transport

Essays

Planning in the Age of Political Populism: Kolkata’s Tram Debate

Tathagata Chatterji - 10 June 2025

Using the case of Kolkata’s tram system, Tathagata Chatterji shows how two distinct political strategies—populism and...

Reviews

Episodes from the Social Life of the Delhi Metro

Sneha Mandhan - 20 January 2023

What is the impact of a new metro on a large and growing city? As new metros are cropping up across Asia, Rashmi...

Reviews

(Re)Constructing Inequality: Community Development in Public and Private

Claire Dunning - 14 December 2021

Claire Dunning reviews Jeremy R. Levine’s new book, Constructing Community, an ethnographic study of community...

Debates

Aéroports de Paris: A Strategic Lever for the French State?

Nathalie Roseau & translated by Oliver Waine - 26 January 2021

Following growing controversy surrounding the French government’s plans to privatize the Aéroports de Paris (ADP)...

Interviews

In Search of Grand Paris: Pierre Mansat on the Eve of the June 2020 Municipal Elections

Magda Maaoui & Pierre Mansat - 26 June 2020

Magda Maaoui interviews Pierre Mansat, former deputy mayor of Paris and a founding father of “le Grand Paris” (the...

Debates

Covid-19, War, and Working-Class Neighborhoods

Pierre Gilbert & translated by Oliver Waine - 5 June 2020

The residents of France’s working-class neighborhoods, accused of exacerbating the coronavirus pandemic through their...

From the Field

A Construction Boom in an Urban Floodplain: Long Island City, Queens, NYC

Christopher Ryan - 11 February 2020

New York City has encouraged development in Long Island City, Queens, even as the neighborhood has not recovered from...

From the Field

Moving Inside City Limits: The Urban Mobility of Undocumented Youth

Stephen P. Ruszczyk - 4 June 2019

The urban context and public transportation shape how undocumented youths move within cities. In a comparison of New...

Debates

Private Infrastructure and Urban Government: How Vélib’ Veered Off Course in Paris

Maxime Huré & translated by Oliver Waine - 17 May 2019

When the city of Paris entrusted its decade-old bike-share service, Vélib’, to a new provider in January 2018,...

From the Field

The Leaderless Urban Social Movement as Problem and Solution

Caio Teixeira - 25 September 2018

Today, with urban uprisings driven by leaderless social movements, the future of the would-be progressive agenda has...

From the Field

Dunkirk as a New “Laboratory” for Free Transit

Henri Briche & Maxime Huré & translated by Oliver Waine - 29 June 2018

From September 2018, the public transport network in Dunkirk, France, will be free of charge for all users. Henri...

Debates

More Affordable Transit Fares

Alexis Perrotta - 26 April 2016

Low-income urban residents often struggle to afford transit fares. Seattle recently established half-fares for poor...

Debates

Streetcars Named Desire

Luc Gwiazdzinski & translated by Oliver Waine - 15 March 2016

Luc Gwiazdzinski provides an original and critical analysis of the changes affecting today’s cities and contemporary...

Debates

Understanding São Paulo’s Bicycle Wars

Derek Pardue - 8 December 2015

In São Paulo, Brazil, bike lanes are a new phenomenon in a city historically dominated by automobiles. In the context...

Debates

A flat-rate travel card for the Paris region: revolution or illusion?

Marie-Hélène Massot & translated by Oliver Waine - 6 November 2015

Fare “dezoning” in the Paris region – a key reform to mark the end of Jean-Paul Huchon’s term as leader of...

From the Field

Social Norms and Resistance on the City Bus

Sofya Aptekar - 5 May 2015

While subways are hailed as the quintessential New York experience, with their own museum, T-shirts, and lore, the...

Essays

Transport as both a function and a facilitator of metropolitan development?

Aurélien Delpirou & translated by Oliver Waine - 12 February 2015

In Paris, Lyon and Marseille, the development of public transport is a central element of the metropolitan projects...

From the Field

In the Paris metro, hell is other people

Luke Haywood & Martin Koning & translated by Oliver Waine - 15 January 2015

In the medical field, it is not unusual for remedies prescribed to combat a particular condition to have undesirable...

Essays

Could harmonised working times spell an end to the rush hour?

Emmanuel Munch & translated by Oliver Waine - 12 February 2014

Efforts to coordinate working hours across urban territories have increased in recent years. By exploring the...

Debates

The Negotiated Urbanism of Grand Paris Express

Lara Belkind - 12 June 2013

In the fragmented context of Paris’s metropolitan and regional politics, the Grand Pari(s) design consultation and...

Essays

Teenage mobility: a socialised and socialising practice

Julian Devaux & Nicolas Oppenchaim & translated by Oliver Waine - 27 March 2013

The comings and goings of teenagers, while a frequent source of tension in the parent–child relationship, are a...

Reviews

Free public transport: from social experiment to political alternative?

Maxime Huré & translated by Oliver Waine - 20 March 2013

In a work combining storytelling and reflection, a local councillor and a philosopher analyse the policy of free...

Debates

From Vélib’ to Autolib’: private corporations’ involvement in urban mobility policy

Maxime Huré & translated by Oliver Waine - 25 April 2012

In December 2011 – four years after the launch of Vélib’ – Paris inaugurated Autolib’, the largest system of...

Essays

The police and the “Algerian medinas” in France. Argenteuil, 1957–1962

Emmanuel Blanchard & translated by Oliver Waine - 7 March 2012

Fifty years after the end of the Algerian War of Independence, it should not be forgotten that this conflict was also...

From the Field

Transport and urban planning in Rome: an unholy marriage?

Aurélien Delpirou & translated by Oliver Waine - 4 January 2012

Aurélien Delpirou brings a new perspective to the debate initiated by Luis Santos y Ganges. He highlights the fact...

Debates

Kanal İstanbul: a “crazy project” serving political ambitions

Yoann Morvan & translated by Oliver Waine - 7 December 2011

The current proliferation of mega-projects in the Istanbul metropolitan area is both undeniable and impressive. The...

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