Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves From the Automobile
by Taras Grescoe (Harper Collins)


Straphanger, by Canadian author Taras Grescoe, is a travelogue with a twist. Instead of
road trips and train journeys, Grescoe travels within cities, mostly by public transport, to
experience how cities are succeeding or failing in reducing auto dependence in a “post-
automotive age.”

Such ambitions are hard to fulfill in just over 300 pages, but Grescoe has been able to
articulate the challenges different cities worldwide have in providing alternative modes of
transportation (public transit especially, but also cycling and walking), and adapting to a
post-automobile age. In this book, Grescoe is liberal with his own observations, but talks
to local transport planners and politicians, as well regular commuters, transit operators,
pundits and academics in fourteen cities worldwide, including his adopted hometown of
Montreal.

Each of these fourteen cities covered in Straphanger, from Portland to Paris, Bogota
to Shanghai, has its own story to tell. Grescoe gushes about Copenhagen, possibly the
world’s most bicycle-friendly city, whose goal it is to have 50 percent of the population
commuting by bicycle in five years. Yet it is building a metro system that will serve
the entire city, a rare case of “too much transit.” Granted Copenhagen is an old, dense
European city, but the cool Scandinavian climes don’t make for the ideal cycling
environment. Successful social and government intervention (for example, traffic light
cycles are timed for bikes) have largely done the trick.


In contrast, Grescoe has little hope for Phoenix, which opened an underutilized light rail
line in late 2008, but is built almost completely around the car and cheap energy. It is
now infamous for high foreclosure rates, especially in the most isolated subdivisions.
Nearby Los Angeles, on the other hand, has started to build a respectable rail network
connecting the vast urban region together, but has only mixed results in creating transit-
oriented development and reliable bus feeders crucial to make returns on such costly
investments.


I found myself somewhat disappointed by Grescoe’s pessimism for Toronto. Grescoe
spent five pages on a rant about Mayor Rob Ford, but recovered by acknowledging
Toronto’s achievements in effectively serving the city’s inner suburbs with service levels
unheard of elsewhere in North America. Thankfully, Toronto will be able to survive Rob
Ford and his car-orientated ideology; other great cities have suffered similar ordeals.


Of great interest was the chapter on Philadelphia, a city Grescoe describes as
having “great bones.” Toronto cannot help but be envious by Greater Philadelphia’s
excellent — on paper, at least — infrastructure, including a fully electrified regional rail
system with three central stations, suburban light rail systems, streetcar subways and a
region-wide authority that Metrolinx could only dream of. Had Toronto been given the
equivalent of Philly’s Regional Rail, we would be enjoying fast and inexpensive train
service to Pearson Airport, Downtown Hamilton and across the GTA.


Interestingly, Toronto and Philadelphia have some opposite problems. Toronto’s transit
ridership is strong and continues to grow, and is strained by limited infrastructure.
Philadelphia has an abundance of transit infrastructure — but has squandered it with poor
funding and unimaginative use. It barely makes use of its own “Downtown Relief Line,”
the Broad-Ridge Spur, and social and racial divisions are immediately apparent. But
Philadelphia’s dense building stock, its resistance to ‘white flight’ depopulation and —
surprisingly — highest share of commutes by bike in large U.S. cities, it has the potential to
be great once more.


As auto ownership levels drop in Western countries, particularly amongst younger city-
dwellers, cities will be forced to adapt to remain vibrant. Some cities are accomplishing
this better than others, and each can provide and take ideas form each other. Straphanger
is an excellent read for the layperson to understand, and hopefully be inspired by these
lessons.