Rights in Transit

The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives.

Hiking by Transit

Transit-accessible hikes, parks, and trailheads across California.

What To Do If ICE Stops You In a Car, On a Bus, Or In a Train ~ L.A. TACO

You can’t attempt to use your rights if you don’t know what they are. Knowing them may protect you against a forced abduction, search, or seizure when being pulled over or stopped in Los Angeles.

Ode to the Shanghai Metro - Phoebe Lemon

Wayfinding has many applications, and arguably the most important one is public transportation systems. Granted, there are many different ways to design such a system, and the politics and culture of the environment in which it will be integrated certainly plays a large role. Interestingly, often when we discuss transportation systems on the global scale, individuals are so quick to praise New York or London’s metro systems, Europe’s “high speed” rail system, or how “Uber is the most original new technology cities have seen”. All of these statements are subjective, but somehow they’ve become accepted fact, especially in the West, and I argue that anyone who gives European/American public transport that much praise is blissfully living in a bubble. As an international student who grew up in America and has visited most of its major cities, lived in China for two years, and is now studying in the Middle East, I’ve had the opportunity to use almost every public transportation system to exist. Old fashion taxis, the Maglev, high speed trains, shared bikes, shared mopeds, carpools, the bus, the metro, I have used them all, but nothing quite compares to the way China does public transport.

All Roads Lead to the South — National Day of Action for Voting Rights

The voting rights they marched for are being stripped away right now. We're going back. Are you coming?

Public Transportation - Yosemite National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

Public Transportation

Community Wealth Building — Urban Affairs Review

Scholars of urban politics have long debated the issue of what cities can and should do to promote the economic well-being of their residents. As the of election Zohran Mamdani illustrates, urban residents are increasingly demanding that city governments do more to address the increasingly exorbitant costs of housing, childcare, and transportation. One obvious solution is to raise taxes on the private holders of wealth. By the same token, his election has prompted handwringing on the right about the “inevitable” flight of capital out of New York City. Scholarship that runs the gamut from the public choice school associated with the “city limits” perspective (Peterson 1981) through to Marxian accounts (Logan and Molotch 1987) all recognize that the private ownership of wealth and the mobility of capital puts cities in a bind, especially in a context of highly circumscribed levels of federal urban spending. Though several scholars (Logan and Swanstrom 1990; Kantor and Savitch 1993; Schragger 2016) have demonstrated that cities have greater latitude to promote egalitarian public policies than these perspective allow, few would argue that the deep structural problems of economic and social inequality can be fully resolved by tax-and-spend liberalism (Imbroscio 2010).

Going Out to a Protest? Here’s How Not to Get Arrested.

Lawyer Isabella Salomão Nascimento on knowing your rights — and getting the cops to respect them.

The cost of driving versus using a bike and transit (or: how to save over $7,000 a year)

I thought it would be fun to find out: how much money did I save in 2025 by cycling and using transit compared to using a car as my primary way of getting around?

Transit System Route Map, 1979

What the Unfinished Saga of a Still-Not-Built Subway Exit Taught Me About Public Consultation | The Local

One community volunteer traces 20 years of botched communication, unanswered questions, and delays—and asks what public consultation is actually worth.

Is it safe to travel with your phone right now?

Know your rights, but also minimize your risk.

Declaration of Social Media Rights

Five fundamental rights we need for a free, open, and humane social media ecosystem

Infrastructural Regulation and the New Utilities

From too-big-to-fail financial firms to net neutrality to internet platforms and the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, we now face a variety of legal and public