Articles by brankin
place-name etymology
Posted June 08, 2006 at 10:13 PM
Two kinds of colonial naming: erasure and appropriation. But when it's always the colonists doing the naming, is one really preferable to the other? The recently created Nunavut (Inuktitut for "our land") is perhaps the only exception in the hemisphere.
Colored regions show names from the same language family (as categorized by the [...]
north american rail
Posted June 03, 2006 at 11:05 PM
The rail network of North America continues to consolidate, but it is beginning to become transnational as well. Since NAFTA, Canadian National has acquired several US regional railways, and Kansas City Southern has purchased Transportacion Ferroviaria Mexicana -- both part of a drive towards a "NAFTA Rail" alliance. Together the eight Class I [...]
north american mass transit
Posted June 03, 2006 at 11:55 PM
At a glance, many metros seem to be comparable in scale, but what separates New York from Baltimore is density: station-to-station distance, line overlap, and linkages.
Most systems are ogranized as a hub with spokes; the two notable exceptions are New York and Mexicop City, both of which are more like nets.
vancouver map
Posted June 03, 2006 at 11:23 PM
Vancouver districts emerge as a patchwork of different street-naming conventions: all "streets" downtown, a "street"/"avenue" weave through most of the city, but with exceptional areas like the "street"/"drive" zone of Grandview, the "roads" and "malls" of the university, or the paths cut by Broadway and the Kingsway.
Also notice how the [...]
