This is the line-up for parents picking up kids at an elementary/middle school in East Tennessee. Parents sometimes arrive at 10 am for the 3 pm pick-up. There's got to be a better way. And there is... #backtoschool 🧵

👍🏼The US has a new high-speed train from #France ! 👎🏾 And it’s running on the same old low-speed American tracks.

Sleeker, Comfier, a Tiny Bit Faster: Riding Amtrak’s New Acela

The NextGen high-speed trains feel more like those in China, Japan or France. But topping out at 160 m.p.h., they’re still relatively slow.

I have an essay in the Globe and Mail this weekend. It's about how I and a group of parents fought to have street outside our children's elementary school closed to cars. This year, we succeeded! Now we're going to have to fight to keep it in place. 🧵

The Globe and Mail

Opinion: To make school safe for children, close down streets

Under a variety of names, from ‘school exclusion zones’ to piazze aperte, versions of the ‘school street’ have spread across Europe. But Ca...

Trump take nice train station. (Nothing left soon.) "Trump’s administration is taking management of D.C.'s Union Station away from Amtrak in the latest example of the federal government exerting its power over the nation’s capital."

Global News

Trump is taking control of Washington, D.C.’s Union Station. Why? - National | Globalnews.ca

The busy transit hub has “fallen into disrepair” when it should be a “point of pride” for the nation's capital, U.S. Transportation Se...

"These damn bicycles are taking over the streets!" NEW MCGILL STUDY: Hard facts from #Montreal to set things straight. Cars now get 79.6% of the infrastructure area (roads) in the city. Pedestrians (sidewalks): 18.3% Micromobility (lanes for bikes, scooters etc.): 1.57% 🧵

Thanks to the Republican-controlled State Senate of #Pennsylvania, which doesn’t give a damn about the people of #Philadelphia, the transit system of the 6th largest city in the U.S. is about to collapse. That is messed up.

"A highway is the triumphant devaluation of space, which thanks to it has been reduced to mere obstacle to human movement and a waste of time." —Milan Kundera (📷 Ed Burtynsky Highway #1, Intersection 105 & 110, Los Angeles.)

High-speed rail: “62% of California voters support building the project. The poll also shows that as voters get younger they are more likely to support the project” Guess who doesn’t like it? Older Republicans. (They prefer choo-choos in museums.)

Californians Continue to Love High-Speed Rail, Even if Republicans in Washington D.C. Don’t - Streetsblog California

High Speed Rail has only become a partisan in recent years. But under Trump, it's become hyper-partisan.

This is pretty impressive! There are now 300 "rue aux écoles" in #Paris. (Up from 185 last year.) That means *half* of elementary schools in city have now had the streets outside closed to all car traffic. Some cool Before/After shots on the Ville de Paris website:

Plus de 300 « rues aux écoles » dans Paris

Expérimentées dans le cadre du déconfinement pour lutter contre la pollution, améliorer la qualité de l'air et végétaliser la ville, les «�...

In #Vienna, any citizen can replace a street parking space with a parklet, an urban green space for everybody to enjoy. The grätzloasen, or neighbourhood oases, are built by volunteers, and more than 100 have been built with the blessing of city hall.

the Guardian

‘Why would you take away a parking place?’: the city where anyone can build an urban oasis

Grätzloasen – low-cost, urban ‘parklets’ built by volunteers – are on the rise in Vienna as sceptics are being won over by the splash of w...