Friday Funny: The Onion's Transit Issue

Out this week, the satirical newspaper The Onion has collected a host of stories dedicated to transit and transportation. Some of these you may have seen before, but many are new to us.

1 minute read

April 27, 2012, 2:00 PM PDT

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


Peruse the issue for favorites such as the article: "Human Feet Originally Used For Walking, Anthropologists Report", which quotes a new report in the Journal Of The Anthropological Society Of Oxford. "Apparently, as recently as 20 years ago, the foot was used in a process called 'walking,' by which the human body actually propelled itself," the report read. "Starting sometime in the late 1970s, these crude early feet gradually evolved into their present function of operating the gas and brake pedals on automobiles."

Another favorite, "Entire Train Ride Spent Deciding If, When To Use Bathroom," chronicles the painful pursuit of an empty and convenient restroom aboard a Metro-North commuter train:

"Other factors delayed Broberg's plan, including a long wait for an 'especially chatty and slow-moving' train attendant to come by and take his ticket, a 6-year-old boy who kept running into the bathroom every five minutes for no apparent reason other than to remove handfuls of paper towels, and a passenger who boarded at the first stop and sat next to Broberg, forcing him into the window seat. According to Broberg, the man 'immediately unwrapped a big, cumbersome hero sub' on his lap and began eating it while reading a broadsheet newspaper."

Monday, April 23, 2012 in The Onion

Lake Powell with much of the water evaporated.

Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River

Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.

October 30, 2026 - Yale Environment 360

A road in north eastern Nebraska with power lines on either side, and grassy fields.

Eastern Nebraska is running out of electricity

Data centers and electrification are straining eastern Nebraska’s grid, throttling economic development.

November 6, 2026 - Grist

A rendering of a mall turned living space. People walk around a green space surrounded by apartments.

Malls are becoming the midtowns of the future

Mall and office park redevelopments are a generational opportunity to create new nodes of urbanity.

October 29, 2026 - Ben Schneider

A car drives through a puddle in NYC

NYC breaks ground on anti-flooding infrastructure project

New York City's new system will reduce stormwater flows to local sewers by 90%.

November 9 - Smart Cities Dive

Members of the Smoketown CLT gather for a photo

One Kentucky town’s secret to affordable housing

The Smoketown Community Land Trust has already built seven affordable homes for community members.

November 9 - Reasons to Be Cheerful

Two people stand under mesh coverings shaped like petals

Houston gains petal-shaped cooling infrastructure to make streets more ‘delightful’

The city has installed the pavilions along 15 blocks in Houston.

November 9 - De Zeen

FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?

After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.

Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold

The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.