Learning from Japan’s Railway Success

Shinkansen, a bullet train in Japan. CC0 Public Domain.

Every day at The Overhead Wire we sort through over 1,500 news items about cities and share the best ones with our email list. Each week, we take some of the most popular stories and share them with Urban Milwaukee readers. They are national (or international) links, sometimes entertaining and sometimes absurd, but hopefully useful.

The missing rung of housing: Until the 1980s single room occupancy (SRO) buildings were an important part of the housing ecosystem, serving as an entry point for new residents and low income people. But as older buildings were redeveloped and repurposed, legislation limited the ability to build new ones, creating an empty rung on the housing ladder. Now model legislation has been written that would allow SROs to be built again in cities and states around the country. (Andrew Justus | Niskanen Center)

Older drivers not ready for non-driving future: Many older adults living in suburbs are in denial about a future in which they cannot drive anymore. The topic is of course a hot button issue and Lloyd Alter has seen increasing interest, not all positive, in his posts about the subject proving the point of a recent poll that shows 54% of people 65 and older don’t have a plan for a time when they can’t drive. (Lloyd Alter | Carbon Upfront!)

Disappearing machine: The warehouse is not just a collector and dispenser of goods but a trap that keeps people working in the logistics industry for low pay. Rebranded as a “fulfillment center”, these warehouses allow companies like Amazon to capture markets that were once served by physical stores and workers. But no one actually knows the extent to which they or the logistics that undergird them exist. So the landscape is overbuilt, and the next move to put them to use as ICE detention centers signals a disturbing evolution of the building type. (Charmaine Chua | Places Journal)

The longest urban escalator: China’s 8D city Chongqing has built the world’s longest urban escalator. The system spans 900 meters (over half a mile) and changes elevation the equivalent of an 80 story building. The Wushan Goddess Escalator was built with 21 different segments to help residents move down a main corridor of a city now known for its topography and navigation difficulties. (Priyanshi Shah | Parametric Architecture)

Lessons from Japanese railway success: Japan is often recognized as having one of the best railway systems in the world with 28% of passenger km traveled on trains. While many claim that this is the result of the culture, it’s actually the result of long term public policy decisions. Additionally, Japan’s railway companies are allowed to do more than just operate transit, often seeing their mission as building cities rather than just a transit system. (Matthew Bornholt and Benedict Springbett | Works in Progress Magazine)

Quote of the Week

I believe Black neighborhoods deserve fantasy and a sense of the surreal—not just struggle. We deserve beauty and magic, too. I dream of color, whimsy, and delight flooding our streets, inspiring children and adults alike to dream. Great, creative design has an economic impact and is worth investing in.

–Bianca Pastel in the Chicago Reader discussing how a visit to Kyoto Japan changed her views on what neighborhoods should be.

This week on the Talking Headways podcast, we’re joined once again by Laurel Paget-Seekins of Public Advocates to discuss transit agency power dynamics, the loss of public sector capacity, and how the Trump administration is looking to gut civil rights enforcement for transportation projects.

Want more links to read? Visit The Overhead Wire and signup.