Divergent Transportation Trends

You though that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer and Newman get the homeless to pull rickshaws down the streets of New York was a joke? Nope. Well, not any more - and they're not called rickshaws - they're pedicabs.

An SUV horn blasted several feet from my left ear, and I nearly shot through the plastic shield. Visions of Singapore circa 1935 evaporated as I white-knuckled the sides of the carriage in sudden terror -- I was in a tin can on spoked wheels smack in the middle of Manhattan traffic beside drivers with the black hearts of those chaps in "Ben-Hur" who sported sharp, competitor-destroying blades on their chariot wheels. I was going to be crushed like an ant.

On the other side of transportation is an interesting article from Maine relating the build-up of the Cold War to that of our Interstate Highway System during the Eisenhower years. Sure, it's all theoretical and this doesn't propose any kind of solution to the sustainability issues presented by an auto-dominant system, but it's still fascinating.