Escalators at Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan Metro station by Mike Maguire licensed under Creative Commons.

An AI pilot in London demonstrates the potential, and risks, associated with its use in transit. Local government experiments with social housing through public developers. An architect applies ecological processes to housing design.

Transport for London AI station experiment: An experiment with artificial intelligence connected to CCTV cameras in a London Tube station between 2022 and 2023 allowed station agents to monitor for 11 different scenarios including track safety, crowding, and mobility assistance. The AI became proficient at spotting fare evasion, but also showed a scary side of how much people could be monitored in the future. (James O’Malley | The Odds and Ends of History)

Local governments building public housing: Cities in Austria, Finland, and Singapore famously have built their own housing stock to create affordable homes for residents, but now more US cities and local governments are pursuing similar approaches. Montgomery County, Maryland, has been the most recent example of this and has drawn attention from public officials around the country. Cities like Atlanta, for example, have already put together a housing non-profit that will build housing on publicly-owned land. (Rachel Cohen | Vox)

A building made of trees: Back in 2002, architect Mitchell Joachim wanted to look at ways to use ecological processes as part of building design. The result was a trial-and-error look at how to use trees as part of a building’s structure. Using white willow trees from a tree farm, Mitchell and his team have seen the trees grow on scaffolding they built in a way that uses them like ribs and allows them to come together to form a structure. (Nate Berg | Fast Company)

Toronto Streetcar benefits from enforcement: The King Street corridor in Toronto, Canada, was designated a priority corridor for transit over six years ago. Residents have been frustrated for years at slow travel times on the streetcars and drivers who weren’t following the posted rules. But since enforcement started ramping up, travel times along the corridor have sped up by 50%. Travel times during rush hour have gone from 45 to 65 minutes when enforcement wasn’t present to 17 to 21 minutes when it was. (Becky Robertson | blog TO)

Creating a climate vulnerability index: The Environmental Defense Fund created a Climate Vulnerability Index that allows users to explore data in every census tract in the US related to social, economic, and health conditions. Modeled after the Environmental Justice Screening tool and others, this is the first tool to dive deep into the questions of what climate vulnerability means and how we can measure it. [This article is sponsored content in Grist]. (Grist)

Quote of the Week

“My car, it was a complete crutch. Now that I’m forced to walk, I’m seeing the city more than I did before.”

Philadelphia resident Dajè Walker in the Philadelphia Inquirer discusses how ditching her car has made living in the city less expensive and more interesting.

This week on the Talking Headways podcast, we’re joined by Dr. Kathryn Howell, Director of the National Center for Smart Growth at the University of Maryland.