In many parts of the U.S. and here in New York City, we’ve had the pleasure of experiencing above-normal temperatures, and the sunshine has brought hibernating city-dwellers outdoors to soak up the warm rays while enjoying a number of activities—jogging, playing basketball, riding bicycles, or just lounging on park benches. Over the weekend, I was [...]

If you live or work in a city, chances are you’ve ridden public transportation during rush hours. And, if you ride public transportation during rush hours, chances are you’ve found yourself without a seat the entire trip. While overcrowding on subways and buses may seem like a modern day burden, the problem was troublesome enough [...]

I’m sure you’ve all been to an airport and seen the moving walkways that look like flattened escalators. Some people take them as an excuse to not walk whereas others use them as an opportunity to speed up their walking time. Now, imagine this same concept in transportation perched a story off the ground on [...]

If you’ve ever commuted through New York City during rush hour, you’ve probably experienced stress-inducing traffic, over-stuffed subway cars, or delays that don’t care if you’ve given yourself an extra half hour. In 1924 the New York metropolitan area’s population was already large enough to get the Transit Commission thinking of ways to accommodate future [...]

Before there were B-52s and F-15s, there were balloons. The issue from November 13, 1909, reported on the status of aeronautics in the U.S. military, which at the time was under the control of the Signal Corps, a branch in charge of the transfer of information and intelligence. According to the article, the United States [...]

“Left or right?” he asked me as we watched the commuter train approach. A group of people nearby moved into position to line up with the door, all likely thinking the same thing: How do I get a seat? “Left,” I said. “These people are going to go right.” He looked at me for a [...]

Autophobia: Love and Hate in the Automotive Age | Brian Ladd | University of Chicago Press | 236 pages | $15.00 (Softcover) It’s an experience not at all unfamiliar to many of us: the flush of a first meeting, a growing attraction, a desire to spend every waking moment together, to visit new places and [...]

Editor’s Note: Marine geophysicist Robin Bell is leading an expedition to Antarctica to explore a mysterious mountain range beneath the ice sheet. Following is the first of her updates on the effort as part of Scientific American.com‘s In-depth Report on "The Future of the Poles." CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND (11/16/08)–Things have improved since the days of [...]

How much is too much to spend on saving an endangered species? In the case of the endangered Mount Graham red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis) $1.25 million seems to be the breaking point. The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) recently announced it would spend that much to protect the squirrels from cars near two dangerous [...]

Cars don’t kill people. People do. That’s the premise of a New York Times article that was published this week about pedestrian safety in New York City. With thousands of people flocking to New York City’s International Auto Show this week, the time is ripe to ask: Just how far have we come in making [...]

This afternoon, President Barack Obama will ask Congress to direct our cars, trucks and buses to a realm that doesn’t include gas stations. During a visit to Argonne National Laboratory, he will call for $2-billion energy security trust fund dedicated to research to boost automobile efficiency, enhance battery technology and expand the use of biofuels, [...]

A year ago, Volkswagen in China launched a marketing campaign called The People’s Car Project (PCP), which invited Chinese customers to submit ideas for cars of the future. Participants were able to tinker with designs on a Web site that Volkswagen set up for that purpose, or they could upload their own designs. Wang Jia, [...]

A crash involving two trains and a fire aboard a long-distance bus in China caused a total of 80 deaths in a two-day period late last week, raising questions about that nation’s safety culture. The high-speed train crash occurred July 23 when a moving train rear-ended a stopped train in Wenzhou, in China’s eastern Zhejiang [...]

To press the "accelerator" on a Tesla Roadster 2.5 is to get an intimation of life as a race car driver. In perhaps the signature display of an electric car’s appeal to gearheads, the Roadster instantly applies more than 300 amps of electric current to deliver 288 horsepower worth of acceleration—it’s called instant torque, 273 [...]

President Obama made several references to the development of high-speed railways in the U.S., during his State of the Union Address, and stated that one of his administration’s goals is to, within 25 years, "give 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail." In support of this goal—which would go a long way toward alleviating [...]

Many people assume that the 2009 H1N1 pandemic spread rapidly across the globe largely due to the sheer number of people hopping onto planes. But more than 120 years ago, trains and ships alone sped the transmission of the 1889 "Russian" flu so that it reached the U.S. 70 days after the virus’ first peak [...]

Okay, sure — you could buy a Smart car, and it costs $13,000 just to drive it home, plus no matter how cute it is it’s still burning gas and if you want to go to a gig with your guitar and your girlfriend, one of them is going to be uncomfortable. Or you could [...]

After a half-century of brutal urban renewal, sidewalkless cul de sacs, and unwalkable sprawl, planners all over the world have turned towards what was left out of planning for decades: community. Whether it’s planning approaches like Complete Streets or assessment methods like walkability scores, communities have learned that people want to interact with their surroundings [...]

The world’s level of dependence on petroleum for its transportation needs is concerning for a number of reasons, including the reliability of this energy supply. Even with recent reductions in fuel imports, half of the oil used in the U.S. transportation sector today is produced in other countries. This introduces questions regarding the reliability of [...]