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"In an effort to ease pedestrian traffic during peak shopping hours, Meadowhall has installed side-by-side walkways marked 'Slow Lane' and 'Fast Lane' so both window shoppers and customers in a rush can both move at their desired pace."

"Eight times a day, the shopkeepers have to interrupt their business, quickly pull down the roofs of their shops, drag their goods inside, then stand against their shop fronts breathing in -- to let a train go through. That's right, a train. A big, steel, commuter train travelling quite fast, straight through the middle of the mall. Sound bizarre? "

"This leads to a nightmare scenario that University of Washington's Mark Hollenbeck laid out in our recent Seattle Times panel.  Paraphrasing Mark:  A suburban father rides his driverless car to work, maybe dropping his daughter off at school.  But rather than park the car downtown, he simply tells it to drive back home to his house in the suburbs.  During the day, it runs some other errands for his family.  At 3 pm, it goes to the school to bring his daughter home or chauffeur her to after-school activities.  Then it's time for it to drive back into the city to pick up Dad from work.  But then, on a lark, Dad decides to go shopping at a downtown department store after work, so he tells his car to just circle the block for an hour while he shops, before finally hailing it to go home."

"Traffic circles are ubiquitous in France, accepted as safer than traditional intersections. But they have also become an emblem of the country's ailments, from urban sprawl to inequality. France loves its roundabouts. They are ubiquitous throughout the country, including in Abbeville, a city of about 25,000. Credit...Aurelien Breeden/The New York Times By Aurelien Breeden Dec. 25, 2019 ABBEVILLE, France - Every day, about 65,000 vehicles cruise through the center of Abbeville, passing by its Gothic church, City Hall and rows of red brick houses, with many drivers on their way to the English Channel about a dozen miles away. But they never stop for a red light. None exist in this town of about 25,000 people. Instead, drivers bank, swerve and loop their way through traffic circle after traffic circle. Their ubiquity in Abbeville is an extreme example of France's unabashed embrace of the roundabout, found in abundance throughout the country and widely credited for making roads safer and less clogged. Even in Abbeville, on a recent morning, workers in fluorescent orange vests and hard hats were breaking ground on yet another traffic circle, as cars were backed up by the construction. Roundabouts played a central role in the Yellow Vests protests, when demonstrators occupied hundreds of the nation's roundabouts, blocking traffic as a way to demonstrate against a despised fuel tax increase in particular and a growing sense of inequality in general. But France's relationship with them has in some ways soured, their very pervasiveness making them a convenient scapegoat for many of France's ills, real or perceived. Pierre Vermeren, a French historian writing in Le Figaro last year, said roundabouts were a "symbol of ugly France" and the "emblem of French malaise." There are no official statistics, but estimates of the total number of traffic circles in France range from 20,000 to 50,000. In the United States - about 18 times bigger and five

"The map looks like a subway map and shows the best places to have coffee near each subway station. According to a blog by Butterfruit Labs founder Nirmal Banerjee, the locations were chosen based on factors like stop proximity, type of beans, equipment, and customer reviews. If there were multiple stores, the original or most popular location of that store chain was selected, and if some areas didn't have great options, Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts were chosen."

"La démocratisation du vélo s'observe, logiquement et inévitablement, à travers la multiplication de commerces dédiés. Si la plupart prennent la forme de magasins standards, d'autres cherchent à donner un certain cachet à ce mode de transport, dont le côté "tendance" est indéniable en occident. Ces magasins prennent donc des noms bigarrés : "bicycles stores", "bike shops" et autres boutiques de vélo "vintage" pullulent, souvent autour d'un modèle économique assez trivial mais qui déjà prend la forme d'une hybridation, à mi-chemin entre atelier, magasin de vélo et boutique de vêtements. On y trouvera donc de quoi réparer son vélo ou personnaliser ses atours de cycliste : casques, gants gilets ou même parkas... D'autres vont tout de même un peu plus loin, en mutualisant au sein d'un même lieu, différents types de services plus ou moins relatifs au vélo. L'objectif est simple : il s'agira d'offrir aux cyclistes un lieu qui lui soit véritablement réservé, et ainsi de constituer une "communauté" cycliste autour de ce mode de transport qui s'avère souvent une passion. On retrouve ici le même type de réflexion que pour les tiers-lieux de coworking, ou comment le regroupement de services et activités permet de répondre aux besoins émergent (et donc encore mal définis) d'une pratique en plein essor."

"MOTOWN IS TRYING to take back some swagger from Silicon Valley. The dominance of software in automobiles these days in everything from infotainment systems to safety and the coming autonomous revolution has made the San Francisco Bay Area a hub for the auto industry. Several leading automakers have set up shop there so they're close to universities, research partners like Apple and NASA, and all the young talent. On any given day, there's a good chance you'll spot self-driving cars from the likes of Google, Audi, Nissan, and Delphi roaming the streets. Michigan is eager to get (back) in on the action. The University of Michigan's Mobility Transformation Center worked with the state DOT and companies like Ford, GM, Honda, as well as Nissan and Delphi to create a test center where automakers can refine the most advanced technologies with no possible risk to the public."

"he streets of New York just got a lot brighter. Uprooted Flower Truck is a fully mobile florist on wheels, and they're setting up shop to offer flowers to their clients wherever they may be. Armed with a bright and playful truck design, this mobile business is an awesome alternative to your local florist."

"Uber veut devenir le "one-stop shop" du transport. De tous les transports. L'application proposera désormais des informations sur les transports publics disponibles à proximité. Lancée à Denver cette semaine, la solution fournira des itinéraires porte à porte et des informations en temps réel. Uber Transit. Pour créer cette fonctionnalité, Uber n'a pas négocié avec chaque autorité de transport l'accès à leurs données. Un partenariat avec l'appli Moovit lui permettra potentiellement d'accéder aux données de 2 700 réseaux de transport dans 88 pays. Smart. Uber Taps Moovit For Its Transit Data"

"e've all been there. You want a short cut - to the bus stop, office or corner shop - but there's no designated path. Others before you have already flattened the grass, or cut a line through a hedge. Why not, you think. So goes the logic of "desire paths" - described by Robert Macfarlane as "paths & tracks made over time by the wishes & feet of walkers, especially those paths that run contrary to design or planning"; he calls them "free-will ways". The New Yorker offers other names: "cow paths, pirate paths, social trails, kemonomichi (beast trails), chemins de l'âne (donkey paths), and Olifantenpad (elephant trails)". JM Barrie described them as "Paths that have Made Themselves"."

"The precariat is a term coined to describe the segment of the population that lives without security or predictability. These days it often refers to the former American middle class that's currently experiencing reduced circumstances. There's always been a precariat, but it usually includes a minor subset of the population that no one really likes or cares about. Indentured Irish servants, black slaves, Jewish and Italian sweatshop workers, Mexican field hands, Puerto Rican cleaning ladies… It's a long list. People are up in arms now because the "wrong people" have fallen in to the precariat that didn't used to "belong" there. There's been a sudden realization that sometimes the structure of the economy itself institutionalizes their personal decline. Shocking! I'm not a political animal so I'll leave those discussions to others to hash out. Instead, I'm interested in how people adapt to the circumstances they find themselves in."