Five great posts from the past week:

• The City as Platform: A great post from one of my favorite bloggers: Aaron Ren aka the Urbanophile. This posts takes an in-depth look at the various ways that cities function as ‘platforms.’

• In Defense Of Non-Commercial Culture: Why libertarians defend sprawl and an alternative viewpoint.

• Clive Thompson to Texters: Park the Car, Take the Bus: Yet another benefit of public transit. Key passage: “The country is currently better suited to cars than to communication. This is completely bonkers.”

• Freeways Responsible For Emptying Out Cities: An economist takes a look at the impacts of freeways and their negative effects on major cities.

• High-Speed Rail As a Conduit of Sprawl: Freeways may not be the only mode of transportation that contribute to sprawl. The convenience of HSR may encourage more people to move to the exurbs and beyond.

Related articles by Zemanta

• LaHood Reaches Out to Transit Industry, Lamenting ‘Lousy Economy’ (dc.streetsblog.org)
• Letters: Medium-speed rail also needs a boost (guardian.co.uk)
• Google Maps Adds Biking Directions (gigaom.com)