I’m finally getting around to doing a fantasy transit map. My inspiration? My trip home from D.C. to Greensboro via the train. It takes approximately 8 hours to do it in the daylight and 5.5 hours to do it in the middle of the night. And those are the only
How I Get Around the DC Metro Without A Car (And You Can Too!)
I mentioned in a prior post that I do a fair amount of walking and I no longer have my car now that I’m in DC. I wanted to break that down and help folks getting started here without a car to understand how car-free life works. This is very
What We Need Is More, Not Less, Transit In Our Major Cities
There’s a reason I walk around with my DC SmartTrip card hanging around my neck. And I post time-lapse Instagrams and such of the KC Streetcar working well. Why I wish I could park my car for good and why I relish walking in even 90 degree heat, if it
By Kristen Jeffers
#transpo/Cityreads/Education/Food/gentrification/Government/Homelessness/Housing/How-To/Kansas City/Transportation/urbanism
To Create a Perfect City
All it took in many cities for development in the old days was one man who bought up bunches of land and started building houses on it, which he turned around and put up for sale. One man. Probably white and already wealthy. Several plots of farmland. Land which used
Why Road Gentrification Is Good Gentrification
I’m a firm believer that transportation is one place where equity can and should be had. At the end of the day, a street is a street, we all have to use them and their presence should not be the signal of gentrification you worry about. It should be the
By Kristen Jeffers
Cities/Cityreads/Essay/Family and Place/Greensboro/Kansas City/transit/Transportation/urbanism/walking
From an Ambassador to Kansas City (Excerpt from Triad City Beat Fresh Eyes Column)
Roughly six weeks ago, after loading almost all of my worldly possessions into a moving truck, relatives helped me pack the rest into two cars and we departed our southwest Greensboro home at about 5 a.m., navigating the freeways past my father’s gravesite at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, on
You Need a New Airport Kansas City, Get Over It.
I’ve been in Kansas City for just over a month. While I didn’t arrive by plane this time, all the other times I’ve come and gone from KC, have been through the Kansas City International Airport. Only once have I driven myself to said airport. I’ve parked at the B-11
Travels and Protests
Since we are getting ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow, I’m going to keep this week’s Potatoes simple. One link to numbers around Ferguson and one link to the Amtrak train tracker. This is Potatoes and this is what I normally call my Wednesday posts, because on Tuesday, I usually write a
A Beltline for the People
The first time I encountered the word beltline in terms of transportation, it was referring to the Raleigh Beltline. The Raleigh Beltline is an urban loop highway that was built in various stages and with various standards over the past 50 years. I have many fond memories of commutes and various adventures that
What Happens When Nothing Is Done Structurally About Sprawl
Broken Down House. Derrick Hughes via Flickr. Despite my life hacks from this post, we have to do something on a structural and legal level about sprawl. Unchecked sprawl is the urban renewal of today. Instead of providing the services that are needed in the core of the city, there
