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The joy of single-engine flying
Antony Woodward’s aerial adventures are a source of discomfort, tiredness, and risk – but the freedom, spiritual release and learning they offer are incomparable.
Why Fly?
1. Two Fathers, One Question
The only time I have seen my father agreeing with a priest was when he and Father Elijah shook heads as I, seventeen and proud of my first purchase of any mode of rebellious transportation, unpacked a paraglider on the lawn.
Skating and the city
From the skateboard, you feel differently about the city – and come closer to who you really are.
The peach wins! Why I like my bike
Fast, healthy, exciting, convenient, stylish… and the bike is pretty good as well. openDemocracy’s globalisation editor on the only way to go.
Motorway culture and its discontents
The sheer ugliness and anonymity of motorways seem only to reinforce their destructive environmental impact. Yet even motorways have their poets and celebrants. But what are they doing to our soul?
Reclaiming cities for citizens
In a vigorous response to Martin Pawley, the Amsterdam-based editor of the ‘Carfree Cities’ project argues that people can thrive in a dense urban fabric – but only if the tyranny of the motor car is lifted.
The war against the car
The love affair between the city and cars is an illusion of the age. In fact, they are at war: an elephant and an army of ants. Cars rescue people from cities, offering a way of escape from urban concentration – to the freedom of low-density living.
Transport for the future: the view from the railway industry
Brainstorming about how Britain can best develop its railways has been a national sport in the country for longer than football, and those outside the industry can be as partisan as football fans. But how does it look from the inside track? The director of the industry-wide Railway Forum responds to Stephen Plowden’s article in openDemocracy.
Railways in the Czech landscape - ecological relic of the 21st century?
The survival of an extensive railway network in the Czech lands was ensured under communism by the state’s preference for public over private transport. But can local lines survive the financial disciplines and free voices of a new economy? A former deputy minister of transport, torn between nostalgia and realism, argues that the railways’ future should be decided by respecting the ways that people want to travel.
Charting a future for the railways
The years of investment starvation on Britain’s railways are ending. But will the simplistic billion-pound cure for a network in decline prove as damaging as the disease? A leading transport specialist argues that regulating and pricing the roads, rather than subsidising the railways, is the best way to move towards an improved transport system.
The tracks of our years
What is the origin of the seemingly permanent crisis of Britain’s railways? A key source of understanding is the experience of the signalmen and station staff who made the system work in the days of state control. The story of the Great Western Railway contains the best and worst of the tale.
Journeys to the Rhine
European rail travel (unlike British) is getting faster. This veteran Euro-commuter isn’t sure that he approves.
From walking to railways
The railways are in seemingly inexorable decline in the country that invented them. As the debate on Ecology & Place moves from walking to rail travel, the co-editors see an intrinsic connection between revivifying rail travel and repairing society. But can either withstand the relentless spread of the motor vehicle?
Radical Walking
In a country obsessed with property and passion, the mere act of walking has often been seen as a political challenge. Yet English history is full of characters who have pushed against the boundaries to reclaim the empire underneath their feet.
A letter from the future
Restless movement was to be an instrument of freedom and social advance. In an email to mayer.hillman@victorymansions.airstrip.one, a critic of “hypermobility” argues the opposite: travelling more and further, we know and understand less.
This week's editor
Europe from the bottom up
European debate
Democratic Wealth
Nuclear non-proliferation
Women and the Arab Spring
oDRussia at journalismfestival .com
Mali - the plot thickens
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Remote control war
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Conference coverage from 50.50
Articles exploring the themes of the fourth international Nobel Women's Initiative conference May 28-31. Jennifer Allsopp and Heather McRobie will be reporting for 5050
Articles exploring the themes of the fourth international Nobel Women's Initiative conference May 28-31. Jennifer Allsopp and Heather McRobie will be reporting for 5050
Cities in Conflict
Window on the Middle East
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Lis Howell On broadcasting
Dan Hancox Revel, Riot and Rebellion
Martin Rose Bliss Was It in that Dawn to Be Next Door
Vron Ware Up in Arms
Jim Gabour Sunday Comics
James Warner Standing Perpendicular, as books do
Markha Valenta Inter Alia: religion, politics, culture
Paul Rogers on Global security
Mary Kaldor on Human security
Lis Howell On broadcasting
Dan Hancox Revel, Riot and Rebellion
Martin Rose Bliss Was It in that Dawn to Be Next Door
Vron Ware Up in Arms
Jim Gabour Sunday Comics
James Warner Standing Perpendicular, as books do
Markha Valenta Inter Alia: religion, politics, culture
Paul Rogers on Global security
Mary Kaldor on Human security
