TGIF, Streetsbloggers! Today’s newsletter brings you some multimedia to ease the transition into the weekend.
First, check out this video by YouTuber Classy Whale, who went to Arlington, Texas, which, with a population of 404,000, is the largest U.S. city with no trains, no scheduled buses, and no guarantee that the region’s on-demand microtransit service will be there when you need it.
Then, listen to a very special episode of Talking Headways, where we’re joined by Olivia Plotnick, founder of Wai Social in Shanghai. She spent the summer visiting more than 30 Chinese cities to experience different retail, the impacts of high speed rail, and the social e-commerce ecosystem. And she learned that competition has made Chinese retail sharper, the transportation space is becoming saturated with electric vehicle, and there is such a thing as “emotional consumption.”
Hyperscale AI data centers and highways are both harmful forms of fossil fuel infrastructure that get built without much community input — and it’s time to fight back against both, one of our favorite podcasters argues.
There’s a downside to enforcing traffic laws when cities do it to raise revenue rather than to save lives.
It might sound crazy — but is it crazy enough to work, even as governments take aim at steep transit cuts?
