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Transportation

Interior Views Light through windows in Main Concourse, Grand Central Terminal, 1929.

The Preservation Battle of Grand Central

Forty years ago, preservationists—including a former First Lady—fought to maintain the integrity of New York City’s historic railway station

New Research

Your Summer Vacation Is a Carbon Emissions Nightmare

A new study of tourism supply chains shows that all those flights, zip-line tours and foie gras produce 8 percent of global carbon emissions

Fort Collins, Colorado, has been named No. 1 in a new list by People for Bikes ranking U.S. cities on bike safety, infrastructure and improvement.

New System Ranks America’s “Bicycle-Friendly” Cities

Fort Collins, Colorado, was crowned No. 1 in PeopleForBikes’ inaugural list

Would you be – or feel – safer if one of these people were a robot?

Would You Trust Drone Software to Pilot Your Flight?

Drones have already flown more hours than humans have. Now companies are looking to apply that data to commercial flight

A Brief History of the Stoplight

How a bright idea shaped our cities and gave the go-ahead to our love affair with the car

What Will the Automated City of the Future Look Like?

Tokyo, Singapore and Dubai are becoming prototype ‘robot cities,’ as governments start to see automation as the key to urban living

Guy Satat, a graduate student in the MIT Media Lab, at the fog machine

This New System Can See Through Fog Far Better Than Humans

Developed by MIT researchers, the technology could be a boon for drivers and driverless cars

Where’s my bus?

Dozens of U.S. Cities Have ‘Transit Deserts’ Where People Get Stranded

Living in these zones makes it hard to access good jobs, health care and other services

Ralph Teetor (right), cruise control in hand, with William Prossner, president of Perfect Circle, in 1957.

The Sightless Visionary Who Invented Cruise Control

Self-driving cars were far from Ralph Teetor’s mind when he patented his speed control device

New Research

Blame Tailgaters for Your Traffic Woes

Keeping an equal distance between cars ahead and behind may eliminate “phantom” traffic jams

"Les Choristes"

Cool Finds

Stolen Degas Found in Luggage Compartment of French Bus

No one claimed the suitcase containing “Les Choristes” stolen from a Marseille Museum in 2009

Times Square traffic jam

Should U.S. Cities Use Congestion Pricing To Ease Traffic?

New York may soon charge a fee to drive into central Manhattan as a way of reducing traffic and raising funds for public transit

Truck tracks on the Nasca lines

Trending Today

Truck Driver Leaves Tire Tracks Over Peru’s Ancient Nasca Lines

Three of the Unesco World Heritage site’s enigmatic glyphs were harmed, but authorities believe they can repair the damage

Could a secret ingredient make crumbling concrete a thing of the past?

With Fungi in the Mix, Concrete Can Fill Its Own Cracks

Adding fungus might be one way to endow concrete with the ability to repair any damage, without the need for human intervention

Nine Innovators to Watch in 2018

Meet a group of trailblazers in medicine, education, art, transportation, artificial intelligence and more

One proposed feature is a system where trash would be separated and removed through underground tunnels.

Five Questions You Should Have About Google’s Plan to Reinvent Cities

A waterfront neighborhood in Toronto will be a test bed for technological innovations. It also raises concerns about privacy.

The Orient Express circa 1883

What Was the Inspiration for “The Murder on the Orient Express”?

Agatha Christie wrote her famous detective novel based on an even more famous kidnapping

A self-driving shuttle at Texas A&M

Are Self-Driving Cars the Future of Mobility for Disabled People?

Combining machine learning, artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles could revolutionize how people with disabilities get around their communities

Don’t overlook immediate safety in a search for something better.

Some of the Best Parts of Autonomous Vehicles Are Already Here

Consumers with high hopes of driverless cars improving safety might be looking past the boring near-term advances that could make a real difference

The moment of impact when the trains exploded. Later, members of the audience rushed forward to collect pieces of the smoldering ruin.

A Train Company Crashed Two Trains. You Will Believe What Happened Next

When a Texas railway agent came up with a new marketing scheme, he had no idea how explosive it would be

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