The Ego Trip Express

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Reurbanization May Change Our Long-held Preconceptions about Safety

A generation of movies have made us think that the American city is an inherently dangerous place. But a new study shows that you're more likely to die violently in the quiet countryside

[egotripexpress]

"In 1901, there were 10,000 motor vehicles in the United States.

It took five years to multiply that number by 10. The next 10-fold increase took seven years, reaching one million vehicles by 1913. Just eight years later, it was 10 million.

From there, it took 47 years to get to the next milestone: America became a 100 million-car nation in 1968. Automobiles were everywhere..." READ MORE

[egotripexpress]

XKCD webcomic shows how thick ice was over North-American cities 21,000 years ago

As you can see above, Chicago was relatively spared with only 900 meters of ice (0.55 miles), but Montréal was deep under 3,300 meters (2.05 miles) of ice.

[egotripexpress]

Traffic in Frenetic HCMC, Vietnam

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The Ego Trip Express on Facebook

A collection of big ideas, both realized, unrealized or disappeared, from the realms of science,...

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The Ego Trip Express has it's own Facebook fan page. Be sure to Like it at https://www.facebook.com/EgoTripExpress

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Imagining a More Protected Coney Island of the Future

Welcome back to Architecture 101, a new Curbed column in which writer Henry Melcher shares architecture students' coolest ideas for New York City. Have a project we should see? Drop...

[mobylosangelesarchitecture]

i just got back from detroit, where i was playing at the movement festival (which was as festivals go, i say with some objectivity, amazing).

i’ve been going to detroit since the late 80’s (as it is the birthplace of modern electronic music), and i’ve always loved it.

culturally and musically and artistically it’s a fascinating place, but it’s also fascinating in that it has more remarkable abandoned buildings than any other city in the western world (this might sound like hyperbole, but i’m guessing it’s actually true).

it’s worth stating that there are big parts of detroit that are not filled with abandoned buildings. and those are nice, too… but the parts of downtown detroit that are filled with beautiful old abandoned buildings are aesthetically amazing (as evidenced by the fact that lots and lots of people have taken pictures of them).

on saturday i had the afternoon off, so my friend shannon (who lives in a former abandoned building) took me on a bike ride around detroit to look at her favorite abandoned buildings (what she refers to as ‘ruin porn’). here are some of my favorites.

and i hope that these buildings at some point get the love and care that they deserve. but in the meantime: ruin porn.

thanks,

moby

[egotripexpress]

Yes, ESA Is Still Under Construction

The biggest public transit infrastructure effort in the US is almost completely invisible -- unless you're 160 feet underground.

[yonderplanets]

Milky Way - Andromeda Collision Animation (by SpaceWatch99)

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Somewhere in a Parallel Universe...

Manhattan Memorious from Reiser + Umemoto on Vimeo.

Here is a very brilliant video depicting images of a Manhattan that never came to be. "Manhattan Memorious" features the Lower Manhattan Expressway (LoMax), Buckminster Fuller's Dome over Midtown, and other vast unrealized projects.

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The Jet Age by ~Ranchoth

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This is television's most thorough and comprehensive history of New York City's mass transit. I'm glad they avoided using personal histories and interviews and just kept it as a narrative to keep it chock full of facts. Love the narrator's grandfatherly, yarn-spinning voice. This really does make all the other subway documentaries look slow & plodding or just immature. Way better than that Extreme Engineering episode.

[Modern Marvels S05E03 New York Subways (by nick rose)]

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An excellent editorial piece from a member of Queen's CB14’s Transportation Committee on the necessity of reactivating the entire Rockaway Branch row for rail.

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WNYC Keeping the Dream of Subway Expansion Alive

WNYC has put up a great piece on some of the unfinished portions of the New York City subway. The map above gives approximations of where some line expansions would have gone. 

The Google Map below gives a better scale of where the lines would have run.

[egotripexpress]

A major development project for its waterfront could give Staten Island a much-needed boost, but the tide is taking young people from its shores.

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A goal of more walkable communities is being pursued statewide by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.