WEBSITES AND BLOGS

These organizations and individuals, in North America and abroad, do a great job of chronicling and mapping the ongoing revolution in urbanism and transportation.

"Where we live matters." A Washington, D.C. based non-profit that advises civic leaders on how to create better communities for all. Particularly strong on transit-oriented development. Jeff Wood's daily email and web newsletter, The Other Side of the Tracks, is an invaluable round-up of transit, rail, and urbanism related news stories.

"We need to get America working again." Washington, D.C. based coalition of housing, environmental, public health, transportation, and other organizations that campaigns for cheaper, faster, and cleaner transportation options.

Excellent blog by Portland, Oregon-born globetrotting transit consultant Jarrett Walker author of 2012's Human Transit, with a great international perspective.

A highly political blog, with an international perspective, about rail and urban transit, by the prolific and opinionated Yonah Freemark.

"Place Matters." Essential one-stop website for all that is happening today's global cities and neighborhoods. Overseen by University of Toronto urbanist Richard Florida.

An encyclopaedic website and blog devoted to the subway and urban rail systems of the world, run by metro fan Robert Schwandl. Includes maps, capsule histories, statistics and huge stocks of photos.

The impassioned Benjamin Kabak's excellent website chronicles the seemingly never-ending story of Manhattan's Second Avenue Subway, as well as covering other aspects of transit in NYC.

A non-profit trade association that lobbies for, in its words, "a 17,000 mile high speed rail system built in phases for completion by 2030."

Daily snaps and video clips of Europe's most stylish bike-riders in action (or waiting at lights) by Mikael Colville-Andersen, Danish photographer and independent filmmaker. A sister site, copenhagenize.com, gives practical information on bringing Copenhagen's bicycle infrastructure and culture to other cities.

Organization founded by NYPIRG that struggles for better conditions for straphangers on New York's buses and subways. Hands out the annual Pokey and Schleppie Awards for the city's slowest buses.

Fun, Amsterdam-based blog, with correspondents around the world, that focuses on new designs, trends, and ideas shaping cities around the world, from urban beekeeping to Lego bus-stop shelters.

Works with cities around the world, especially in developing countries, to bring about transport solutions that cut greenhouse gas emissions, reduce poverty, and improve the quality of urban life.

Non-profit initiative of the Washington, D.C.-based think tank, working with cities in the developing world to implement solutions to problems of urban mobility. The EMBARQ network now has Centers for Sustainable Transport in Mexico, Brazil, India, Turkey, and the Andes.

A high-quality multi-city blog (San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, D.C.), started by LimeWire founder Mark Gorton, providing a daily news source about sustainable transport and livable communities.

Blog about transit, bicycles, and urbanism by Vancouver-based activist and former alderman Gordon Price.

David Pirmann's encyclopaedic, unofficial site chronicling the history and minutiae of every nook, cranny, and ghost station of the New York subway.

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FURTHER READING

Amar, Georges. Mobilités urbaines: Eloge de la diversité et devoir d'invention. Paris: Edition de l'Aube, 2004.

Downey, Morgan. Oil 101. New York: Wooden Table Press, 2010.

Evans, Walker. Many Are Called. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2004.

Florida, Richard. The Great Reset: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity. New York: Random House, 2010.

Fogelson, Robert M. Downtown: Its Rise and Fall, 1880–1950. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001.

Gilbert, Richard, and Anthony Perl. Transport Revolutions: Moving People and Freight Without Oil. Gabriola Island, B.C.: New Society, 2010.

Goddard, Stephen B. Getting There: The Epic Struggle Between Road and Rail in the American Century. New York: Basic Books, 1994.

Kargon, Robert H., and Arthur P. Molella. Techno-Cities of the Twentieth Century. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2008.

Kay, Jane Holtz. Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America and How We Can Take It Back. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

Kunstler, James Howard. The Geography of Nowhere. New York: Touchstone, 1993.

Marshall, Alex. Beneath the Metropolis: The Secret Lives of Cities. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2006.

Mumford, Lewis. The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects. New York: Harvest/HBJ, 1961.

Nordahl, Darrin. My Kind of Transit: Rethinking Public Transportation. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2012.

Ovenden, Mark. Transit Maps of the World. London: Penguin Books, 2007.

Owen, David. Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability. New York: Riverhead Books, 2009.

Rome, Adam. The Bulldozer in the Countryside: Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Soderstrom, Mary. The Walkable City: From Haussmann's Boulevards to Jane Jacobs' Streets and Beyond. Montreal: Véhicule, 2008.

Walker, Jarrett. Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2012.

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