Transport
Discover facts about transport. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Transport
Brisbane ditches exhaust fans for e-buses
Digging a massive subterranean tunnel usually requires boring equally massive holes to the surface just so everyone inside doesn't choke on diesel fumes. As…
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How Australian cattle trains keep cows from bruising
Transporting cows across the scorching Australian outback isn't exactly a luxury cruise, but it does feature bespoke architectural design. Modern livestock…
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Why airships couldn’t dock at the Empire State Building
Imagine parallel parking a skyscraper in a hurricane. In the 1930s, visionaries thought it would be a brilliant idea to dock massive zeppelins directly to the…
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Copenhagen designed intersections to expose wrong-way cyclists
Copenhagen's urban planners have brilliantly weaponized geometry against oblivious drivers. In contraflow bike lanes, cyclists ride against the flow of…
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Why parcel lockers appear where you shop
You are not imagining it; those bulky parcel lockers always seem to appear exactly where you buy your groceries or grab a pint. Companies like InPost use…
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Electric trucks can drive as a digitally linked convoy
Drafting on the highway is a great way to save fuel, but doing it with 40-ton electric semi-trucks requires terrifyingly fast internet. Scania's platooning…
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How Rotterdam cut truck wait times with algorithms
Thousands of impatient truck drivers waiting to pick up shipping containers used to cause massive diesel-choked traffic jams. To fix this, the Port of…
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How a dirty bike chain steals your power
You can have the strongest legs in the world, but a dirty chain will happily steal your victory. Professional cyclists lose up to 5% of their pedaling power…
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Boston Duck boats struggle with muddy riverbank entries
Plunging a massive World War II-era truck into a local river is never as graceful as a swan dive; it is a violent, churning fight against mud, traction, and…
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How Taipei prevents battery-swap station stampedes
Swapping out dead scooter batteries for your morning commute turns into a full-contact sport if the network algorithm fails to predict human behavior.…
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TransMilenio buses deploy optical sensors for docking
Smashing a sixty-foot articulated bus into a concrete passenger platform is a spectacular way to ruin the morning commute. Bogotá’s TransMilenio drivers rely…
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How JFK scrubs melted tires off its runway
Every commercial jet touchdown literally melts a thin layer of tire directly onto the concrete, slowly turning the runway into a lethal ice rink. To prevent…
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The green highway built across the Taklamakan Desert
Paving a highway straight through the barren heart of the Taklamakan Desert is easy, but preventing massive, shifting dunes from instantly swallowing it whole…
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How Melbourne trams eat through water pipes
Trams are incredibly eco-friendly, right up until their leaking electricity begins silently eating the city's subterranean infrastructure. Stray direct…
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How London plans buses for drunken crowds
Predicting transit demand at 3 AM isn't about mapping out standard commuter routes; it’s about anticipating sheer, alcohol-fueled chaos. London transit…
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Why London buses are told to wait
Think three buses showing up at once is just bad luck? It's a mathematical phenomenon called bus bunching. To kill it, Transport for London uses the iBus…
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How algorithms route trains carrying hazardous cargo
You really don't want a train carrying pressurized liquid chlorine derailing next to a populated stadium. Freight giants like CSX use proprietary hazmat…
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The 1929 car you could fold up and carry home
In 1929, German engineer Engelbert Zaschka realized city parking was an absolute nightmare, so he invented a car you could literally dismantle in an alleyway.…
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The Australian train designed to let drivers sleep
Australia is unfathomably huge, and driving across it is a surefire way to lose your mind. Enter the New South Wales 'Land Ferry' concept. Instead of driving…
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Shrinking massive train turntables for tiny yards
Turning a 200-ton locomotive around usually requires a colossal, expensive piece of track known as a turntable, which takes up half a rail yard. Yelivandl…
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Liverpool built an elevated railway before New York's High Line
Long before New York's High Line became a hipster paradise, Liverpool built the world's first electric elevated railway to ferry dockworkers over the…
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British Somaliland abandoned a totally useless railway
Colonial administrators constructed a grand total of seven miles of track in British Somaliland just to move military supplies from a port to an inland camp.…
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Negligent rail mining infrastructure buried Aberfan
The National Coal Board literally piled mountains of loose, liquefied mining waste directly above a Welsh village because it was cheap and easy to dump from…
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The boat that skimmed like a plane
Alexander Lippisch created the "aerofoil boat," a terrifying seaplane-boat hybrid designed to exploit ground effect and skim just inches above the water's…
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