I spend almost nothing so you can spend nothing bc I love you all :cat-trans: Starting next Patreon post I'll tag you and link it.

A former UN worker and prominent architect, Johan van Lengen has seen firsthand the desperate need for a "greener" approach to housing in impoverished tropical climates. This comprehensive book clearly explains every aspect of this endeavor, includingdesign (siting, orientation, climate consideration), materials (sisal, cactus, bamboo, earth), and implementation. The author emphasizes throughout the book what is inexpensive and sustainable. Included are sections discussing urban planning, small-scale energy production, cleaning and storing drinking water, and dealing with septic waste, and all information is applied to three distinct tropical regions: humid areas, temporate areas, and desert climates. Hundreds of explanatory drawings by van Lengen allow even novice builders to get started."

Link to where I got the synopsis

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Originally from The War on Cars Podcast (great pod):

https://twitter.com/TheWarOnCars/status/1550251427959824384

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Now with video!

Some guy will post a picture of a pretty standard looking pepperoni pizza and say: "Imagine not living in new york." And then there's the whole bodega discourse, which is also funny. "For you non-new yorkers, let me explain: a bodega is not a corner store. It's a place where you can buy gatorade, toilet paper, AND eggs." Thank you sir for explaining that to a slack-jawed yokel such as myself.

There are more photos at the tweet.

Igor Vasilevsky's classic Druzhba Sanatorium (1978) in Crimea, designed so each room had a balcony view of the sea but privacy from the other balconies.

The building was intended for discreet treatment of Soviet elites, not, as with some Soviet mental health facilities, forced treatment of people considered Undesirable.

Like George Chakhava's transportation ministry building in Tblisi, Georgia, the Druzhba came from a period where Soviet architects were enchanted with the idea of building on steep land using massive columns to lift the whole structure. Creates a great hovering effect.

it me, in the parallel life where i became an architectural historian but somehow still ended up in Peoria

Tweet

Donorcycles: Motorcycle Helmet Laws and the Supply of Organ Donors

the PMC and harvesting organs of alienated people, name a better duo

Fuck cars

Many of you may already be familiar with the term "gadgetbahn". Gadgetbahns are various transportation devices that are meant to fill the same niche as trains, but aren't trains. They serve as a sort of grift, allowing inventors to talk about how great they are compared to trains, without having to prove themselves as usable. The best examples of gadgetbahns I can think of are Elon Musk's Loop and Hyperloop, along with all the dumb stuff Dahir Insaat does. Here's a blog post about it.

Monorails are often accused of being gadgetbahns. But are they? I argue that some monorails are gadgetbahns, while others are not. Monorails have a series of issues that should be discussed:

-Often stuck with one vendor for rolling stock that can go out of business

-Switching tracks is much more complicated on most systems than regular trains (with some exceptions)

-Aren't compatible with existing rail infrastructure

-can be a bit more bouncy ride than a regular train

But let's talk about the benefits first:

-leads to a lighter streetscape compared to elevated rail

-can go up steeper grades than traditional rail

-can be automated (v.s. light rail)

-simple to construct

The ability to climb steeper grades is probably the best point here. Monorails are ideal for steep urban areas. I would argue that the best example of what monorails can do is the Shonan Monorail. It runs through steep and narrow streets along a single track in the sky. Passing points at several stations allow for trains every 7-8 minutes. I have a hard time imagining any other technology that can do this. The switches for the SAFEGE monorail technology are actually fairly simple and thus allow for easy switching. There are many monorails in Japan that have decades of service to back them up, including the Tokyo Monorail, Osaka Monorail, Chiba Monorail, and Nara Monorail. In China the Chongqing Monorail (pictured here) is the longest monorail system in the world. The Wuppertal Schwebebahn has been in operation for 120 years.

So why is the monorail considered a gadgetbahn?

Because it is so often marketed and used as such. It's used at theme parks, world's fairs, and malls. It's marketed as being ultra cheap and being able to make a profit. It's sold by private hucksters as a system better in every way than an old-fashioned train. It's amazing! It's cheap! It's the Future™!

Monorails are not immune to bad transit planning. A monorail in a one-way loop around downtown (RIP Sydney Monorail) is bad transit planning. A monorail that never gets built is even worse transit planning. The Disneyland Monorail is a gadgetbahn, but the Chongqing Monorail isn't. Why? Because the Disneyland Monorail goes in a slow, meandering, one-way loop between two stations, and the Chongqing Monorail is a rapid transit system with extensive service.

Monorails can't do everything. Save for a few examples, they are equal or worse compared to a rapid transit line. But in a few cases, they have a slight edge against traditional rapid transit and should be considered. These cases would be: -Narrow roads with steep grades (Shonan Monorail)

-Areas prone to flooding (Chongqing)

-Above a river (Wuppertal, Chiba)

In conclusion,

MONORAIL GANG, but only in niche cases

Disclaimer: I don't know shit about all this, but I think it would be a good idea to collectively do this post and pin it until we have community wikis. Most comments in any of these sources are copied from the users who recomended it, see the comments or make a new post to discuss any content

Intro

• Why all this is important?
• Why train good? A short and biased answer

Books and Essays

• "Urbanization Without Cities: The Rise and Decline of Citizenship" - Murray Bookchin
• "Rebel cities: from the right to the city to the urban revolution" - David Harvey
• "Human Traffic" - Jarrett Walker
• "Social Justice and the Cities" - David Harvey
• "Palaces for the People: How To Build a More Equal and United Society" - Eric Klinenberg. It has some lib moments and seems to have two editions with different title
• “The social ideology of the motorcar” - André Gorz. Essay about why “car bad,” regardless of how cars are developed/worked around.
• "The Geography of Nowhere" - James Howard Kunstler. Alt link
• "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" - Jane Jacobs. This isn’t a Marxist text by any means, but it’s crucial for understanding the history of urban planning, and I do think it’s an enjoyable read and that Jane hits some great points.
• "Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream " - Duany, Plater-Zyberk, Speck
• “The Right to the City” - Henri Lefebvre
• “The Color of Law” - Richard Rothstein. Also not a Marxist text but this is the book to read if you’re interested in understanding urban segregation in America and how it’s linked directly to federal policy
• "Spaces of Capital"
• “Designing Tito’s Capital: Urban Planning, Modernism, and Socialism in Belgrade” - Brigitte Le Normand
• “Delirious Manhattan” - Rem Koolhaas. Koolhaas is a very controversial architect and urbanist, but this book is a great read for understanding the contrast between the Corbusier-style Modernist Urbanism and the capitalist/post-modern/pre-modern urbanism of New York City. Also as a good eye into the psychology of architecture and how it is shaped and shapes cities and society.
• "Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State" - Samuel Stein
• https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22476.The_Origins_of_the_Urban_Crisis
• https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/745452.Crabgrass_Frontier
• https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30833.The_Death_and_Life_of_Great_American_Cities
• https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5597655-life-between-buildings
• Help

Audiovisuals

Documentaries:

• "Taken for a Ride - The U.S. History of the Assault on Public Transport in the Last Century"
• The Pruitt - Igoe Myth. Highly encourage this to anyone who wants to blame the failure of segregated projects on Modernist architecture

YouTube channels:

• donoteat - My first encounter with all this. Too long videos imo.
• Stupid City - Shorter, cool videos.
• The Armchair Urbanist
• City Beautiful - Lib but okayish to lure libs I suppose.
• Cheddar's playlist on urban desing
• bigmoodenergy - Videos about the history of american transit. She’s done videos about streetcars, metros, and funicular trains so far and I believe she’s working on another in the series currently.
• Unfinished London playlist - Some cool videos there.
• Climate Town
• Tom Scott's trains videos - He has a lot of cool train videos.
• BicycleDutch - Cycling in the Netherlands and bike infrastructure in general.
• Not just bikes - Somewhat similar channel to BicycleDutch but with a wider scope, focusing a bit more on urban planning in general. It offers the perspective of a Canadian who moved to the Netherlands (and stans it hard), and has some nice videos on their bike culture/infrastructure and how it didn’t just magically happen.
• Help

Podcasts:

• "Well There’s Your Problem" - Donoteat guy with friends from Trashfuture podcast discussing engineering disasters, some very related.
• The War on Cars
• Go Cultivate (by Verdunity, also blog)
• Help

Blogs / Sites

• Human Transit - Jarret Walker, "a transit expert", talks about transit.
• McMansionHell - Funny architect that shits on rich people with no brains.
• Greater Greater Washington
• Streetsblog USA
• Curbed
• Strong Towns
• Planetizen
• Bloomberg CityLab
• Congress for New Urbanism
• Smart Growth America
• BICYCLE DUTCH
• Help

Sites filled with libs but good to steal posts from:

• r/urbanism
• r/urbanplanning
• r/trains
• r/McMansionHell

walking through the city on foot and and public transportation made me feel better every day

This is the official fuck cars post. Train good! Car bad!