Straphanger

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, Bogot , 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. Read Straphanger – kino-fada.fr 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, n 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 ...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 quic 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 t...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 h 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....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, Gr 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 ininformation 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 ...A One Minute ReviewStraphanger 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 s A One Minute ReviewStraphanger 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 politic...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...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 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...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 transportat...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 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 ...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 mak...

• English
• 24 June 2017
Taras Grescoe
• Hardcover
• 336 pages
• 0805091734
• Taras Grescoe
• Straphanger