Note the “covertly-repurposed Amtrak line” near Philly, and the “graveyard for passengers killed by closing doors” near Miami.

historical-nonfiction:

“Fearless Freddie” has done it again! He jumped from the airplane to the car traveling 78 mph, on November 20, 1920.

Average distance cycled by people in Great Britain, 1949-2010, “the period of the great extinction of cycling.” Image via Flickr user Jack999.

Can’t wait to read this new book by Sue Macy about the fascinating, intertwined history of women, feminism, and bicycles in the early days of velocipedes in America.

Maria Popova has put together an enticing preview over at Brain Pickings, complete with historical photos and illustrations of the outfits worn by women cyclists (absurdly burdensome, to the eye of a jeans-wearing present-day cyclist) and the impressions they made.

You can check for Wheels of Change in the children’s section of your local library, or find it online.

In 1988, commuter Paul Middlewick was staring at a map of the London Underground when he spotted a beady-eyed elephant outlined by the tube lines and a couple stations. The Animals on the Underground project now includes more than 35 critters, including an adorable wombat and a smiling bottlenose whale.

thisbigcity:

No seating at your bus stop? Make your own.

公車站沒有座位嗎？不如自己準備。

(via thisbigcity)

latimes:

The last FEMA trailer in New Orleans has left the city, closing a brutal chapter in New Orleans’ history more than six years after Hurricane Katrina stormed through the region and the levee system failed.

Photo: A FEMA trailer sits in front of a home in New Orleans’ Lakeview section in this photo from 2009. The last trailer left the city Sunday. Credit: Bill Haber / Associated Press

(Source: Los Angeles Times)

thecolourfulpast:

London - 1957

redeyednblue:

Streetview Stereographic is a new app that allows you to create “a little planet” using Google Streetview. Check out the Williamsburg Bridge!

(Source: redeyednblue, via fuckyeahcartography)

dadatavis:

(via Vehicles involved in fatal crashes)

Opening lines of “The Velocipede: Its History, Varieties, and Practice,” by J. T. Goddard. The book was published in 1869.

Fun fact from the same book: “Among those who distinguished themselves on the velocipede in England was Michael Faraday the chemist, who frequently drove his machine through the suburbs of London.”

(Source: books.google.com)

Gotta look out for those bike-riding women! There’s a great collection here of cartoons from the 1800s satirizing “‘the new woman’ and her bicycle.” (“The Awful Effects of Velocipeding” is one of my favorites.) Cartoonist Kate Beaton has remixed some of the images with a modern sensibility.

bikeliving:

The clothes! The bikes! The attitude!

(Source: bikehugger.com, via bikeliving)