Public transportation takes us places

I was listening to WDTW today and heard a PSA from publictransportation.org advancing the slogan "public transportation takes us places." It's very refreshing to hear this message even here in the heart of car country.

Public Transit in Grand Rapids

Divorce Your Car!

"In the quest to find out what sustainability is, and how to achieve it, I have come to Sweden with an experiment in mind. As we left the U.S., both my wife Melanie and I divorced our cars."Click to keep reading on Divorce Your Car!:

Michigan sees one of hottest summers ever | detnews.com | The Detroit News

Michigan sees one of hottest summers ever | detnews.com | The Detroit News: "In Michigan, eight sampling sites across the state posted the highest overnight temperatures since record-keeping began in the late 19th century. Fifteen sites produced average overnight temperatures ranking in the top five warmest on record."

Quality of life in the U.P. at stake

MARQUETTE -- Public transit leaders are up in arms about the lack of state funding for public transportation in Michigan.

Members of the Michigan Public Transit Association met to get the word out, so legislators will take action.

They explained that while the number of people using public transportation in the state is at an all time high, the funding for it, is at an all time low. UpperMichiganSource

US per capita car ownership proportional to 590 million cars in China

China has 19 million cars. If it had the same rate of car
ownership as the US it would have 590 million.
[ per http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB120613138379155707.html ]

What we learned this week « Make Wealth History

makewealthhistory.org

Toronto: Let us not end up like Detroit.

Joe Pantalone is fond of saying that if we cut the city's budget by too much we will end up like Detroit. While this is to some extent a valid argument, Pantalone is ignoring the unpleasant truth about Detroit: that it is partly in its current state because it was planned for cars. When a city plans for cars instead of people, it ends up with cars instead of people. Workers drive into the city from more and more distant suburbs until the businesses build business parks close to their workers, completely removing the city from the equation. What is there to keep people in the city at this point? All the street-level shopping has been replaced by decaying malls, the parks have been replaced by parking lots and the cultural activities have moved out to more accessible locations. This is what happens when a city plans for drivers instead of people and this is what George Smitherman seemingly fails to realize. Spacing