(source: YouTube)

How do you transform a lazy Sunday evening into a memorable one?  Youngsters in Mumbai, India think dancing at a busy railway station is one way to do just that.  This past weekend (Nov 27), about 200 enthusiastic residents  (aged 4-60) of India’s financial capital – Mumbai – came together  for the pure joy of dancing. The historic CST station blared the popular Bollywood hit song ‘Rang De Basanti’ on the speakers while surprised train commuters rushed to see whats going on. The result is a fun experience captured in all its glory on video for the rest of the world to see.

Here are some details about the effort, as provided by IBNLive.com:  23-year-old Shonan Kothari  employed with a CSR consultancy in Mumbai came up with the idea of a flash mob. She shared the idea with many others. The group practiced together for a few weeks. They wanted to pay a tribute to the people who lost their lives in 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai. The CST station was one of the targeted sites and many of the victims during these chilling attacks were passengers passing through the facility.

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus  aka CST (formerly Victoria Terminus) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and historic railway station in Mumbai which serves as the headquarters of the Central Railways.  For the uninitiated, the train station was featured in a song from the Oscar winning movie, Slum Dog Millionaire and many other movies.

(Source: Reddit & Guardian)

The following two videos surfaced on the web, showcasing two  of the finest ladies Britain has to offer, both profusely spewing racist garbage material out of their mouths.  I wonder what makes these people lose their minds when they hear someone talk a different language in a bus/train.

In the first video (via Reddit), you will see this loud mouth passenger sipping a cuppa get confrontational with fellow passengers because someone around her was not speaking in English.  Glad to see a fellow Brit step in and check her attitude and put this racist rider in place. What this racist did not realize is that in this day and age she is not going to get away spewing such hatred in public.  Now her actions/words earned her a seat in the hall of shame and will continue to live in the eternity of the digital archives . I will not be surprised if this video will have lasting consequences for her career when more people get to see her behavior.

The 2nd one shown below (via Guardian) is much like the one above but with a few interesting twists.  Here we see a woman caught on camera spewing racist stuff and arguing with fellow passengers who are objecting to her language/behavior.  What’s crazy is the fact that the woman was engaged in hate-filled tirade, fighting with fellow passengers while holding a cute, young toddler (her son, I presume) in her lap.  Too bad, the kid is going to grow up exposed to this type of parenting everyday. Shortly after this nasty exchange was posted on the Web, the British Transport police arrested her for suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence.

Apart from all the politics involved,  it makes me happy to know that not all Britons, White or Brown or Black, are going to put up with such loud-mouthed nut cases spewing racism on their buses and trains.  Proud to see the reactions of many of the fellow passengers in both these instances and kudos to the British police for taking swift action.   It is also heartening to see the overwhelming amount of protest voiced against these haters on the internet (suggest scanning the comments under both these videos on YouTube) though many of them are predictably profane in nature.  In this day and age, it does not take much to get on the infamous side of the Internet when you go talking nonsense in the public.   Thanks to the world of smart phones and social media, we will get to watch such racist clowns embarrassing themselves in public.

(Source: Huffington Post)

(Source: Good)

An interesting graphic. Hopefully the share of Transit rises in the years ahead along with other non-car options.  What is most appalling is that biking has only 0.99%  share of the pie.  LA needs to go a long way in moving its people away from cars.

Click image to enlarge

(Source: FourSquare via Flickr)

This awesome infographic published on the Foursquare blog, gives you a snapshot of the “checkins” across U.S. transportation facilities during last year.  I can see a glimmer of hope for High-Speed Rail by looking at this graphic, at least in the Northeast corridor. I’m hoping the proliferation of mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, etc) and the widespread acceptance/use of Foursquare app on these smart devices during this year will result in a much more intense mapping when the next edition of this graphic is published.  Happy Thanksgiving! Be safe on the road, everyone! Oh, and don’t forget to check-in when you arrive at a Transportation facility.

Image Courtesy: FourSquare on Flickr - Click Image to Enlarge

This guest post by Brendan Halleman, a fellow transportation professional, offers a paper that examines the merits of establishing a National Infrastructure Bank. As you are probably aware, the public discussion around this has been highly politicized and my note merely tries to put quantified elements on the table.

Image Courtesy: Wikipedia

Note: Brendan Halleman is a Project Consultant – Communications & Knowledge Management and has extensive experience in the transportation industry.  Check out his profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/bhalleman. All opinions expressed in this guest post are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the positions of www.Transportgooru.com.

(Source: via Betacity)

 According to this infographic from Denver bikes, four of five dollars you spend on your car leave your local economy.  To keep 130k transportation dollars in your local economy your city would need to reduce car ownership by 15k cars.  Which could mean 15k more bike owners, and bike money stays 100 percent local which makes good business sense.

Some may argue this as fun,  but this is nothing but stupidity and hands down dangerous (not just for him but also for any driver trying to navigate his vehicle through these flooded roads).

(Source:  Mashable)

Image Courtesy: Position2.com

The women of Saudi Arabia, who are steadfastly fighting the monarchy for the right to drive, today received a shot in the arm for their ongoing campaign from their counterparts across the oceans.  Social media website Mashable.com report the on the development (excerpt):

Fourteen female United States senators have sent a letter to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, asking him to lift the ban that keeps women from driving within the kingdom.

The letter — dated July 26 — comes as a major boost for an ongoing social media campaign against the ban.

The bipartisan letter admits that the kingdom has recently taken some steps that advance women’s rights, including the appointment of its first woman deputy minister and the establishment of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, “the only university in Saudi Arabia that allows women to study alongside men and where women are allowed to drive motor vehicles on campus.”

The 14 senators  aren’t the only female politicians to throw their support behind the Women2Drive movement.  In the recent months, a number of House of Representatives members — including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.— also expressed their support for the campaign last month. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at a news conference, following a Change.org petition started by activist coalition Saudi Women for Driving, calling the women’s efforts brave.  On the other side of the Atlantic, the European Union’s Catherine Ashton, high representative and European Commission vice president, has also issued statements to show her support.

The question remains how much these external forces can sway the King and the his key decision-makers, who are fighting for their own battle against the hardcore religious zealots jockeying for control/power within the Kingdom.   Let’s hope the Women of Saudi Arabia win their freedom soon.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source:  The City Fix Blog)

As the much-feared and talked about Carmaggedon weekend in LA is almost here, our friends at The City Fix blog brought to our attention this beautiful video by Ross Ching, a filmmaker.  This video gives you an idea of what LA without cars would look like and I must admit it looks different (i.e., read as beautiful).  The footage, edited by Ross, is from “LA with no cars,” and it is a series of time-lapse clips edited to make it seem like the roads are empty. On his website, Ching explains how he achieved the effect. Watch the video below

Running on Empty from Ross Ching on Vimeo.

Inspired by Matt Logue’s Empty LA.

Read more about this video at http://rossching.com/running-on-empty