The beauty of street paint is that it costs next to nothing and it can have a huge effect in a very short period of time. Anyone watching how New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan transforms public streets into public spaces with paint, planters, seating, and signs knows how the installation of these materials overnight works like magic.
Taxi
How Taxis Augment Public Transit
Urban Planning Professor David King has found that rather than working in competition, taxi cabs actually augment public transit networks.
The Atlantic Cities
London Taxi Drivers' 'Knowledge' Alters Brain Makeup
London requires more topographical knowledge of its taxi drivers than any other city in the world. Now researchers have found that acquiring 'the knowledge' required to gain certification physically changes a human brain.
The Atlantic
'Instant Cab Culture' Unlikely in L.A.
The city of Los Angeles has instituted an experimental program encouraging people to hail taxi cabs rather than call ahead, an effort the city hopes will create a "cab culture". This column is skeptical about how much impact the plan can have.
Los Angeles Times
Dublin the Number of Taxis Was a Mistake
With thousands more licensed taxis than New York City, Dublin Ireland is facing a glut of idle cabs.
The Globe and Mail
No Go On Hybrid Taxi Mandate
A federal judge has put the kibosh on New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to require taxi companies to use mostly hybrid vehicles by 2012.
New York Times
Trusting the Local (but double-checking with GPS)
Sun, 09/30/2007 - 19:19
I live a ten-minute cab ride from the airport. I love it. Many a morning, I have stumbled down the porch steps in flip-flops and a business suit, carrying an overnight bag and high heels to make a flight in an hour’s time. Several weeks ago, I stepped into a cab and chirped my usual, “Good morning—National Airport, please!” and settled back into the seat, ready to finish applying eyeshadow.
“Do you know how to get there?,” the driver asked.
Beauty and Function? We Should Expect Both
Mon, 04/23/2007 - 06:37
On the Sunday that the April Nor’easter dumped the second highest rainfall ever recorded in Central Park, I waded to the New York Auto Show at the Jacob Javits Center. I wasn’t there to see the mighty floor show of preening cars inside the convention center, I went to see the Taxi ’07 exhibition outside on the wind and rain swept lower roadway. For anyone who has tried to hail a taxi in a Manhattan rainstorm, visiting the exhibition on that Sunday raised a familiar feeling: nearly a dozen yellow taxis in sight, not one of which was going to pick me up and whisk me away to dry land.
