Notices by 𝚃𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚜 𝙶𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚌𝚘𝚎 🚇 (straphanger@urbanists.social)

#London is competing with #Paris to become the new global capital of active transport.

It's announced 51 km of new bike paths, and boroughs will create 222 new School-Streets (where cars and truck traffic is limited) by 2027.

https://www.cittimagazine.co.uk/news/road-safety/tfl-reveals-more-than-51km-of-new-cycle-routes-and-400-pedestrian-crossings-introduced-via-2024-funding.html

Notes from Underground:

#Warsaw has opened a #Metroteka in its subway, in an effort to get commuters off their cell phones.

16,000 books, board games, an underground garden, 24/7 returns.

Public libraries and public transport, a winning combination.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/07/warsaw-opens-metro-station-express-library-smartphones?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

In #Switzerland, fine for a speeding driver is based (1) on how far over the limit the driver is going
(2) on how much the driver earns.

One man caught driving his Ferrari at 137 km/h the in an 80 km/h zone in a village near St. Gallen was fined 300,000 Swiss Francs (today, $375,000 US).

🇨🇭🧵

This summer, a driver was fined $153,000 for going 27 km/h over the limit in #Lausanne.

The fine is based on the “personal and economic situation of the offender at the time of the ruling.”

Speed cameras are everywhere...some disguised as chunks of emmental...

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/article/a-driver-faces-up-to-153000-in-fines-for-speeding-on-a-swiss-street-but-he-can-afford-it/

The idea is that, for the rich, a normal speeding fine isn't much of a disuasion, so they tend to become repeat offenders—unless the fine really bites hard.

With fines of 2,000+ CHF a day, even the mega-wealthy start to pay attention.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/aug/12/record-speeding-fine-switzerland

A standard feature on most low-floor trams I saw in #Zürich : the fold-down extensions that allow for easy boarding for people in wheelchairs and with strollers.

As with so many things here: What the world should be, #Switzerland already is.

On Sunday, #Zürich residents voted 52.8% in favor of increasing parking fees for cars according to weight.

The owner of a BMW X2 (Diesel), which weighs 1,675 kilograms, will now pay equivalent of €717 Euros per year to park on a public street. (Before, about €321.)

Direct democracy!

More here: (in German)

https://www.swissinfo.ch/ger/parkkarten-in-der-stadt-z%c3%bcrich-kosten-k%c3%bcnftig-mehr/90081858

My timing was impeccable! Climbed to the top of the bell tower in Intragna, #Switzerland (all 165 steps!) just in time to see the Centovalli train crossing the bridge over the Maggia River.

#Seattle makes history by running electric light-rail across I-90 floating bridge

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/seattle-light-rail-makes-history-with-test-run-across-i-90-floating-bridge/

#Canada just committed to building high-speed rail.

This could be transformative: 18 million people live in the Quebec City-Toronto corridor, where electric 300 km/h (186 mph) trains will run on dedicated tracks.

Toronto to Montreal in 3 hours, Toronto-Ottawa in 2, Ottawa-Montreal in 50 minutes

🧵

The "bella ciao" thing—here's an explanation...

THIS JUST IN: #Canada's government is going ahead with Alto, a high-speed rail line between #Quebec City and #Toronto.

Trains to reach speeds of up to 300 kilometres (186 mph) per hour.

20 million people, half Canada's population, live in this corridor.

🧵

Things aren't *all* bad!

Around the world, people are working to make their communities into better places.

In my HIGH SPEED newsletter, I document the transportation revolution that's transforming the world with bicycles, walkable streets, transit, and electric inter-city trains...

🚄🧵

"The next generation will have to reconstruct a city destroyed by reconstructed transportation.”

—Hans Marti, 1956.

This seems to be the story of many cities in the 21st century: undoing the damage done by car-centric planning in the 20th.

(Rue de Rivoli, #Paris, 1960s vs today)

Another solution is the school street, especially good in denser cities. I write about our attempts to set up a school street in this HIGH SPEED dispatch:

https://www.highspeed.blog/we-love-car-free-school-streets/

Until 1969, half of US children rode a bicycle or walked to school.

Today: 87% get driven.

This is the line-up for parents picking up kids at an elementary/middle school in East Tennessee.

Parents sometimes arrive at 10 am for the 3 pm pick-up.

There's got to be a better way.

And there is...

#backtoschool

🧵

Build protected bike and walking paths to schools. They keep kids safe, and build activity into their day.

Top: morning rush at a school in South Carolina.

Bottom: morning rush at a school in the #Netherlands

Back to school is coming fast!

Drop-off + pick-up at our kids' elementary school in #Montreal used to be a dangerous rodeo.

This year, we got approval for a rue-école (school-street).

Closed to cars—open to people.

I explain how we did it in this weekend's Globe:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-to-make-school-safe-for-children-close-down-streets/

🧵

You'd figure convincing people to keep kids safe and active would be easy. In #Paris, there are 300 school-streets; London has 500.

But this was an uphill battle—and it's still only a pilot-project.

This year #Quebec's CAQ government slashed $18 million from a fund intended for safe school zones. (Of course they did, they're awful.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzegiSnYtU8