Sign in

Marco Chitti

@chittimarco.bsky.social
7.1K followers 383 following 11K posts

Researcher on urban planning and public transportation. marcochitti.substack.com

PostsRepliesMedia
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 9h
The idea that planning should mandate, through regulations, an urban form that mimics market forces (higher demand induced by better accessibility along high-capacity rail, which translates into higher densities) is one of the silliest yet most persistent tropes our profession has produced.
3639
Reposted by Marco Chitti
Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · 17h
I've added a new feature to Transit Explorer—the database of the world's fixed-guideway transit systems: The ability to compare cities, side by side, at the same scale. Here, for example, is Washington vs. Chicago, and Singapore vs. London! Play around: www.thetransportpolitic.com/transitexplo...
Transit systems in Washington and Chicago, at the same scale.Transit systems in Singapore and London, at the same scale.
416737
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 14h
A bit of virtual umarelling for you. A tramway bridge, part of the very last segment of Bologna's green line, has been laid into position today. Video by Comune di Bologna
0162
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 16h
The bad news is that despite three decades of anti-corruption reforms, forms of corruption still persist in public works in Italy. The good news is that it's mostly petty corruption, light years away from the systemic, high-level corruption of the 1980s. www.ilpost.it/2026/09/30/i...
The prosecutor's office believes the bribes were paid in a variety of ways: cash hidden inside yellow envelopes, boxes of panettone, mozzarella, or bundled with other Christmas gifts. In other cases, according to the investigation, the bribe was paid in exchange for various gifts, including expensive watches, a lawnmower, an iPhone, but also luxury car rentals, expensive boating vacations, and promises of jobs.Among the various cases cited by the investigations are, for example, a purchasing manager who allegedly favored a company in exchange for a boating holiday between Capri and Ischia and a stay at a five-star hotel in Naples; or the director of a shipyard who allegedly favored the Areco company in terms of payments, receiving in exchange the temporary use of a Porsche for the holidays, a lawnmower, and €5,000.
4281
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 17h
"Isn't there somebody you forgot to ask"
5293
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The city of Bologna has published a few pics of the under construction end-of-line mini-garage that will be used for overnight layover to reduce non-revenue runs and I was wondering why not many systems do that systematically.
11461
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
One interesting tweak to Montréal being a fake planned grid city is that the best conceptual framework for describing the morphogenesis of the city's layout is the one developed by Italian "processual typo-morphologists" to understand the built form of pre-modern Italian cities.
2232
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Bologna's first tram now has a friend. The second vehicle has arrived. 33 more to go.
a picture of the gold-red tram vehicle on a truck
0370
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Today I voted in provincial elections. Let's say I casted my vote without much enthusiasm. One thing I realized is that it's hard for me to re-orient myself within the political ecosystem of Québec or Canada when I've been socialized into politics within a quite different political culture.
4310
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
And, even more importantly, how long is the delay between a fire start, it's detected and firefighters are called? For metros, there are studies out there that clearly says that early detection and clear evacuation procedures are an order of magnitude more effective than performative dexterity.
1220
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Every time I walk along rue Sainte-Catherine in downtown Montréal, through the few permanently pedestrianized block in the Quartier des Spectacles, I'm reminded how pleasant it could be. Then I continue through and I realize I'm still in a shitty car-dominated North-American downtown.
0333
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Universities abandoning essays and switching to oral or off-line, hand-written exams, even for grad courses. 🙋
3626
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Advanced Bike stop lines and far side traffic signals: name a less effective duo.
6313
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
It's impressive how much over the past forty years cars have become boringly black-grey-white while train liveries have become increasingly more colorful.
3721
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I really need @stephenjacobsmith.com to weigh in on the fire code aspect of this story. (BTW, the "I am the code" quote is fantastic. Welcome, Trump, to the very niche domain of code reform advocates, I guess. Sort of.)
1732
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
As a comparison, Lombardy, which has "only" 10 million inhabitants, way less than the population served by Metrolik, run between 2,200 and 2,500 trains per day.
29012
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Il y a une solution "simple" pour régler ça: passer d'un mode de scrutin majoritaire par comté, où les circonscriptions susceptibles de changer de camps reçoivent toute l'attention, à un mode proportionnel, où chaque vote compte à part égale, peu importe s'il est en Bauce ou au Plateau Mont-Royal.
4150
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
If you don't know how to waste your time in a productive way today, here is a 10-minute video of just drone views of the now almost complete tram in Bologna 🤤🤤🤤🚋🚋🚋 youtu.be/zcZUIwM8fUA?...
youtu.be
Cantieri tram conclusi
YouTube video by Comune di Bologna
4518
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Finally some good news for the dysfunctional circumvesuviana. With the new Stadler trains progressively entering service, EAV will introduce a 30 minutes clockface timetable starting October 17th (it's now 36') on all it's limes. www.ferrovie.it/portale/arti...
ferrovie.it
Ferrovie.it - Linee Vesuviane, dal 17 ottobre nuovo orario con frequenze ogni 30 minuti
Nuovi treni e un nuovo modello di esercizio per le Linee Vesuviane. Regione Campania ed EAV hanno...
5645
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
As a wannabe associate member of the EU, it's time for Canada to join the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic and embrace circulation planning. Down with the yankee-dumb all-way stop, welcome to the Euro-smart priority street sign!
4699
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Two good railway news from last weekend in Italy. Regular railway service is now fully restored in the Ceres-Germagnano line and the Cumana line is back in full service (with a new station in Pozzuoli) after it was damaged by recent volcanic/seismic activity in the Campi Flegrei.
The first regular service train in CeresThe Atrium of the new station in Pozzuoli
1411
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
This incapacity to perceive vehicular travel demand as elastic, especially within the North American traffic planning practice, is reflected in the technical tools used to measure project impact: intesection-based LOS where the input level of traffic is a given rather than variable.
1014726
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
"There is one or more errors on this page (1)" "What?!? Why should I tell you where they are?!? So you can fix them without wasting half a morning?!? Silly you!"
1100
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
An interesting sub-reserach project wrt construction cost would be to compare how and how fast/slow projects design reach "maturity" in different jurisdictions My impression is that some projet management traditions (i.e. Italy, Spain, Turkey) jump quicker to actual engineering compared to US/Can
1211
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This is interesting because it highlights the difference in how land acquisition is done in Canada compared to, say, Italy. Acquisition prices in Italy are determined through a fixed formula based on publicly available area prices from the land registry and other variables
3479
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Reading Panerai's "Analyse urbaine" for my fall course and it's indeed interesting that UK cities totally lack the "ring boulevard built at the place of city walls" so common in continental urbanism. To the point that many had to carve out a ring road in the 1960-70s.
The text in French citing Unwin's interest for the ring boulevard, something unknown in the British urban culture
9403
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Ontario has invented the Schrödinger peach: simultaneously unripe and hard as a rock, but also rotting.
4431
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
The funny outcome of abstract design standards is that in Montréal we'll spend big $$ have low-traffic stations on new extensions that are forever overbuilt in terms of circulation capacity, while we keep stations in the existing network that are severely underbuilt, like Université de Montréal.
3562
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Big boi is home.🚋🏠 (From Bologna's mayor instagram)
2634
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Me: lol, look at those silly drivers with their emotional attachment to their cars. They are just objects! Also me: How dare you asking me to sell or, worse, scrap the bike I bought 3 days after I landed in Montréal even if it's in bad shape and I don't use it anymore. You monster.
3643
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
The first CAF tram is leaving Valencia heading to Bologna 👀👀👀 youtu.be/3l5m9XJrvWw?...
youtu.be
Tram, in arrivo a Bologna il primo mezzo
YouTube video by Comune di Bologna
1281
Reposted by Marco Chitti
Professor Daniele Albertazzi @dralbertazziuk.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
3/ Scholars Bolleyer & Bytzek call this “institutionalisation” and note that it’s expensive: parties need real vetting and recruitment systems to sort loyal, capable people from opportunists chasing a moment, who may well turn out to be a massive embarassment shortly after being appointed to a role.
1164
Reposted by Marco Chitti
Professor Daniele Albertazzi @dralbertazziuk.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
2/ FdI wasn’t built from scratch. Its representatives came up through MSI and AN —decades of political socialisation, internal culture, informal training, experiences in local, regional and national govts (like Meloni, the youngest MP and youngest Minister of all times). Reform doesn't have that.
1153
Reposted by Marco Chitti
Professor Daniele Albertazzi @dralbertazziuk.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
1/ Reform UK's rise has been impressive (but we cannot trust all polling data). Brothers of Italy's (FdI) was very fast, too. But FdI's momentum has lasted, while Reform's is fading Difference isn’t ideology, it's political opportunities, leadership & also, importantly, party elites & organisation
2289
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
There is an expression in Italian political jargon, the "Foreign Pope", often used to design some well-respected external saviour which would come and lead a bickering, dysfunctional (generally left-wing) coalition to victory. It never worked. It's mostly a journalistic trope.
2787
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I thought nothing would shock me anymore in academic publishing, but I recently discovered that Cell, one of the big three journals in health/bio/etc., now tries to lure contributors to submit an entry for the cover image so they don't have to pay a graphic designer anymore.
1315
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Many people are saying. Italy's ZTLs are one of the most underrated, least researched (and misunderstood) traffic management tools in the current urbanist debate.
1011215
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
How do we explain to Americans, specifically New Yorkers, that "medieval streets" (whatever that means) aren't more difficult to navigate than a grid. Some of us grew up in "medieval" cities, with very complex circulation plans on top, and we managed to get around even in the pre-navigators era.
9504
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
If someone were to write an essay on how this modern Laurentian Canadian charcoal-brown-light gray vernacular came about and how it became so pervasive, I would read it.
8492
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Every time I happen to drive in a city
3470
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
America is also home to the greatest, country-sized modern experiment on the power of absurdist propaganda. And the reseluts are that it doesn't really take much to indoctrinate a sizeable chunk of the population with the most absurd beliefs.
69114
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
The current American government is definitely a great experiment on the power of online trolling/shitposting. Phase 1 has demonstrated that you can shitpost your way into governement. Phase 2 is now testing whether you can win actual or trade wars via trolling and AI slop shitposting.
1293
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
"The real story lies in what the local transit agency decides to call a ‘full’ train.” Reading this excellent post by @jrurbanenetwork.bsky.social while standing on a *full* blue line train. *full only because of the poor internal layout of the MR-73 jrurbanenetwork.substack.com/p/how-crowde...
jrurbanenetwork.substack.com
How Crowded is my Train?
Different countries' crowding measurement standards create confusion when comparing international data.
0314
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Government by news leaks.
7626
Reposted by Marco Chitti
Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
A weekend transit thread: The map of the curve changes (superelevations, realignments, cant set at 3.5") proposed in the 1960s for the NH&H but not built for budget reasons and the speeds those changes unlocked. It's faster, tho not super fast. 100 in some places, 85 in a lot of spots
The giant track chart
3558
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Nice to have some actual countryside a REM+bike ride away.
4733
Reposted by Marco Chitti
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Essentially, every mid-sized UK city has some sort of inner ring that was carved out of the existing fabric in the 1960-70s (not existing "viali di circonvallazione", i.e. planted boulevard promenades built outside of cities wall on moat space in the Napoleonic era like Italian cities)
5182
Reposted by Marco Chitti
JRUrbaneNetwork @jrurbanenetwork.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Different countries' crowding measurement standards create confusion when comparing international data. In this post, I dive into differences which shape policy and public views of a railway system. You can read below:
jrurbanenetwork.substack.com
How Crowded is my Train?
Different countries' crowding measurement standards create confusion when comparing international data.
04911
Marco Chitti @chittimarco.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Great video here from Ferrovipathe. Worth remarking how this in-depth research was possible because of the wealth of publicly accessible records hold in French national al local archives. Something we sorely lack in Canada.
1383
Reposted by Marco Chitti
Simon @simon514.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
youtu.be/Lk1yU3VXS1A interesting documentary on the evolution of French high-speed rail lines, including how financing changed over time and extreme local bickering over details, such as the location of stations (TIL Lorraine TGV is just a 'temporary' station)
youtu.be
L'Évolution des LIGNES à GRANDE VITESSE Françaises
YouTube video by Le Ferrovipathe
1237