"Cities in motion: transport is as key to urban character as buildings or accents"

Link to The Guardian

"My recent, first trip to London presented me with two surprises: the reach, convenience, and frequency of the tube, and the volume of Londoners' complaints about the reach, convenience, and frequency of the tube.

"English friends had explained to me, not without pride, the importance of grumbling to the national character, but I still want to stress to every Londoner I meet that — take it from a visiting Los Angeleno — the tube exists, and that counts as no trifling achievement. Beyond that, and like every other means of urban transport system around the world, it tells you nearly everything you need to know about the city it serves.

"If you wish to understand London or any place else, look no further than how people move through it. This goes not just for subways, but overground trains, buses, cycleways, rickshaws, and every mobility solution in between. You can learn a great deal from robust transport systems, and even more from underdeveloped ones."