Public Transportation

A rather clever mass-transit concept with a silly sounding name, the "Willie" bus by designer Tad Orlowski is intended to "transform city landscapes."

Public bus systems have changed quite a bit in the past few decades.

It sounds a bit counter-intuitive, but one Toronto nonprofit is giving folks a chance to win almost a full tank of gas if they drive less. Summerhill Group's Shuttle Challenge, launched last week, encourages commuters to cut down on their driving habits, giving away $25 gas cards for folks who participate and another $25 card for people who can reduce their driving by 10 percent.

Here's a new thought for the new year: stringing public transportation pods between buildings, also known as gondolas. This is the idea of Michael McDaniel, a designer at Frog Design, who proposed The Wire, a hanging mass transit solution for Austin, TX.

We can't remember ever seeing a commercial for a bus at all, much less one that was genuinely epic, but we can cross both those firsts off our bucket list thanks to an ad for Denmark's Midtraffik public bus system.

A new study by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group indicates Americans are driving less than they were a few years ago. That drop is largely thanks to young people. Those between the ages of 16 and 34 drove 23 percent fewer miles in 2009 than they did in 2001. While it's tempting to attribute the decline to the recession, the study suggests the decline may continue even after the economy

Detroit was once known as 'the Paris of the West,' counting itself among the most cosmopolitan cities in America. Its growth was propelled by a booming auto industry, which greatly influenced the city's design. Home to the first paved road and site of early interstate highway development, the Motor City was ahead of the curve in updating its infrastructure to meet the growing demands of a car-crazed culture.

Sometimes it seems that the rest of the country takes some sort of not-so-secret delight from Detroit's slow but steady decay. The truth is, the sprawling municipality faces a swath of unique challenges that are only compounded by a dearth of resources.

It may feel like you spend half your life in traffic jams, but that's just a delusion. According to this very spiffy – and highly depressing – infographic from Carbuzz, even Chicagoans are spending less than two percent of their waking existence staring at someone's muffler.

It may feel like you spend half your life in traffic jams, but that's just a delusion. According to this very spiffy – and highly depressing – infographic from Carbuzz, even Chicagoans are spending less than two percent of their waking existence staring at someone's muffler. There. Don't you feel better now?

According to the American Community Survey conducted by the Census Bureau, "The New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA Metro Area had the longest average

Does no access to public transit mean no jobs? That's the argument that Adie Tomer makes in a report compiled for the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program.

The United States hit peak oil production in 1970. Depending on your sources, we may have already passed global peak production or we may not reach the downslope in for a few more years. Still, even if the amount of fuel being pumped out of the Earth has crested, surely all those new four-wheel vehicles being added in Asia alone is enough to guarantee that global use of cars is still on the

Will you dump the pump today? That question comes from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council in recognition of the sixth annual "Dump the Pump" day.