Public Transit
73 episodes
#6413: Why Pedestrian Fatalities Keep Rising on City Streets
Vehicles with front hoods over forty inches tall are forty-five percent more likely to kill a pedestrian than lower, sloping models.
#6400: Where Pedestrian Zones End and Car-Free Cities Begin
While historic cities like Venice cover over seven square kilometers without cars, retrofitted city centers like Brussels peak around fifty hectares.
#6262: Do Free Buses Actually Pay for Themselves?
When Swansea offered free weekend bus travel, ridership surged over 50% and footfall jumped, but local spending did not rise at all.
#6260: Why Free Transit Fails to Clear the Roads
Eliminating transit fares increases ridership by up to 49 percent, but research shows it rarely convinces motorists to leave their cars at home.
#6019: Who Should Decide What Gets Built?
A listener asks what developers' role in a city should really be — and two very different cities show what happens when you get the answer right or...
#5896: Modiin, Safdie, and the Suburb That Was Meant to Be a City
Moshe Safdie designed Modiin to be a real city. Thirty-seven years later, residents say there's nowhere to go at night.
#5711: Ireland's Offshore Islands: Who Lives There Now?
Ireland's offshore islands were dying for a century. Then the 2022 census showed the first real uptick. Here's what changed.
#5632: Why Cities Keep Digging Expensive Parking Holes
Parking minimums bury money underground — and shape the towers above. What Jerusalem's luxury towers reveal about rules nobody chose.
#5596: What Victorian Diggers Could Teach Jerusalem's Cranes
London, Paris, and New York dug their first subways at a human cost we'd never accept today. Did we trade that chaos for something better — or just...
#5556: Ranking the World's 5 Worst Bus Rides
Five real long-haul bus routes ranked by misery — breakdowns, borders, and no toilets — with extra weight for arriving somewhere ordinary.
#5305: The Empty Cup Is a Timer: Rethinking Remote Work Spaces
Cafes fail remote workers for one reason nobody lists: the guilt structure. Here's what to optimize for instead.
#5291: The 100-Hour Bus to Lima
From a $225 Rio-to-Lima marathon to a $24,000 guided expedition, the world's longest bus rides are a study in slow-travel misery.
#5271: 10 Transit Ideas That Never Left the Drawing Board
From the Hyperloop to the Sinclair C5, why do beautiful transit renderings never survive contact with the invoice?
#5193: Rethinking How We Travel Long Distances Without Flying
Sleeper trains, cargo ships, and vehicle relocation — the surprising alternatives to flying that already exist.
#5138: Who Are Taxi Drivers Really Talking To?
The earpiece isn't a fake call or a coordination tool. It's a lifeline against the profound isolation of the job.
#5098: Jerusalem's Digging Problem: Who Pays for Progress?
Jerusalem is tearing itself apart to rebuild. Residents pay top taxes but get no signage, no end dates, no recourse. Do other cities do better?
#5059: Israel's Unique Plug Problem: Standards, Cost, and Identity
Why does Israel have its own electrical plug no other country uses? The story of the Standards Institution of Israel reveals a nation-building lega...
#4982: Why Airport Security Feels So Inconsistent
The real reason your belt gets flagged at one airport but not the next—and why millimeter-wave scanners create more problems than they solve.
#4939: How Airports and Rail Become One Network
Why Schiphol, Frankfurt, and London TfL are gold standards—and where LAX and others fall apart.
#4852: The Airport That Feels Like a Mall — But Isn't
Why airports feel normal but aren't — and the engineered calm that hides invisible surveillance.
#4847: Buildings That Never Close: Perpetual Architecture
How do you clean, maintain, and renovate a building that has been continuously occupied for over a century?
#4629: Who Controls the Airport Ramp? Inside the Ground Choreography
How ramp controllers, ground handlers, and SIDA badges keep the tarmac ballet from becoming chaos — plus, who writes speeding tickets on the apron.
#4555: How Open Is Government Contracting Really?
Government contracts are publicly posted, but can small businesses actually win? We break down the real barriers and pathways into B2G.
#4504: When Cars Took Over: Traffic Engineering's Origin Story
How 1920s traffic engineers borrowed from fluid dynamics, and whether AI routing could be a public utility.