2012 book about the mass transit, mostly in the Northern Hemisphere. The book described the experience of taking transit in various cities he visited there while also discussing the history of those transit systems. The mix of travel writing & history reminded me a bit of No Immediate Danger/No Reasonable Alternative or Do No Pass Go, minus Vollmann’s & Moore’s shitty attempts at humor. I would have liked Straphanger to have included even more of the transit history; maybe that means I should be looking for the numerous books written about each of those transit systems that he visited. There is probably a lot more to be said & read about Bogota & other transit systems of the global south. I also would have liked more exploration of the intersections between transit & structural inequality (including gentrification & displacement); again, maybe that is a whole other book I need to find. Something about the tone (maybe it’s smugness?) reminded me of syndicated opinion columnists whose schtick is falling all over themselves for free-trade & market solutions, except he’s falling all over himself for mass transit instead of for inequality, which is a healthy substitution. Finally, I wish this book was more recent. There have been a lot of changes in many of these urban areas and in the world over the past 8-9 years, and it would be interesting to see how different a book Straphanger would be.