Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile

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Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile

4.13 of 5 stars 4.13 · rating details · 214 ratings · 51 reviews

Taras Grescoe rides the rails all over the world and makes an elegant and impassioned case for the imminent end of car culture and the coming transportation revolution"I am proud to call myself a straphanger," writes Taras Grescoe. The perception of public transportation in America is often unflattering—a squalid last resort for those with one too many drunk-driving charge...more

Hardcover, 336 pages

Published April 24th 2012 by Times Books (first published September 9th 2011)

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Apr 17, 2012 Newengland rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary, finished-in-2012, nonfiction

An amalgam of journalistic feature writing, travel writing, history writing, and persuasive writing, STRAPHANGER is a State of the Mass Transit Union speech worth heeding. Author Taras Grescoe takes readers to 13 cities -- Shanghai, New York City, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Paris, Copenhagen, Moscow, Tokyo, Bogota, Portland (OR), Vancouver, Philadelphia, and Montreal. Here he provides a history of each city's mass transit, where they stand now in their progress (or lack thereof) of moving people quic...more An amalgam of journalistic feature writing, travel writing, history writing, and persuasive writing, STRAPHANGER is a State of the Mass Transit Union speech worth heeding. Author Taras Grescoe takes readers to 13 cities -- Shanghai, New York City, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Paris, Copenhagen, Moscow, Tokyo, Bogota, Portland (OR), Vancouver, Philadelphia, and Montreal. Here he provides a history of each city's mass transit, where they stand now in their progress (or lack thereof) of moving people quickly, conveniently, and relatively cheaply, where they hope to go in the future, and what (and who) are the obstacles.

To achieve this, Grescoe meets key personalities of the mass transit scene in each city, interviews them, and weaves their words into the chapters. He rides buses, subways, bicycles, bullet trains, and electric trams, describes the experience, and gives us a feel for what it would be like to live in each of these cities today (consider it a scouting report if any of them are on your radar as possible places to move to). He builds a passionate, yet reasonable and realistic, argument against the automobile. He identifies freeways as the nooses that strangle cities, destroy neighborhoods, undercut attempts to resuscitate urban life. He celebrates the renaissance of city living, the fact that the post-Baby Boomer generation is migrating back to urban centers and questioning the "American Dream" known as the "suburb."

In fact, even those approaching retirement with a gated community in the suburbs in mind as a final home might reconsider after reading STRAPHANGERS. There's a certain appeal, a certain charm, to thriving, safe neighborhoods in a city that include easy access to trustworthy, clean, and safe public transportation, with all one's shopping needs within miles of your home. If this sounds unrealistic, Grescoe's description of cities like Tokyo, Copenhagen, and many others not mentioned in chapter headings (Strasbourg, for instance) proves that a "Brave New World" for mass transit is not some pipe dream. In fact, it is a reality in many places -- right here in 2012. Leaders in these progressive cities understand that the long-term approach of financing mass transit is worth every penny, that revenues poured into highways are lost monies which only add to our traffic, pollution, and health woes.

As you might expect, there are good guys and bad guys in this picture -- and many in between. Read STRAPHANGER, and you'll find out where you stand in this picture. Grescoe writes as well as he rides. As a fiction reader, I was pleasantly surprised with my commute through these pages. Hopefully, you will be, too. (less)

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Oct 21, 2012 Justin rated it 4 of 5 stars

A recent surge of interest in city planning lead me to randomly put several related books on hold at the library. This was the first one I happened to read and it couldn't have been a better introduction to the fascinating field of urban studies. Grescoe is a travel writer by trade, but with a historian's love of research and a passionate love of city life -- in particular, the cities' public transit systems. (He has never owned a car.)

Strap Hanger operates under a simple premise: Grescoe simply...more A recent surge of interest in city planning lead me to randomly put several related books on hold at the library. This was the first one I happened to read and it couldn't have been a better introduction to the fascinating field of urban studies. Grescoe is a travel writer by trade, but with a historian's love of research and a passionate love of city life -- in particular, the cities' public transit systems. (He has never owned a car.)

Strap Hanger operates under a simple premise: Grescoe simply went to different cities around the world and rode their public transportation, everything from the subway of New York to the teeming bike paths of Copenhagen. Each chapter uses its particular city's public transit as a lift-off point for Grescoe to explore many angles of the given metropolis, from history to culture to architecture, to crime, to education. An urban center's transportation network touches and informs every aspect of it, and Grescoe, with extreme good cheer and diligence, explores these aspects in detail, city by city, chapter by chapter. His writing is incredibly clear and precise, offering a lovely mental picture of each city's unique transportation.

I learned a lot from this book, and it inspired me to trade my parking space at work in for a monthly bus pass. Though I live in Los Angeles, where cars rule and transit still hasn't caught on as a faster, better alternative (though there's hope for this auto-mad berg, as Grescoe expounds on in the book), Grescoe make a convincing argument that riding transit means more than just getting from point A to point B. When you get out of your car, a bubble on wheels that protects you from the outside world, and use buses and trains and bikes and your legs to get around, you become more connected to the place you live, and more connected to the people around you. While I don't think the bus is going to get me where I want to go any faster than my car (if anything, it will be slower), the time spent in it will be of a higher quality than the time I spend driving. Whether talking to a stranger, people watching, or simply reading my book or looking out the window, I'm convinced riding the bus is going to improve my quality of life. I feel like a lot of people may read that last sentence and think I'm crazy -- unless you came to this review AFTER reading Strap Hanger.(less)

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Sep 24, 2012 Malin Friess rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you don't know....a Straphanger is a person who rides the bus, subway, or lightrail with a right hand above hanging on to the strap.

Taras Grescoe is a straphanger. He has never owned a car..along with 600 million other people in the world he rides the bus, train, or subway to work. And he thinks it is a much better way of life. In fact he thinks the automobile is dead!

What makes a city great..Paris, New York, Montreal..they have great public transportation systems. 1/2 of New Yorkers and Lond...more If you don't know....a Straphanger is a person who rides the bus, subway, or lightrail with a right hand above hanging on to the strap.

Taras Grescoe is a straphanger. He has never owned a car..along with 600 million other people in the world he rides the bus, train, or subway to work. And he thinks it is a much better way of life. In fact he thinks the automobile is dead!

What makes a city great..Paris, New York, Montreal..they have great public transportation systems. 1/2 of New Yorkers and Londoners don't own a car. Statistics reveal that general happiness decreases significantly if you communte by automobile to work more than 45 minutes. Grescoe goes to cities around the world to get the inside scoop on public transportation.

New York City--The Subway is efficient, cheap, and safe. Only 5% of Manhatten residents use the automobile to get to work. Even Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a straphanger.

Phoenix, Arizona-- A city planning disaster. Sprawl of strip malls and fast-food restaurants that make you feel like you are in an MC Escher painting you can't escape. A city that has concrete that covers an area the size of Switzerland. No reliable public transportation..about as bad as Houston.

Portland, Oregon-- Big Smiles for this city. He gives a lot of credit for their strict city zone ordinances created in the 50's that have helped to decrease urban sprawl an increase high density living. He also praises Tom McCall for rejecting money that could have been used as a Highway to Mt. Hood and instead put in light rail. On any given day 8% of Portlanders ride their bike to work..highest in the country (all though well below Copenhagen at 37%). He doesn't particularly like the downtown free light rail that does a loop (in attracts Vagabonds during the rainy days). He loves the east side (where my Brother and his family live) as very walker and biker friendly. And loves the fact that light rail goes all the way to the airport.
I use to use all forms of PDX transportation as a dental student..including the #8 bus to downtown (free as a student), Amtrack, Greyhound, and the lightrail to the airport. For two years I had no car..and even though I rarely left campus..their public transportation works.

Copenhangen- Denmark. The happiest city in the world. Why..maybe because over 37% of commuters ride a bike. More people in Copenhangen (population 1.8 million) commute to work by bike than in the entire US (300 million). People ride upright bikes in polished shoes, with high handlebars and mud guareds. They ride in all type of weather. They have lower rates of HTN and Diabetes. Cargo bikes have become the new SUV's. Bike lanes flourish. I would love to visit this city.

Paris- France--They talk about bullet trains that go over 250 miles per hour and how are Amtrak system is antiquated. The problem is that Amtrak does not own the railways...they are onwned by the freightliners. Therefore, amtrak must always weight for a freight-train to pass. I experienced this frequently when riding from Seattle to Portland and the amtrak would slow to a snail's crawl. It takes something like 24 hours to ride from Seattle to LA..whereas a Japanese bullet train could do it in under 8 hours.

I liked this book more than I expected. For anyone who cares about city planning, bike commuting, or simply to think about how are cities got to be..you will like this book.

By the way if you are interested..go to http://www.walkscore.com/faq.shtml to see how your neighborhood rates as a walkable, bikeable, commutable place (Here in ABQ we were 25/100). What is your score?

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Sep 14, 2012 Alexis rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

This is a fascinating book, but I'm not going to lie; it's dense and it's not an easy read. If you want to understand this, you're going to have to have some knowledge and understanding of cities, especially the cities profiled in the book. There were a number of things in this that just went completely over my head.

Taras Grescoe is a good writer and I'll read ANYTHING he writes. In this book, he travels to a variety of cities, examining their public transit and how public transit shaped a city...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Alexandre Normand rated it 4 of 5 stars

The author didn't have much convincing to do with me on the merits of public transit. While I was already in favor of most of what is advocated for in the book, there still was some good content for me. The stories and descriptions of the transport systems in various cities are fascinating. I doubt that the book can convince any car die-hard that we need to increases taxes on gas to fund public transit but it might provide a good picture for people that are not partial to either.

We all want to...more

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Dec 25, 2012 David McClelland rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, travel, canadian

If you're at all interested in public transit, cities, or how the two relate to one another, this is a very good read. Even if you're not, it's probably still an enjoyable book as Grescoe has a very good and approachable style, though he can occasionally get a bit repetitive. The book is essentially a look at transit planning in North America, and how that has shaped our cities, done as a series of chapters about various public transportation systems around the world. Grescoe compares North Amer...more

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Jun 06, 2012 Salimbol rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

[4 1/2 stars]
I was amazed at how interesting and readable I found this book about public transport. It's as much a social history as one focused on transport technology, and the author elegantly demonstrates how deeply enmeshed urban planning is (and has always been) with commercial interests, often to a city's detriment. He adopts a compare-and-contrast approach, examining the public and private transport systems of a variety of cities around the world (such as New York, Moscow, Copenhagen, Tok...more

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Aug 15, 2012 James rated it 4 of 5 stars

Taras Grescoe really doesn't like cars: or rather, he really doesn't like what happens to cities when car-centric development is the dominant mode for decades or longer. I'm more or less in agreement with him on this, so I am a receptive audience for this book. In fact the arguments against car-centric development were for me the least enjoyable part of this book, as I've heard most of them before and agree with them. More interesting to me were the many different alternatives, from the supertra...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Lise rated it 4 of 5 stars

So I loved this book, but in the interest of full disclosure I have what some consider an unnatural interest in public transit, specifically the underground kind. I've been to some of the cities that the author focuses on, and his investigations deepened my understanding about how people get around in those places. My interest in using high speed rail in Europe and Japan has been renewed. What stung was the chapter on Toronto as I live in the '905'. It's not that doesn't accurately capture the f...more

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Aug 31, 2012 Jacqui rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was an excellent book that somehow managed to exceed my interest in public transit systems. Every chapter goes into great detail about a particular city's public transit, including its history, the builders, the ridership, the layout of the city and how it affects usage patterns, plans for its expansion, and how the riders experience it. I loved reading all that kind of stuff, but it turns out a whole book of it is just a little too much for me.

That being said, I'm left with vivid impressio...more

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May 08, 2012 Andrew rated it 4 of 5 stars

A One-Minute Review
Straphanger is a smart bit of urban writing from Taras Grescoe, who collects transit systems like tourists collect snow globes. Transit-map geeks like me need no longer feel alone. Grescoe’s travels from Shanghai to Montreal unearthing unique social, historical, and political stories about how urban and suburban environments develop transit systems. From what could have been in Los Angeles, to the propaganda-driven architectural beauty of the Moscow Metro, Grescoe identifies s...more

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Dec 01, 2012 Khalil James rated it 5 of 5 stars

To a budding transit planner like myself this book feels more like a romantic novel with protagonist, Taras Grescoe, being its very unfaithful lover who slides through territories around the world. Although a travel writer like Taras is required to....well...travel I still feel as though this refreshing yet informative account couldn't have come from a more unlikely source - after realizing that Grescoe's claim to fame is a book about eating ethically. I appreciate this book not only for it's fl...more

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Apr 08, 2013 Kaitlin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: babble-book-club, recommended

I'm giving this five stars because I would happily recommend it to both people who want to learn more about transit or find transit an interesting topic and readers who like a great anecdotal story rich with with history, facts and personal tips.

I read a lot of reviews that panned this book for not being as informational about transit as it is advertised to be and that it was more a personal story on riding transit. While the book is heavy on personal story -- that was pointed out in his introdu...more I'm giving this five stars because I would happily recommend it to both people who want to learn more about transit or find transit an interesting topic and readers who like a great anecdotal story rich with with history, facts and personal tips.

I read a lot of reviews that panned this book for not being as informational about transit as it is advertised to be and that it was more a personal story on riding transit. While the book is heavy on personal story -- that was pointed out in his introduction that the purpose of the book was to highlight transit, but more specifically search out styles of transit-oriented neighbourhoods where people could raise families -- it is incredibly in depth with fact and figures. Each section comprises a history of how the neighbourhood got to where it was (whether good or bad) the stats of ridership and how transit affected the growing of communities. It also goes incredibly in depth in the history of the highway and freeway and interstate system in the US and the ironic twist that is cars and roads were built as symbols of freedom and cool, but had to pave over the actual communities and people that made the country cool.

There are some obvious drawbacks, well for me. As mentioned by a friend, Grescoe can take on too much of a cheerleader mentality and it can take away from making crucial criticisms on certain transit systems. For me, I was particularly disappointed with his discussion on Vancouver transit. He would make such statements referring to the overt gentrification of neighbourhoods, the disjointed nature of the systems, high prices, and the use of very expensive systems, and brush them off as everyone loves Vancouver. As a former Vancouverite that argument is all too common -- making important points about fragmented systems and displaced people and the remarking 'the mountains are pretty and we have new condos'! Also, more research or fact checking should have been done in regards to the Woodwards building as "affordable housing" means $1000/month for single mother homes and also there is little mention of the renovictions that happen. Bike lanes do not suffice where there is no where for people to live!

Okay. So after the rant, what was meant to say was that if these inconsistencies were glaring for me, I'm sure there were other cities that had the same notes and that is where the cheerleaderness gets annoying. A lot of people believe in public transit, for a lot of reasons, but it doesn't mean we have to see everything in roses. I think the best parts of the book were the ones where people gave mention to the progress and positives, but also stated where they wanted to go and what transit was meant to do.

I thought Grescoe's writing was wonderful, even in spite of some relentless cheeriness :) He was clear and concise and very engaging and transparent at parts. The book did read like a love letter to transit and his favourite cities, but in a more complete sense to his wife and future kid. I thought the New York section dragged a bit, which was unfortunate because it took me a bit to get in to really reading to book, but once I finished the New York section (don't get me wrong, it was interesting, but just really, really long) I was off and going! The section on Denmark has convinced me to live there for sure!

A lot of great points came out of this book for me, and if I ever see it (on sale) or for cheap in a bookstore I will snatch it up for sure!(less)

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Jan 02, 2013 Rich Pearson-strain rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: urbanism

Always looking for a good book on the development of walkable cities, I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of information that was covered in a book that read like a delightful globe trotting travel article.

As someone who is pretty versed in the subject, I managed to learn some new things and enjoyed the comparative look across some of the world's great cities and up-comers.

The only compliant I had was the repetition of several points and themes, and think this book could have been scaled...more

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May 22, 2013 Richard Thompson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: best1012, non-fiction, bestalltime

It took a while to longer than it should have to finish this book, not because it wasn't compelling reading, but because I was just a few pages from the end when Jesse and Peter headed off to Half-Yearly Meeting and I passed it along to Jesse to read on the trip.

Grescoe visited a number of cities around the world and looked at how they had approached trying to solve the myriad problems caused by the proliferation of private automobiles (traffic jams, pollutions, destruction of neighborhoods, spr...more

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Sep 09, 2012 Krista rated it 3 of 5 stars

A combination of a manifesto against the automobile and an ode to trains. With a coda grudgingly giving credit where credit is due to the bus.

One thesis is a worn one; we're running out of oil to power our personal automobiles and even if we go electric, most electricity comes from coal. So it's lose lose.

But Grescoe approaches his ode not from an environmental standpoint, but from a social standpoint. And a community structure standpoint. And a health standpoint. The automobile has isolated us....more

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May 16, 2013 Evan rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone interested in the future of cities

I read this for fun while completing my master's degree in urban planning and it was actually the best read I've had in planning. I believe books on crucial topics such as this should be fun, interesting, and fast-paced. Straphanger accomplishes all three with ease.

This is THE book you need to read if you want a book about urban planning, suburban sprawl, transportation, sustainability, and world travel all in one.

Grescoe seeks to understand why some public transit systems are awesome while othe...more

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Mar 12, 2013 lisa rated it 2 of 5 stars

I have been excited to read this book for the past year, and now that I have finally gotten around to it, it is something of a disappointment. Personally, I prefer to live close to city centers with good public transit; I have been happily living in such a place for the past several years. However, I was put off by the author's bias to city living. He seemed just as inflexible as the people who believe everyone should live in suburbs, work from home, and drive everywhere else. The fact that he s...more

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Apr 04, 2012 Jeffrey rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, non-fiction, read-in-2012

I received this book for free in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.

Taras Grescoe is a lifelong urbanist and views transportation as fundamental to the formation of the modern city. Visiting locations both in North America and abroad, Grescoe advocates strong public transportation infrastructure as the key element to long term health and growth.

While cars dominate major American metropoli like Phoenix, European and Asian cities have developed significant rail infrastructure that obviates the need...more I received this book for free in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.

Taras Grescoe is a lifelong urbanist and views transportation as fundamental to the formation of the modern city. Visiting locations both in North America and abroad, Grescoe advocates strong public transportation infrastructure as the key element to long term health and growth.

While cars dominate major American metropoli like Phoenix, European and Asian cities have developed significant rail infrastructure that obviates the need to own an individual car. This, in turn, allows for increased density, which enables populations large enough to sustain local businesses. Increased economic opportunity increases the attractiveness of the area to outsiders and further encourages similar development and so on.

Grescoe does not advocate that everyone should live this way, rather he advocates that if cities wish to survive, they need to adopt this structure. Furthermore, expanding this structure to enable non-car commuting from the suburbs will, in the long run, further encourage the kind of community that is more dense, less car based, and more sustainable in the long run. He makes a convincing argument.

But I will note, and at this point I should disclose I'm a suburban commuter who rides light rail transit each weekday, that despite the opportunities presented in here. Despite the amount to which I agree with him, I couldn't get excited about reading this book. While I enjoyed the passages I read, the history of Japan's rail lines, the development of the bus system in Bogota, the economic desolation that is Phoenix, I was never eager to turn back to this book after I set it aside because, for example, I got off the light rail to finish my transit home. I'm not sure why the book didn't enthuse me more, this should be right up my alley, but it never really gripped my attention.

There are some positive notes to take away from this, and I suspect readers who are mildly interested but unexposed to the field will find this an excellent primer. But I don't think I can sit here and say "Here read this if you want to know why I think there needs to be more public transit". I don't think it'll sell anyone on the idea.

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Apr 02, 2012 Kristen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: firstreads, nonfiction, sociology, travel

In the first paragraph of this fabulous book, Taras Grescoe writes, about the Shanghai Auto Show, biggest in the world: "Throughout the cavernous showrooms, lithe motor-showgirls in shimmering nylon evening gowns and leatherette miniskirts drape themselves over aerodynamic fenders, like molten watches drizzled over branches in a Dali landscape. On rotating platforms, surrealistic concept cars languidly pirouette…"

Wow. Beyond absolutely jaw-dropping writing, so good you want to linger over it, Gr...more In the first paragraph of this fabulous book, Taras Grescoe writes, about the Shanghai Auto Show, biggest in the world: "Throughout the cavernous showrooms, lithe motor-showgirls in shimmering nylon evening gowns and leatherette miniskirts drape themselves over aerodynamic fenders, like molten watches drizzled over branches in a Dali landscape. On rotating platforms, surrealistic concept cars languidly pirouette…"

Wow. Beyond absolutely jaw-dropping writing, so good you want to linger over it, Grescoe can pack in more information in a paragraph than you can get in an entire newspaper article. Try this one:

Only twenty-five years ago, automobile traffic in Shanghai was limited to chauffeur-driven Hongqi limousines for Communist Party officials. Such was China's isolation that, during the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards floated a proposal to make red stoplights signify "Go." Today, there are two million cars on the streets of Shanghai. to ease congestion, a high price has been set on car registration, and bicycles have been banned from main streets. Backups in China can make even Los Angeles traffic look positively bucolic: in 2010, drivers northwest of Beijing were stuck for ten days in a jam that stretched 60 miles across two provinces. To increase mobility, China has built a 33,000-mile system of expressways in the last twenty years. Already larger than the network that connects the European Union, it will be more extensive than the United States' freeway system, by 2035. By then, carbon dioxide emissions from China's transport sector will easily be the highest in the world.

Later, in a chapter on my heart's hometown, Portland, Oregon, Grescoe gives a great description, then, ominously, writes, "Yet something is missing from downtown Portland."

Oh! My hackles slightly up, I read on…

It was only as I crossed Burnside Avenue toward Union Station and heard a train whistle ricocheting between the steel bridges spanning the Willamette River, that I realized what Portland was lacking. I'd been strolling downtown for over two hours and had yet to encounter that bane of the North American metropolis: the neighborhood-killing, blight-inducing, multilaned freeway.

All in all, this is an entertaining, fact-filled travelogue. Admittedly, I share Grescoe's absolute disdain for automobiles, highways, and suburbs. I'm pretty sure, though, that I would have loved it even if I thought cars were great.

Thanks to Goodreads Firstreads program for this first-rate book. Everyone should read it. (And get rid of their cars and start commuting by bike, train, bus, or ferry.)(less)

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Sep 13, 2012 Vincent rated it 1 of 5 stars

Although I am with this guy in spirit all the way, this book is flimsy and not worth your time. He divides it into 8 chapters, each one focused on a city and their transit. The best ones, Paris, Copenhagen, Toyko - are true success stories and the subway for the "straphangers" helps the city hum with life and be more liveable for the people there. He feels sorry for suckers in cars with long commutes (I don't) but ultimately there isn't much else in this book to keep your interest.

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Sep 05, 2012 Laila rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, save-the-planet, read-in-2012

Surprisingly engaging and readable for nonfiction about public transit! I read this book because I wish my city (and the South in general) wasn't so car-dependent and sprawling, and I was wondering how we might change that. Grescoe visits cities in the US and around the world (Tokyo, Copenhagen) to ride their transit systems, talking to people who use them and design them (and some who think they're unnecessary) to see what works and what doesn't. He's a good writer and this reads like a travelo...more

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Oct 29, 2012 Lindig rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I admit that this author's thesis--that car culture is strangling cities and making places less livable--is one with which I already agree. What his analysis of mass transit in several cities around the world does is give us background on how cities got strangled and by whom and what it took to get the airways flowing. The cities discussed are Shanghai, New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Paris, Copenhagen, Moscow, Tokyo, Bogota, Portland, Vancouver, Philadelphia, and Montreal.

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Mar 05, 2012 Don rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, historic, history, transportation, reference, non-fiction, information, informational, government

My thanks to the Author, the Publisher, and Goodreads for this free book to read and review.

Informative and entertaining.

But, there should really had been more on Vancouver rather than lumping it into a chapter that included Portland and it was for this main reason I gave a lesser star rating.

Also, no mention of either Calgary and Edmonton's mass transit systems and very little about the one in Toronto.

Other than that the chapters on Tokyo, London, Paris, and Moscow are well worth reading.

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May 28, 2012 Jeanne Boyarsky rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

I expected StrapHanger to be more about mass transit than a mix of walking/biking/bus/rail. I liked the chapter by chapter organization by cities. There were comparisons throughout though which meant I got to read about New York City in multiple places. Interesting history of how mass transit got to be the way it is in different places. A bit gloomy for the future of US mass transit. But facts are facts...

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Mar 17, 2013 Eddie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: professional-development

If for nothing else, this book is an excellent undergrad-level primer on urban transportation, economics, development and contemporary theory regarding government incentives and policy. Grescoe gives a lot of background for each city he visits while adding in an associated (or not) theme complete with several experts and a very gifted summary of their research and ideas (like Paul Mees with Phoenix).

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Mar 07, 2013 Christine Rowlands rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-books

This book is full of case studies that boil down to this message: if you want to make your city a better place, walk, take transit or ride a bike. If where you live makes these things hard to do, or forces you to get in a car to get places, move. (Or advocate for better development, if you're the advocatin' kind.) An inspiring read for the bus or train, although at times it can be a barrage of figures and statistics and at other times, a little too rosy coloured. (His description and praise of m...more

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Aug 24, 2012 Vincent Geels rated it 4 of 5 stars

funny to read grescoe's take on philly's pt system. pretty fun topical analysis of different public transportation systems around the world, along with quick historical/political primers that attempt to explain how and why these different transits developed within their specific ecosystems. makes me want to travel to copenhagen so i can travel on a bicycle highway and get stuck in a BICYCLE TRAFFIC JAM.

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Aug 09, 2012 Grace rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-all, 2012-new, nonfiction, library-brooklyn

Somewhere between 2.5 and 3 stars, rounding up because I did find parts of this interesting. While I am obviously/definitely a proponent of public transit, I didn't particularly care for how the author made some of his arguments, and I don't know... the fact that the NY chapter was one of the first ones and it just missed completely, I read this with the feeling that I wasn't getting anywhere close to a complete picture for any city.

On the plus side, this inspired me to do some poking around int...more

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Jun 06, 2012 Morgana rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reads, eye-opening, non-fiction, canadian

Maybe 'amazing' is hyperbolic, but I really, really enjoyed reading this - couldn't stop. Fascinating look at transit issues in cities around the world, readable and packed with interesting information and insights. I did think the Toronto chapter at the end, oddly, was thinner in terms of content than the other chapters, which was a bit disappointing, but what an interesting and thought-provoking read.

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About Taras Grescoe

Taras Grescoe was born in 1967. He writes essays, articles, and books. He is something of a non-fiction specialist.

His first book was Sacré Blues, a portrait of contemporary Quebec that won Canada's Edna Staebler Award for Non-Fiction, two Quebec Writers' Federation Awards, a National Magazine Award (for an excerpted chapter), and was short-listed for the Writers' Trust Award. It was published in...more Taras Grescoe was born in 1967. He writes essays, articles, and books. He is something of a non-fiction specialist.

His first book was Sacré Blues, a portrait of contemporary Quebec that won Canada's Edna Staebler Award for Non-Fiction, two Quebec Writers' Federation Awards, a National Magazine Award (for an excerpted chapter), and was short-listed for the Writers' Trust Award. It was published in 2000 by Macfarlane, Walter & Ross, and became a Canadian bestseller. Sacré Blues helped Taras fall in love with Quebec, and explained the origins of poutine to an eternally grateful country. The publisher let it go out of print, but used copies can be found starting at $89.23 on Amazon.

His second book, The End of Elsewhere: Travels Among the Tourists (2003), which was published by McClelland & Stewart, involved a gruelling nine-month journey by foot, rented Renault, India railway 2A sleeper, and túk-túk, from one End of the Earth (Finisterre in Galicia) to the other (Tianya Haijiao, the End of the Earth in Hainan, China). An exploration of the origins and consequences of mass tourism, The End of Elsewhere saw Taras walking from west to east along a thousand-year-old east-to-west pilgrimmage route, stuffing his belly on a cruise ship from Venice to Istanbul, and observing the antics of sex tourists in the flesh-pots of Thailand. It failed to win any prizes in Quebec, but was nominated for a national Writers' Trust Award, and was then published to great critical acclaim in England by Serpent's Tail. The New Yorker called it "A gloriously trivia-strewn history of tourism."

His third book, The Devil's Picnic: Around the World in Pursuit of Forbidden Fruit, was a real labor of love. Taras revived a post-adolescent interest in debauchery and (temporarily) turned it into a vocation, chewing coca leaves in Bolivia, scoring moonshine in Norway, and puffing on Cuban cigars in the smoke-easys in San Francisco. This one was published by Bloomsbury in New York, Macmillan in London, and HarperCollins in Toronto in 2005. The Picnic, critics seemed to agree, was a rollicking good read, with a serious subtext about the nanny state and the limits of individual liberty. It sold quite well, and was translated into German, French, Chinese, and Japanese, but didn't get nominated for anything. Apparently nobody wants to give writers prizes for having a really, really, good time (even with a serious subtext).

As for his fourth and latest book, Bottomfeeder, he really shouldn't have to tell you about it. You're soaking in it.

Taras is also a frequent contributor to the New York Times, the Independent, and National Geographic Traveler. He has written features for Saveur, Gourmet, Salon, Wired, the Guardian, the Globe and Mail, Maclean's, Men's Health, the Chicago Tribune Magazine, the International Herald Tribune, the Times of London, and Condé Nast Traveller. He has prowled nocturnally in the footsteps of Dalî and Buñuel in Toledo, Spain for National Geographic Traveler, eaten bugs for The Independent, and substituted for William Safire in the New York Times Magazine. His travel essays have been published in several anthologies.

He has twice been invited to appear at the Edinburgh Book Festival (where he learned to love brown sauce and vegetarian haggis), done the amazing Literary Journalism program at the Banff Centre (where he got the other writers ripped on authentic absinthe from the Val de Travers), and has led seminars on travel and food writing from the depths of Westmount to the heights of Haida Gwaii.

He lives on an island called Montreal, which can be found at the confluence of the Ottawa and Saint Lawrence Rivers.(less)

More about Taras Grescoe...

Books by Taras Grescoe

Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood

Sacré Blues: An Unsentimental Journey Through Quebec

The End of Elsewhere: Travels Among the Tourists

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Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile

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