Public Transportation

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Below are groups and resources (books, articles, websites, etc.) related to this topic. Click on an item’s title to go its resource page with author, publisher, description/abstract and other details, a link to the full text if available, as well as links to related topics in the Subject Index. You can also browse the Title, Author, Subject, Chronological, Dewey, LoC, and Format indexes, or use the Search box.
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Connexions Library

The ABCs of the Economic Crisis: What Working People Need to Know
Magdoff, Fred; Yates, Michael D.
Book
2009
Rich, powerful people created the economic crisis of 2008-09, while hundreds of millions of working people suffer the consequences -- lost homes, lost jobs, rising insecurity, and falling living stand...
Advocates Argue Free Transit Benefits Us All
Pablo, Carlito
Article
2014
Pablo analyzes the economic, environmental, and social benefits that a fareless public transportation system would provide Canadian cities.
Bus Driver
Dominique Basi (Director)
Film/Video
2009
Follows Karnel Basi, a public transit driver in South Vancouver, along his regular route through the downtown east side to the heart of the city and back again. Along the way he picks up a variety of ...
The City and Radical Social Change
Roussopoulos, Dimitrios
Book
1982
A collection of essays dealing with the dynamics of the new forces for social change in our urban milieu, discussing how new ideas are contributing to an urban insurgency which could lead to a new cit...
Corporations Undermined Public Transportation
Engler, Yves
Article
2015
Over the past eighteen months two of the world's largest automakers have been found responsible for deadly conspiracies. But, recent revelations can’t compete with the industry's previous scandals.
Derailing Neoliberalism
Haines-Doran, Tom
Article
2016
Haines-Doran examines the British transit workers' stike against rail privitization with its lack of concern for safety, unions, and workers' rights.
Desire to Kill the Streetcar
Article
2016
The author analyzes the conspiracy by large corporations to monopolize the American transit system and its fuel system.
Ecosocialism and the fight for free public transit
Kipfer, Stefan
Article
2012
Mass transportation is intimately tied not only to the physical form of cities, but to the deeper social structures of imperial capitalism. A campaign for free public transit can be an important part ...
Everyone on the Bus: Rider-Driver Alliances
Kann, Julia
Article
2014
Kann sheds light on the increasingly desperate state of transit in Detroit as number and frequency of buses and entire routes are experiencing increasing cuts and riders join in a union with drivers t...
Fare-Free Public Transit Could Be Headed to a City Near You
Olsen, Dave
Article
2007
It's time to give people a free ride on public transit. And here's proof it works.
Free Public Transit
Raudjarv, Revo
Film/Video
2015
This video focuses on accessibility when it comes to public transit in Tallinn, Estonia and how transit issues intersect with social justice issues.
Free public transport: from social experiement to political alternative? - Book Review
Huré, Maxime
Article
2013
A book review of M. Giovannangeli and J. L. Sagot-Duvauroux's "Voyageurs sans ticket. Liberté, égalité, gratuité : une expérience sociale à Aubagne".
Free transit
Article
2013
A pamphlet which gathers together a number of essays on the struggle for public transit. It emerges especially out of the urban context of Toronto. But the essays speak also to the wider crisis of pub...
"It's not just 2 pesos; It's the country:" Mexico City's #PosMeSalto Movement Protests Rising Transit Costs
Knoll, Andalusia
Article
2014
The author surveys the 2 peso transit fare hike in Mexico within the context of the country's suffering ecomomy and low living wage to showcase why the decision is a mistake.
Just Mobility: Postfossil Conversion and Free Public Transport
Brie, Michael; Candeias, Mario
Book
2012
In the face of a growing world population and metropolitan areas growing to accomodate them, Brie and Candeias analyze electric cars and free transit as alternatives to urban mobility.
Liberal Dreams and Nature's Limits: Great Cities of North America Since 1600
Lemon, James T.
Book
1996
An exploration of city life through time, focusing on the life [economically, socially, politically, etc.] of five large North American cities at various times in the past - Philadelphia during the ti...
The Los Angeles Bus Riders Union
Miller, Scott
Article
1997
The Bus Riders Union began as an outgrowth of the Labor/Community Strategy Center's "Equity in Transportation Project," a policy analysis group which to study the transportation problems of the urban ...
No Fares!: Time for a free ride on public transit
Article
2007
This series of articles in The Tyee takes a hard look at fare hikes and spending priorities by B.C.'s transit planners, as well as rising greenhouse emissions and pollution by the private automobile, ...
Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - November 7, 2016: Depression and Joy
Diemer, Ulli (ed.)
Serial Publication (Periodical)
2016
It's a difficult thing to measure, but there are strong reasons for believing that the number of people struggling with depression has increased significantly in recent decades. Despite the evidence t...
Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - March 18, 2017: Public Transit
Diemer, Ulli (ed.)
Serial Publication (Periodical)
2017
Public transit - good affordable public transit - is key to a liveable city. Around the world, there are movements of transit riders fighting for better public transit. A key perspective guiding many...
Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - March 25, 2018: Looking for Answers, Creating Alternatives
Diemer, Ulli (ed.)
Serial Publication (Periodical)
2018
This issue of Other Voices features people who are questioning and challenging the way the world works and trying to create better alternatives.
A Race Struggle, a Class Struggle, A Women's Struggle All at Once
Mann, Eric
Article
2001
In Los Angeles, the Labor/Community Strategy Center is carrying out a difficult Left experiment in the age of the omnipresent Right. The center is an explicitly anti-racist, anti-corporate, and anti-i...
The real reason American public transportation is such a disaster
Stromberg, Joseph
Article
2015
Stromberg dissects socials attitude regarding public transit in the United States, where infrastructure in most cities was designed with automobile dependency in mind, thereby causing transit to be be...
17 Reasons (or More) to Stop Charging People to Ride the Bus
Olsen, Dave
Book
2007
Olsen outlines a proposal for how to implement a fare-free transit system using already existing examples from around the world that are supported by their level of success and positive effects on the...
17 Reasons (or More) to Stop Charging People to Ride the Bus: The case for Fare-Free Transit
Olsen, Dave
Article
2007
The time has come to stop making people pay to take public transit. Why do we have any barriers to using buses, trolleys, SkyTrain? The threat of global warming is no longer in doubt. The hue and cry ...
Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile
Grescoe, Taras
Book
2012
A discussion of the major modern urban transport systems of the world.
The Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream
Duany, Andres; Plater-Zyberk; Elizabeth, Speck, Jeff
Book
2000
The choice is ours: either a society of homogeneous pieces, isolated from one another in often fortified enclaves, or a society of diverse and memorable neighbourhoods, organized into mutually support...
Toronto Talks Transit with Herman Rosenfeld
Rosenfeld, Herman
Film/Video
2014
Herman Rosenfeld speaks about transit issues in Toronto, and the campaign for good affordable public transit
Toward Sustainable Communities: Resources for Citizens and their Governments
Roseland, Mark
Book
1992
The way our urban communities develop will largely determine our success or failure in overcoming environmental challenges and achieving sustainable development. Toward Sustainable Communities offer p...
Towns for People
Worpole, Ken
Book
1992
Examines the pressures, lifestyle changes, and social factors that contributed to the decline in urban public life in the late 20th century.
Transit Activism and the Urban Question in Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Tonucci, João; Veloso, André; Kipfer, Stefan
Article
2016
The demand for free transit has been an important starting point of recent mobilizations in Brazil, notably those that shook the whole country in the summer of 2013. This interview with local activist...
What would Rosa Parks do today?
Hanley, Lawrence J.
Article
2016
If Rosa Parks was taking action against transit racism today, she likely wouldn’t talk about segregated seating. Instead, she would be calling attention to disappearing service and unaffordable fares ...
Why Pay To Ride?: The Modern Metropolis
Blumenfeld, Hans
Article
There is nothing revolutionary about providing "free" transportation. Why do we collect fares for some kinds of transporation but not others?

Sources Library

How Amsterdam became the bicycle capital of the world
Mead, Nick
2015
The author provides an overview of how bicycle use has monopolized the streets in Amsterdam to create an overall safer and environmentally city.
Rio fare protesters seize main station and let commuters travel free
Watts, Jonathan
2014
Watts discusses the economic and political impetus for the seizure of Rio de Janeiro's transit stations by the public in a protest against rising fare prices.
Rio fare protesters seize main station and let commuters travel free
Riot police, teargas and stun grenades fail to stop passe livre movement taking over Central do Brasil train and bus hub
Watts, Jonathan
2014
Thousands of commuters were shepherded through demolished ticket gates at the Central do Brasil station amid a violent confrontation over proposed fare rises that resulted in fires, arrests and disrup...
Size matters: What Berlin’s rapid transit would look like in Toronto
Young, Leslie
2014
Berlin has about 600,000 more people than Toronto and encompasses about 250 more square kilometers, so it's reasonable to expect there to be more subway lines. But not this many: Berlin has 25 subway ...
The Unique Genius of Hong Kong's Public Transportation System
Padukone, Neil
2013
Examining Hong Kong's "Value Capture" approach to public transportation.
What America can learn from Europe's high-speed trains
Adler, Ben
2015
Adler examines the lagging state of high-speed rail technology in America while analyzing Germany's approach to transit and urban planning as a model for improvement.