this book really amounts to is a guy who loves transit talking about transit to his transit-loving readers for a few hundred pages. There's no thesis here, and despite a long bibliography, few hard facts around which one could be built.
Some of the facts that do appear are suspect, particularly Grescoe's figures for U.S. average commute time and San Francisco's transit mode share, neither of which agree with what I found in the American Community Survey or the report of the Mayor's Transportation Task Force, respectively. Maybe he's quoting a different source that used different survey parameters, but without in-line citations there's no easy way to tell. His characterization of vehicular cycling as "suicidal" shows ignorance of his subject, or at best unwarranted credulity of Mikael Colville-Andersen, who is quoted repeatedly in the chapter about Copenhagen.
Combined with some annoying deficiencies of editing, including incorrect uses of "sheath" when he meant "sheaf" and "doughty" instead of "dowdy" (presenting the usual moral quandary), one comes away having read a flimsy piece of pop pro-urbanism rather than anything substantial.
Update 2013-12-29: Oh, and it seems his quotation of Margaret Thatcher saying, "A man who, beyond the age of twenty-six, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure," appears to be a misattribution. (A columnist for the Guardian also failed to find evidence she ever said this.)
Some of the facts that do appear are suspect, particularly Grescoe's figures for U.S. average commute time and San Francisco's transit mode share, neither of which agree with what I found in the American Community Survey or the report of the Mayor's Transportation Task Force, respectively. Maybe he's quoting a different source that used different survey parameters, but without in-line citations there's no easy way to tell. His characterization of vehicular cycling as "suicidal" shows ignorance of his subject, or at best unwarranted credulity of Mikael Colville-Andersen, who is quoted repeatedly in the chapter about Copenhagen.
Combined with some annoying deficiencies of editing, including incorrect uses of "sheath" when he meant "sheaf" and "doughty" instead of "dowdy" (presenting the usual moral quandary), one comes away having read a flimsy piece of pop pro-urbanism rather than anything substantial.
Update 2013-12-29: Oh, and it seems his quotation of Margaret Thatcher saying, "A man who, beyond the age of twenty-six, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure," appears to be a misattribution. (A columnist for the Guardian also failed to find evidence she ever said this.)
October 20, 2013
I love nonfiction like this! A mix of history, social commentary, technical explanations, travel writing, and personal anecdotes, this book satisfies on so many levels. Anyone with an interest in city planning, urban living, the energy crisis, ecologically responsible lifestyles, other cultures, and of course different modes of transportation has to read this book.
The only thing I didn't like about this book is that after a while I got really confused about all the kinds of public transit and how they get cobbled together in many, if not most, cities in an attempt to move large masses of people around as painlessly as possible. The author's analyses of what works and what doesn't were fascinating and gave me a lot to think about.
If only we could implement these solutions more widely in America, but alas, Americans love their cars and the flexibility and freedom they give them too much. I did think it was interesting when the author gave examples of how freeways and cars are making life untenable for many urban (and even suburban) dwellers. I had no idea how bad traffic problems have become in some cities!
I live in an area (Columbus, Ohio) with very little public transit: basically buses that don't serve the entire metropolitan area and feeble attempts to create bike paths. Unfortunately, shortsighted politicians and policy-makers continually shoot down any suggestions to improve our system. Maybe this book should be on their required reading list!
The only thing I didn't like about this book is that after a while I got really confused about all the kinds of public transit and how they get cobbled together in many, if not most, cities in an attempt to move large masses of people around as painlessly as possible. The author's analyses of what works and what doesn't were fascinating and gave me a lot to think about.
If only we could implement these solutions more widely in America, but alas, Americans love their cars and the flexibility and freedom they give them too much. I did think it was interesting when the author gave examples of how freeways and cars are making life untenable for many urban (and even suburban) dwellers. I had no idea how bad traffic problems have become in some cities!
I live in an area (Columbus, Ohio) with very little public transit: basically buses that don't serve the entire metropolitan area and feeble attempts to create bike paths. Unfortunately, shortsighted politicians and policy-makers continually shoot down any suggestions to improve our system. Maybe this book should be on their required reading list!
April 18, 2012
An amalgam of journalistic feature writing, travel writing, history writing, and persuasive writing, STRAPHANGER is a State of the Mass Transit Union speech worth heeding. Author Taras Grescoe takes readers to 13 cities -- Shanghai, New York City, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Paris, Copenhagen, Moscow, Tokyo, Bogota, Portland (OR), Vancouver, Philadelphia, and Montreal. Here he provides a history of each city's mass transit, where they stand now in their progress (or lack thereof) of moving people quickly, conveniently, and relatively cheaply, where they hope to go in the future, and what (and who) are the obstacles.
To achieve this, Grescoe meets key personalities of the mass transit scene in each city, interviews them, and weaves their words into the chapters. He rides buses, subways, bicycles, bullet trains, and electric trams, describes the experience, and gives us a feel for what it would be like to live in each of these cities today (consider it a scouting report if any of them are on your radar as possible places to move to). He builds a passionate, yet reasonable and realistic, argument against the automobile. He identifies freeways as the nooses that strangle cities, destroy neighborhoods, undercut attempts to resuscitate urban life. He celebrates the renaissance of city living, the fact that the post-Baby Boomer generation is migrating back to urban centers and questioning the "American Dream" known as the "suburb."
In fact, even those approaching retirement with a gated community in the suburbs in mind as a final home might reconsider after reading STRAPHANGERS. There's a certain appeal, a certain charm, to thriving, safe neighborhoods in a city that include easy access to trustworthy, clean, and safe public transportation, with all one's shopping needs within miles of your home. If this sounds unrealistic, Grescoe's description of cities like Tokyo, Copenhagen, and many others not mentioned in chapter headings (Strasbourg, for instance) proves that a "Brave New World" for mass transit is not some pipe dream. In fact, it is a reality in many places -- right here in 2012. Leaders in these progressive cities understand that the long-term approach of financing mass transit is worth every penny, that revenues poured into highways are lost monies which only add to our traffic, pollution, and health woes.
As you might expect, there are good guys and bad guys in this picture -- and many in between. Read STRAPHANGER, and you'll find out where you stand in this picture. Grescoe writes as well as he rides. As a fiction reader, I was pleasantly surprised with my commute through these pages. Hopefully, you will be, too.
To achieve this, Grescoe meets key personalities of the mass transit scene in each city, interviews them, and weaves their words into the chapters. He rides buses, subways, bicycles, bullet trains, and electric trams, describes the experience, and gives us a feel for what it would be like to live in each of these cities today (consider it a scouting report if any of them are on your radar as possible places to move to). He builds a passionate, yet reasonable and realistic, argument against the automobile. He identifies freeways as the nooses that strangle cities, destroy neighborhoods, undercut attempts to resuscitate urban life. He celebrates the renaissance of city living, the fact that the post-Baby Boomer generation is migrating back to urban centers and questioning the "American Dream" known as the "suburb."
In fact, even those approaching retirement with a gated community in the suburbs in mind as a final home might reconsider after reading STRAPHANGERS. There's a certain appeal, a certain charm, to thriving, safe neighborhoods in a city that include easy access to trustworthy, clean, and safe public transportation, with all one's shopping needs within miles of your home. If this sounds unrealistic, Grescoe's description of cities like Tokyo, Copenhagen, and many others not mentioned in chapter headings (Strasbourg, for instance) proves that a "Brave New World" for mass transit is not some pipe dream. In fact, it is a reality in many places -- right here in 2012. Leaders in these progressive cities understand that the long-term approach of financing mass transit is worth every penny, that revenues poured into highways are lost monies which only add to our traffic, pollution, and health woes.
As you might expect, there are good guys and bad guys in this picture -- and many in between. Read STRAPHANGER, and you'll find out where you stand in this picture. Grescoe writes as well as he rides. As a fiction reader, I was pleasantly surprised with my commute through these pages. Hopefully, you will be, too.
February 27, 2016
Just as shopping malls killed main streets and sidewalks, and gated communities replaced real neighborhoods, the private automobile usurped the social space once shared on subways, buses, and trains. When a society eliminates public space – when your only contact with your fellow citizen happens at 55 miles per hour, separated by layers of glass – it stops knowing itself, and can start believing the most outrageous lies: that crime is rampant, that people have no shared interests, that races and classes have no common ground. This doesn't mean that Philadelphia is about to become a placid Zurich or a conflict-free Copenhagen: historic divisions of class, ethnicity, and race run deep here. But there is a lots of evidence that geographic segregation and the privatization of public space are slowing. And for better and for worse, subways, buses, and trains have long been a crucial meeting ground for society: when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white passenger on a bus in Alabama in 1955, public transport provided the shared space where racism could be challenged. It bodes well for the future that the public in Philadelphia never lost the habit of using public transportation.
If you read the above quotation and think: yeah, this is on target - a little superficial but in general solid work – then you're the right reader for this book. Grescoe does an absolutely fantastic job making the case for public transportation across multiple different urban environments through examining its history and present successes and failures. Each chapter plays a part and tackles a different urban space; all contribute to the perceptual shift that his book effects with persuasive delight. Grescoe is also writing for a public audience, of course, and so his arguments can sometimes feel limited to a specialist, a theorist, or a historian, but I found them quite balanced over the book as a whole.
Additionally, for me as a current Torontonian who grew up in Saskatchewan, the chapter on Toronto is especially fascinating. The particular "tragedy," as Grescoe puts it, of Toronto is that a city so promisingly remarkable in its commitment to public transit could move into retrograde so quickly upon the election of Rob Ford as mayor. In the context of the other cities studied, Ford's failure of nerve and incendiary decision to dedicate money to increasingly pointless subway developments (as opposed to increasingly effective subway developments) seems so much more drastic than in isolation: the sad comedy of the drug-addled addict becomes a tragedy of a city that sacrificed much of its future in exchange for a few videos of Fordian mockery and a campaign built, as Grescoe puts it, on "negativity: during [Ford's first term as mayor], nothing new will be built, no jobs will be created, and nothing will improve on the streets of Toronto" (295). Grescoe points to a University of Toronto study from 2011 that discovered "that the single most reliable predictor of a voter's support for Ford – regardless of age of sex – was whether he or she owned a car" (302). Today the mayor may be different, but, as a relative outsider, I'm waiting to see what's changing.
I'll be honest: I loved Straphanger for its foundational principle: the joy and importance of public transportation. Get out of the way cars. The future is coming. (If only it were so easy!)
October 22, 2012
A recent surge of interest in city planning lead me to randomly put several related books on hold at the library. This was the first one I happened to read and it couldn't have been a better introduction to the fascinating field of urban studies. Grescoe is a travel writer by trade, but with a historian's love of research and a passionate love of city life -- in particular, the cities' public transit systems. (He has never owned a car.)
Strap Hanger operates under a simple premise: Grescoe simply went to different cities around the world and rode their public transportation, everything from the subway of New York to the teeming bike paths of Copenhagen. Each chapter uses its particular city's public transit as a lift-off point for Grescoe to explore many angles of the given metropolis, from history to culture to architecture, to crime, to education. An urban center's transportation network touches and informs every aspect of it, and Grescoe, with extreme good cheer and diligence, explores these aspects in detail, city by city, chapter by chapter. His writing is incredibly clear and precise, offering a lovely mental picture of each city's unique transportation.
I learned a lot from this book, and it inspired me to trade my parking space at work in for a monthly bus pass. Though I live in Los Angeles, where cars rule and transit still hasn't caught on as a faster, better alternative (though there's hope for this auto-mad berg, as Grescoe expounds on in the book), Grescoe make a convincing argument that riding transit means more than just getting from point A to point B. When you get out of your car, a bubble on wheels that protects you from the outside world, and use buses and trains and bikes and your legs to get around, you become more connected to the place you live, and more connected to the people around you. While I don't think the bus is going to get me where I want to go any faster than my car (if anything, it will be slower), the time spent in it will be of a higher quality than the time I spend driving. Whether talking to a stranger, people watching, or simply reading my book or looking out the window, I'm convinced riding the bus is going to improve my quality of life. I feel like a lot of people may read that last sentence and think I'm crazy -- unless you came to this review AFTER reading Strap Hanger.
Strap Hanger operates under a simple premise: Grescoe simply went to different cities around the world and rode their public transportation, everything from the subway of New York to the teeming bike paths of Copenhagen. Each chapter uses its particular city's public transit as a lift-off point for Grescoe to explore many angles of the given metropolis, from history to culture to architecture, to crime, to education. An urban center's transportation network touches and informs every aspect of it, and Grescoe, with extreme good cheer and diligence, explores these aspects in detail, city by city, chapter by chapter. His writing is incredibly clear and precise, offering a lovely mental picture of each city's unique transportation.
I learned a lot from this book, and it inspired me to trade my parking space at work in for a monthly bus pass. Though I live in Los Angeles, where cars rule and transit still hasn't caught on as a faster, better alternative (though there's hope for this auto-mad berg, as Grescoe expounds on in the book), Grescoe make a convincing argument that riding transit means more than just getting from point A to point B. When you get out of your car, a bubble on wheels that protects you from the outside world, and use buses and trains and bikes and your legs to get around, you become more connected to the place you live, and more connected to the people around you. While I don't think the bus is going to get me where I want to go any faster than my car (if anything, it will be slower), the time spent in it will be of a higher quality than the time I spend driving. Whether talking to a stranger, people watching, or simply reading my book or looking out the window, I'm convinced riding the bus is going to improve my quality of life. I feel like a lot of people may read that last sentence and think I'm crazy -- unless you came to this review AFTER reading Strap Hanger.
May 6, 2018
An entertaining and information-packed comparative tour of public transit realities in different cities around the globe, aimed at North American readers. The information is only current up to 2010-2011 or so, and there are a few inaccuracies and debatable interpretations. Sometimes the author goes on rambles about related but distinct topics in the middle of chapters without introducing them, which would normally annoy me -- but I kind of like it here.
4.6 Stars
Notes:
- Major flaw with the title perhaps -- those straps on buses suck! They slide around and cause you to bump into everyone whenever the bus moves.
- Page 12, some key points: Even magical, non-polluting cars are bad. Automobiles kill millions of people, including many youth, pollute the environment, make us fat and lazy, drive horrible sprawl and suburban shopping nightmare lands, waste time and fuel and cause road rage stuck in endless commuter congestion, etc. Various death stats explored.
NYC
- Page 20: Cool description of a massive tunnel-boring machine in action
- Page 40: Robert Moses -- was a major highway builder and a rich, entitled prick who did a small amount of good but much, much bad vs Jane Jacobs, who helped protest against his neighbourhood destruction and won.
- Page 45, QUOTE: "[as of 2010] 95% of Commuters get to Manhattan's central business district by transit, bicycle, or on foot. Fifty-four percent of New Yorkers don't even own a car."
Los Angeles
- Page 56, the end of electric street cars, QUOTE:
"In a sustained and concerted effort, thoroughly documented in Peter Norton's excellent study 'Fighting Traffic', car manufacturers, auto clubs, and traffic engineers banded together to usurp citizens' ancient supremacy of the street, successfully confining pedestrians, now recast as 'jaywalkers,' to corner crosswalks and turning roadways once shared by stickball players, bicycle riders, and street vendors into motor thoroughfares and parking lots for private vehicles. Motordom's greatest triumph, as Norton shows, was a slow war of attrition that all but banished the cheap, nonpolluting streetcar from the American streetscape."
- Pages 60-61: LA sucks! Massive gridlock, pollution, crappy public transit, sprawl, car-centric... Even today, in 2018, it seems like not much has changed.
- Most New Yorkers take transit, most Angelenos don't. NYC focuses on Manhattan, an island, with expensive, limited parking. LA is full of 1000+ miles (!) of freeways and streets, with abundant parking.
- Page 71: Downtown LA a joke. Too much parking, no density, etc.
Phoenix
- Page 81: "Phoenix is my nightmare". Essentially a sprawling, baking, car nightmare-land.
- Page 86: The Phoenix Metropolitan area has sprawl bigger than Switzerland!
- Page 88: Phoenix was, at least, like Detroit, with abandoned houses and wasteland
- Page 90: TMR in Montreal is a 'Garden Suburb'
- Page 92: Zoning and Red-Lining explained regarding suburbs. Areas are zoned to only be a specific sort of building (residential, industrial or commercial), which causes people to have to commute to work. Red-Lining is where lower income immigrant neighbourhood populace is denied mortgages. Meanwhile suburbs have tax-breaks on mortgages which means you need a car.
- Page 99, QUOTE:
"By pitting you against everybody else on the road, driving turns travel itself into competition... Every time you choose to drive you are, in a tiny way, opting out of, and thus diminishing, the public realm. And that, finally, is the problem with suburbs and freeways. In order to gain a spurious freedom, which is in fact just increased mobility, millions of people turn their backs on civility -- not just politeness, but also the process of civilization building, in which cities play such a crucial role..."
PARIS
- Page 107: "The most ingenious and efficient urban transit network ever built" (!)
- Page 112: Electric tramways revolutionized the size of Euro-cities. Pioneered in Germany.
- Rue St Jacques in Paris is built on a Roman main street, which in turn follows a Gaulish road
- Page 114: Baron Haussmann displaced 350 000 Parisians to make his grand boulevards
- Page 117: Paris' 1960s RER line was instrumental in limiting Parisian sprawl
- Pompidou, President in 1969, was a car-loving bugger who built the ring road, river highway, 'penis tower', and tried to turn the boulevards into 8-lane highways -- but thankfully he died before that could happen
- Page 119: Delanoe, mayor from 2001-2007, reversed some of Pompidou's BS, closing the river highway, adding bus lanes, and introducing Vélib (a bicycle sharing service)
- Page 131: The Nazis almost blew up Paris, bud didn't due to its beauty and a girl on a bicycle! (true?)
Strasbourg
- Page 134, Has a very nice tram setup and transit scheme
Freiburg, Germany
- Page 135, Super-eco Freiburg suburb of Vauban reduced car-use by 70% and charged 17,500 Euros for a parking space! I've been to Freiburg and it is an amazing, tram-linked utopia of sorts.
COPENHAGEN
- More bikes than people
- Page 143, QUOTE:
"In Denmark, as in Holland and Belgium, a policy of strict liability applies to motorists: in accidents, the presumption of guilt is on the driver, who is considered to be the operator of a potentially lethal piece of heavy machinery. Opening a door on a cyclist is a serious offense, and -- except in extreme cases, where a bike rider blindsides a stopped car -- it is the driver's insurance company that has to cover all the costs."
- Page 152: In Copenhagen cycling style is emphasized over speed, which leads to increased safety
Moscow
- One of the most (as of 2010) congested cities on earth, with ever-increasing and totally unsustainable car traffic jams
- Page 160, crazy stats on developing nations and rapidly-rising car ownership.
- Same page, 161, Moscow elite and powerful attach sirens to their massive bullet-proof cars and bully their way through traffic. They've run over people who haven't moved. Disgusting.
- Page 162: Moscow's metro is one of the deepest systems in the world. Some areas are more than 52 floors down...
- Pages 163-164: Moscow's metro has very high ridership, is generally much, much faster than driving, but has aging infrastructure.
- There are beautiful, incredible and extravagant stations, with massive foyers and antechambers. They were built by Kaganovich in Stalinist times to be more impressive than Capitalist systems.
- Page 167: The Moscow Metro was a 'shock' project. Stalin employed the might of Soviet volunteers and authoritarian power to hack it out of the earth. Crazy.
- Page 173: Russia accounted for 2/3 of all road fatalities in Europe! One hundred people died per day, on average, in automobile accidents in Russia!
QUOTE:
"This means that, in one country alone, cars kill more people every four days than have died in all the attacks targeting public transport in Europe since 1990. The real terror, I figured, wasn't underground. As I walked back toward the Park Kultury station, I saw it was all around me on the streets of Moscow, where speeding oligarchs, road rage-filled skinheads, and the vodka-drunk of the new Russia could be seen cutting each other off, trying to bribe traffic cops, and driving their armor-plated BMWs up onto curbs."
- Page 176, QUOTE:
"In the past, nobility meant mobility. Aristocrats in pre-revolutionary France used to send lackeys running ahead of their carriages with burning torches to warn peasants off the roads. In the days of the tsars, the passing of the carriage or sleigh of a Russian nobleman was announced by the manic jingling of bells. The Soviet nomenklatura, those uber-proles in the dictatorship of the proletariat, appropriated aristocratic rights-of-way to barge through the streets in motorcades of Volga limousines. 'Russia has almost never belonged to the Russian people,' author Boris Fishman has noted. 'Historically, its bounty has been hoarded by a select few.'"
Tokyo
- A city of trains. Busiest train station on earth (Shinjuku).
- Pages 179-180: Fascinating rush hour traffic description -- the orderly filing of thousands of people. Stations with their own individualized train departure music. Amazing.
- Page 181: Dozens of metro lines in Tokyo, millions of people riding.
- Page 184: Innovative Japanese tech and transit analysis keeps everything running on time and smoothly.
- Page 186: Japanese love trains, and their train network is amazing. Their metros have air-conditioning, heated seats, and two minute wait times.
- Page 196: Nevertheless, the government keeps building highways, even though many youth think cars are uncool.
Bogota, Columbia
- crazy dangerous in the 80s and 90s
- Now every Sunday is Bicycle Day (page 210)
- Page 216: Bogota still has a horrible, free-for-all minibus situation (2010), but it's been mostly replaced by their futuristic bus express network
- Page 217: A crazy, Lithuanian, pants-dropping, Dean of the National University became mayor in 1995 -- Antanas Mockus. He was pro-transit and progressive.
- Page 218, the next mayor, Penalosa, was later the president of a bus company. He built a 24km bicycle and pedestrian highway. He greened and progressed the city a ton! Bike paths, parks, affordable housing, libraries, running water, stole land from the rich and gave it to the poor.
- Page 218, looking down on the rich!QUOTE:
"We wanted to make people look down on the values of the criminals in our society. We were saying, 'You, with your big cars and fancy jewels, we think you are stupid, we think you are animals!' Penalosa rose from his chair, sweeping an arm over his desk. 'What we respect is music, and sports, and libraries. For us, the neighbourhood hero was not the mafioso with the big motorcycle and the flashy clothes, but the young man who played sports and read books and rode around on an old bike.'"
- Page 219: Penalosa used 'bollards' to block cars from parking on sidewalks and to take back space for pedestrians
- He created the TransMilenio transit network -- rapid buses and quick-boarding stations
Incredible mayor!
- Pages 220-221: More on Bogota's BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) system
- Page 229: Downsides to the BRT -- uses diesel and victim of its own success/overcrowding
Vancouver
- Page 253, 2010: Lowest per-capita carbon emissions of any city in North America!
- 10% fewer cars entered Vancouver in 2010 versus 2000
- Vancouverites protested in the late 60s against freeways, formed a political party, and got elected. Today, no freeways enter Vancouver.
- The Skytrain is highly successful, with high density development around stations and downtown
- Fast buses head to the stations and are popular, and parking is very expensive (about the same for an hour as an entire day in Portland, Oregon)
Side Note on the history of North American Train Travel
- Train travel in North America used to be much better. The USA was the envy of the world in terms of trains, and now it's crap! Page 261: A luxury train ran out of Montreal to New York, and it ran much faster than it's modern version!
- Pages 263-264: The US has only one 'high-speed' train (2010), and it's not very good or fast. Canada has none. GM convinced the US railroads to tear down electric wires so they could sell them less-efficient, more polluting diesel engines.
- Page 264: A good argument for subsidizing train networks: Airports and roads are already highly subsidized.
- Page 265: The Republicans killed Obama's plans for high-speed rail around the US -- those buggers!
- Page 266: It took the author about 13 hours to train from Montreal to Philadelphia -- it would have taken about 3 hours in Asia or Europe.
Philadelphia
- On the up, very walkable in parts, fairly bikable, based on the grid layout of William Penn from 1682
- Page 270: Edmund Bacon - a crazy city developer. Bacon did good and bad things in his long career, but near the end he turned strongly against cars and car culture.
- Page 272: Philly transit is widespread and available, but it's also a logistical mess, including tons of outdated tech, policies and union BS (2010). It's also highly segregated at times, with the cheap buses being taken by minorities and the slightly more expensive trains being taken by whites.
- Pages 277-278: West Philadelphia was/is a great place to live. Real community and nice old houses.
Montreal and Beyond
Page 295: Public transit is SOCIAL
April 3, 2012
In the first paragraph of this fabulous book, Taras Grescoe writes, about the Shanghai Auto Show, biggest in the world: "Throughout the cavernous showrooms, lithe motor-showgirls in shimmering nylon evening gowns and leatherette miniskirts drape themselves over aerodynamic fenders, like molten watches drizzled over branches in a Dali landscape. On rotating platforms, surrealistic concept cars languidly pirouette…"
Wow. Beyond absolutely jaw-dropping writing, so good you want to linger over it, Grescoe can pack in more information in a paragraph than you can get in an entire newspaper article. Try this one:
Later, in a chapter on my heart's hometown, Portland, Oregon, Grescoe gives a great description, then, ominously, writes, "Yet something is missing from downtown Portland."
Oh! My hackles slightly up, I read on…
All in all, this is an entertaining, fact-filled travelogue. Admittedly, I share Grescoe's absolute disdain for automobiles, highways, and suburbs. I'm pretty sure, though, that I would have loved it even if I thought cars were great.
Thanks to Goodreads Firstreads program for this first-rate book. Everyone should read it. (And get rid of their cars and start commuting by bike, train, bus, or ferry.)
Wow. Beyond absolutely jaw-dropping writing, so good you want to linger over it, Grescoe can pack in more information in a paragraph than you can get in an entire newspaper article. Try this one:
Only twenty-five years ago, automobile traffic in Shanghai was limited to chauffeur-driven Hongqi limousines for Communist Party officials. Such was China's isolation that, during the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards floated a proposal to make red stoplights signify "Go." Today, there are two million cars on the streets of Shanghai. to ease congestion, a high price has been set on car registration, and bicycles have been banned from main streets. Backups in China can make even Los Angeles traffic look positively bucolic: in 2010, drivers northwest of Beijing were stuck for ten days in a jam that stretched 60 miles across two provinces. To increase mobility, China has built a 33,000-mile system of expressways in the last twenty years. Already larger than the network that connects the European Union, it will be more extensive than the United States' freeway system, by 2035. By then, carbon dioxide emissions from China's transport sector will easily be the highest in the world.
Later, in a chapter on my heart's hometown, Portland, Oregon, Grescoe gives a great description, then, ominously, writes, "Yet something is missing from downtown Portland."
Oh! My hackles slightly up, I read on…
It was only as I crossed Burnside Avenue toward Union Station and heard a train whistle ricocheting between the steel bridges spanning the Willamette River, that I realized what Portland was lacking. I'd been strolling downtown for over two hours and had yet to encounter that bane of the North American metropolis: the neighborhood-killing, blight-inducing, multilaned freeway.
All in all, this is an entertaining, fact-filled travelogue. Admittedly, I share Grescoe's absolute disdain for automobiles, highways, and suburbs. I'm pretty sure, though, that I would have loved it even if I thought cars were great.
Thanks to Goodreads Firstreads program for this first-rate book. Everyone should read it. (And get rid of their cars and start commuting by bike, train, bus, or ferry.)
January 23, 2015
A One-Minute Review
Straphanger is a smart bit of urban writing from Taras Grescoe, who collects transit systems like tourists collect snow globes. Transit-map geeks like me need no longer feel alone. Grescoe’s travels from Shanghai to Montreal unearthing unique social, historical, and political stories about how urban and suburban environments develop transit systems. From what could have been in Los Angeles, to the propaganda-driven architectural beauty of the Moscow Metro, Grescoe identifies stable political and financial will as the cornerstone of good transit. So, while politics may scuttle Bogotá’s otherwise ingenious quick-fix bus solution, look to Toronto for a true basket case. Grescoe’s take on Toronto is overly political for my taste compared to his practical approach in other chapters, but he produces warnings from which all Canadian cities can learn – after, of course, enjoying a little schadenfreude. Straphanger (the title immediately resonates with transit riders) is both study and prescription – a great read for the commute that should inspire straphangers everywhere to demand better.
Straphanger is a smart bit of urban writing from Taras Grescoe, who collects transit systems like tourists collect snow globes. Transit-map geeks like me need no longer feel alone. Grescoe’s travels from Shanghai to Montreal unearthing unique social, historical, and political stories about how urban and suburban environments develop transit systems. From what could have been in Los Angeles, to the propaganda-driven architectural beauty of the Moscow Metro, Grescoe identifies stable political and financial will as the cornerstone of good transit. So, while politics may scuttle Bogotá’s otherwise ingenious quick-fix bus solution, look to Toronto for a true basket case. Grescoe’s take on Toronto is overly political for my taste compared to his practical approach in other chapters, but he produces warnings from which all Canadian cities can learn – after, of course, enjoying a little schadenfreude. Straphanger (the title immediately resonates with transit riders) is both study and prescription – a great read for the commute that should inspire straphangers everywhere to demand better.
April 20, 2018
El autor da su percepción del transporte, público, privado, no motorizado, y como piensa que influye en la vida de las ciudades, dando ejemplos en Norteamérica, Europa y Asia. Comparto su sentir en aquellas que he visitado. Mi capítulo favorito, donde habla de Copenhagen, con algunas referencias interesantes de la planeación que hacen en la ciudad.
July 5, 2021
Great! It took me 2x as long to read as it should have because I kept pulling out my phone to do more research on everything mentioned. I’m not sure this would convert a pro-car diehard, but for everyone else, a delight.
December 25, 2012
If you're at all interested in public transit, cities, or how the two relate to one another, this is a very good read. Even if you're not, it's probably still an enjoyable book as Grescoe has a very good and approachable style, though he can occasionally get a bit repetitive. The book is essentially a look at transit planning in North America, and how that has shaped our cities, done as a series of chapters about various public transportation systems around the world. Grescoe compares North American cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto to various world cities, such as Paris, Copenhagen, and Tokyo, to understand what North America cities are doing right, and what they're doing wrong. In a certain respect, it reads almost like a travel book, albeit one that focuses on some very specific things. It definitely gave me some things to think about, and made me wish for some more progressive planning on this continent.
April 16, 2014
I loved this book. The chapter by chapter explorations of different cities provided vivid illustration of what's working, what isn't, where and why. The author argues for reasonably funded, comprehensive, intelligent public transportation networks not simply because they are "green", but because they permit people to get places and live their lives in ways that make sense, and ultimately, make them happy. Public transportation is an issue I care a lot about, so it was easy for me to be pulled in by this book. At the same time, the storytelling is vivid and the author's points are argued logically, so I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who's even slightly curious about how we might go about achieving the dream of reliable, efficient, affordable, and ultimately enjoyable, transportation.
August 25, 2012
funny to read grescoe's take on philly's pt system. pretty fun topical analysis of different public transportation systems around the world, along with quick historical/political primers that attempt to explain how and why these different transits developed within their specific ecosystems. makes me want to travel to copenhagen so i can travel on a bicycle highway and get stuck in a BICYCLE TRAFFIC JAM.
January 20, 2013
Loved it! The author did an excellent job of laying out why public transport works and why we need it for a vital future rather relying on further proliferation of automobile culture. Made me miss Tokyo and want to move to Copenhagen.
August 25, 2013
Enjoyed this book very much. It gave me a great deal to think about.
October 20, 2023
Although written in 2012, the book seems even older than just eleven years. The author travels to a number of cities around the world and writes about the public transit in those cities. Five of the twelve cities about which he writes (Los Angeles, Phoenix, Philadelphia, New York City, and Portland, Oregon) provide a mixed bag of the then-current options and potential plans for the future. Grescoe references President Obama's plans to create a more sustainable transportation infrastructure in this country which the following administration got rid of in favor of a platform of hate and name-calling.
That is part of the reason this book felt so dated to me. It feels like we have added a wealth of problems and done very little to actually improve the country. Concerns about transit seem almost laughable in the face of some of the other things going on.
To return to the book itself, I came across it via a Mastadon post by the author where he stated that, "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." I found that intriguing and hoped that this book talked about that fact some since in the posts that followed, there were no references to where that tidbit of information came from.
Alas, not only did the book not contain anything about it, but none of the facts cited in the book had citations either. Grescoe lists sources for each chapter but never identifies where he comes across his data. Few things frustrate me and disappoint me more than a lack of citations. And while Grescoe does interview some people with viewpoints contrary to his own, it is clear with how he treats them that they are there more to be mocked than to be considered.
My own stance on public transit aligns a lot with Grescoe, though, and I did enjoy the concept of the book and reading about some of the cities throughout the world that are utilizing public transit in a much better fashion (Huzzah, Copenhagen!). Lately, I have seen posts on the interwebs talking about how lonely we have become as a culture. Working from home or commuting to our jobs in our isolated individual cars surely contributes to that. I spent five years taking the train to Philadelphia and still email with my "train buddies". Interactions with people in automobiles are primarily limited to honks and hand gestures with the occasional brandishing of firearms.
I would be interested in knowing how things have changed, for better or worse, in the cities about which Grescoe writes in terms of transit, and I would likely read such an update. Given its age and lack of references, though, I don't know that I can recommend this book.
That is part of the reason this book felt so dated to me. It feels like we have added a wealth of problems and done very little to actually improve the country. Concerns about transit seem almost laughable in the face of some of the other things going on.
To return to the book itself, I came across it via a Mastadon post by the author where he stated that, "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." I found that intriguing and hoped that this book talked about that fact some since in the posts that followed, there were no references to where that tidbit of information came from.
Alas, not only did the book not contain anything about it, but none of the facts cited in the book had citations either. Grescoe lists sources for each chapter but never identifies where he comes across his data. Few things frustrate me and disappoint me more than a lack of citations. And while Grescoe does interview some people with viewpoints contrary to his own, it is clear with how he treats them that they are there more to be mocked than to be considered.
My own stance on public transit aligns a lot with Grescoe, though, and I did enjoy the concept of the book and reading about some of the cities throughout the world that are utilizing public transit in a much better fashion (Huzzah, Copenhagen!). Lately, I have seen posts on the interwebs talking about how lonely we have become as a culture. Working from home or commuting to our jobs in our isolated individual cars surely contributes to that. I spent five years taking the train to Philadelphia and still email with my "train buddies". Interactions with people in automobiles are primarily limited to honks and hand gestures with the occasional brandishing of firearms.
I would be interested in knowing how things have changed, for better or worse, in the cities about which Grescoe writes in terms of transit, and I would likely read such an update. Given its age and lack of references, though, I don't know that I can recommend this book.
January 26, 2025
I have lived in Toronto for most of my life and was very interested in this book. Perhaps even more interested since we sold our car and now travel by public transit, or, at times, Uber. Since I am retired the car is no longer such a necessity and I can regulate the times of most travel with the city.
But first, an overview of this book. I found it a fascinating read and travelogue. The book looks at a wide range of cities from different countries so its scope is broad and comparisons can be made easily. On the other hand, it seems that as time has marched forward today’s cities, no matter where they are located, are too dense, the politicians too focussed on other issues, and the cost of building, or even repairing and updating an effective system of public transit and bicycle lanes is too cost prohibitive. Bottom line, cars will continue to multiply on ever-expanding road systems, traffic congestion will increase as will the stress on drivers who are stuck in traffic, and green spaces will become asphalt sooner or later.
As for Toronto. The public transportation system is over-stressed, unreliable, deeply in debt, and unable to offer one any type of reliable schedule or service. The latest expansion along Eglinton is so over the original estimate of cost and so many years behind schedule one could weep. City Hall does nothing except make promises and the safety issues have expanded exponentially in the past 10 years.
OK. Enough of my rant. I'm off topic. This is a very interesting read but if your city is one covered in this book beware of your blood pressure.
But first, an overview of this book. I found it a fascinating read and travelogue. The book looks at a wide range of cities from different countries so its scope is broad and comparisons can be made easily. On the other hand, it seems that as time has marched forward today’s cities, no matter where they are located, are too dense, the politicians too focussed on other issues, and the cost of building, or even repairing and updating an effective system of public transit and bicycle lanes is too cost prohibitive. Bottom line, cars will continue to multiply on ever-expanding road systems, traffic congestion will increase as will the stress on drivers who are stuck in traffic, and green spaces will become asphalt sooner or later.
As for Toronto. The public transportation system is over-stressed, unreliable, deeply in debt, and unable to offer one any type of reliable schedule or service. The latest expansion along Eglinton is so over the original estimate of cost and so many years behind schedule one could weep. City Hall does nothing except make promises and the safety issues have expanded exponentially in the past 10 years.
OK. Enough of my rant. I'm off topic. This is a very interesting read but if your city is one covered in this book beware of your blood pressure.
October 22, 2021
2012 book about the mass transit, mostly in the Northern Hemisphere. The book described the experience of taking transit in various cities he visited there while also discussing the history of those transit systems. The mix of travel writing & history reminded me a bit of No Immediate Danger/No Reasonable Alternative or Do No Pass Go, minus Vollmann’s & Moore’s shitty attempts at humor. I would have liked Straphanger to have included even more of the transit history; maybe that means I should be looking for the numerous books written about each of those transit systems that he visited. There is probably a lot more to be said & read about Bogota & other transit systems of the global south. I also would have liked more exploration of the intersections between transit & structural inequality (including gentrification & displacement); again, maybe that is a whole other book I need to find. Something about the tone (maybe it’s smugness?) reminded me of syndicated opinion columnists whose schtick is falling all over themselves for free-trade & market solutions, except he’s falling all over himself for mass transit instead of for inequality, which is a healthy substitution. Finally, I wish this book was more recent. There have been a lot of changes in many of these urban areas and in the world over the past 8-9 years, and it would be interesting to see how different a book Straphanger would be.
August 19, 2017
It has finally happened: I have found someone who is even more obsessed with public transportation than I. Really interesting trip around the world analyzing how components of transit-urbanism setups work and don't work. Another perk was that I had been to many of the cities being profiled, or at minimum have read other in-depth descriptions of their setups, so I had some working knowledge of local street names and destinations that were destined to be mentioned: LA, NYC, Paris, CPH, Vancouver BC and Portland OR, Montreal; Phoenix, Bogotá, Japan/Tokyo. Only places I knew very little about were Shanghai, Moscow, and Philly. In addition to profiles of each of the transit setups, there was in depth historical contextualization of each city—whether founded in the era of the pedestrian, streetcar, or freeway—and musings on the potential for improvements if needed (CPH, of course, is practically perfect in every way). Alongside this city-specific history, in many of the chapters Grescoe explains more widespread phenomena, such as urban sprawl and city center revival, that are widely present in society. Grescoe also seems to have managed to meet with every prominent urban life figure in each place—Sadik-Khan in NYC, Jan Gehl and the Copenhagenize guy in CPH, Peñalosa in Bogotá. An overall very interesting read.
December 17, 2022
On my quest to help promote bike commuting I enjoyed this book which investigates specific cities in the world and how they have managed congestion. Of course the Copenhagen chapter was my favorite as they have reduced car use and promoted bike use. It’s cost effective, safe for kids to pay in the roads, much less quiet, and bikes are everywhere. They’ve mastered the art of sending texts, drinking beer, and flirting on two wheels. Riding a bike is as natural as brushing your teeth so people don’t even identify as cyclists because everyone is riding. The unidirectional streets allow cyclists to relax on the commute. More people commute by bike in Copenhagen than in the entire US. Drivers are taught to reach for their doors with their right hands to look over shoulders to see approaching cyclists. People routinely bike 12 miles one way to work. Popular Danish song: I love my bicycle- it doesn’t pollute like those oil burning bastards”
*** separated bike lanes***
People want most efficient bike access to work. Most only use car on weekends for errands. People take pride in biking in all weather.
Improve quality of life by improving transit and reducing car dependency.
*** separated bike lanes***
People want most efficient bike access to work. Most only use car on weekends for errands. People take pride in biking in all weather.
Improve quality of life by improving transit and reducing car dependency.
November 7, 2018
I really wanted to like this book and I did for the most part. The concept was interesting and how he broke down each major city to talk about different ways they rely on and excel at public transportation was also interesting but the whole thing was so repetitive and one-sided that it made it really hard to be invested in what the author was trying to convey. Like I understand the benefits of public transport but his overall solution and bias was just really off-putting and made some chapters hard to get through.
And if anything, his research did make me wanna live in a high-density city where I have easy access to public transportation but sometimes it's not that easy and making that seem like the perfect and morally right solution is somewhat ignorant.
I wanna say 2 stars for the author but 3 stars for the concept and breakdown of the book.
And if anything, his research did make me wanna live in a high-density city where I have easy access to public transportation but sometimes it's not that easy and making that seem like the perfect and morally right solution is somewhat ignorant.
I wanna say 2 stars for the author but 3 stars for the concept and breakdown of the book.
October 15, 2022
I really enjoyed this book! Granted, I am a major fan of transit and a major hater of highways and car-dependent life - this book is definitely suited to those already squarely in the “cars are not the future” camp. I liked how the book was divided into city sections, and included both real-life experience and travel anecdotes from the author and various experts along the way as well as historical facts. As an American it is a shame that we’re in such bad shape, but all hope is not lost.
It was also really neat to read this book from 2012, written in the wake of the financial crisis, now in 2022 in the wake of the COVID pandemic. A little dated at times (I.e., we don’t use “gypsy” anymore) but still a strong, thoughtful, well-written book that has definitely added some new cities to my “must see” list.
It was also really neat to read this book from 2012, written in the wake of the financial crisis, now in 2022 in the wake of the COVID pandemic. A little dated at times (I.e., we don’t use “gypsy” anymore) but still a strong, thoughtful, well-written book that has definitely added some new cities to my “must see” list.
November 28, 2022
Good overview of the various factors (political, financial, geographical) that shape the transit and transport in different parts of the world. Admittedly not for the die hard fan of driving and highway centric travel. The only gripe I have is the discussion of where to live and work cannot only include transport - there is an integral piece of coat of living that is entirely absent from this book. The author blithely comments on areas he would prefer to live without recognizing that these areas have undergone years of gentrification and are not within reach of the average income in that country. He even mentions is amazing area in Montreal and then casually mentions that his condo has tripled in value in recent years.
Other than those qualms, this is an otherwise we’ll researched and detailed book from the transit lover. Now I just wish I could move to Copenhagen…
Other than those qualms, this is an otherwise we’ll researched and detailed book from the transit lover. Now I just wish I could move to Copenhagen…
November 14, 2017
Sometimes the converted need to be preached to, too. Trying to keep the faith that public transit will someday prevail (or, at least live to fight another day) can be pretty disheartening. Sometimes you want success stories - evidence that transit can work, major changes can be effectively implemented, large numbers of people can get from A to B without a car AND SURVIVE.
I'm making it sound like Chicken Soup for the Delusionally Hopeful Urbanist Soul, but that's a disservice. It's well-researched, well-argued and extremely well-written. It's a book comparing public transportation systems around the world and it's actually interesting. I mean, I'm interested in this stuff but even I know that's an achievement.
I'm making it sound like Chicken Soup for the Delusionally Hopeful Urbanist Soul, but that's a disservice. It's well-researched, well-argued and extremely well-written. It's a book comparing public transportation systems around the world and it's actually interesting. I mean, I'm interested in this stuff but even I know that's an achievement.
October 8, 2017
interesting topic but the author 1) doesn't go into accessibility for disabled ppl at all which is a wild oversight considering the scope and message of the book and 2) never fails to mention when anyone of note at all is young, female, beautiful, or wearing "a miniskirt." the final chapter is about his home in montreal and the way he talks about the chasidic jewish community there is, Hm, let's say gently othering, and that's about as good as it gets when he's talking about/to people who aren't like him.
just read janette sadik-khan's Streetfight instead, alright
just read janette sadik-khan's Streetfight instead, alright
June 10, 2020
I was on a huge non-fiction kick for a while and this book was just perfect. The author travels around talking about the public transit in a handful of cities - Discussing the transit itself, the history, and overall attitudes towards public transit in the cities themselves and elsewhere.
Considering it was essentially a nonfiction book about trains, the author does a great job being engaging and not dry at all. The author also clearly has a bone to pick with suburbs, but I do too so I don't disagree, but I can see how it might be a little annoying if you don't.
Considering it was essentially a nonfiction book about trains, the author does a great job being engaging and not dry at all. The author also clearly has a bone to pick with suburbs, but I do too so I don't disagree, but I can see how it might be a little annoying if you don't.
December 8, 2022
I loved the concept of this book (examining different public transportation systems in cities from around the world and talking about what they did right or wrong) and the execution of this idea was a joy to read. Part travelogue and partly a historical write-up on transportation, it was incredibly educational on the different cultural aspects to public transportation (i.e., why trains are such a massive deal in Japan or how Russians manage traffic in some of the most congested highways in the world). Really fascinating book overall.
May 29, 2017
The bits about the cities today were really interesting, I loved hearing about the state of the different systems of transportation! I was less into the history, to be honest I ended up skimming a lot of the history bits or else I never would've made it through the book. I guess I'm just not as into history, which is a 'me' problem and not really a flaw of the book, haha. The chapter about Copenhagen made me sooo optimistic and inspired and now I wanna go live there or at least travel there!
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