Introduction
A brief primer on transit and urban development
Atlanta : The city too busy to hate
Boston : Urban institutions, megaprojects, and city revival
Chicago : The Loop elevated, beloved steel eyesore
Cincinnati : A short history of a never-used subway
Cleveland : Transit and the perils of waterfront redevelopment
Dallas : They don't build them like they used to
Detroit : The city-suburban rift and the most useless transit system in the world
Houston : The city of organic growth
Los Angeles : 72 suburbs in search of a city
Miami : Overpromise, underdeliver
Minneapolis-St. Paul : The mob takeover of Twin City rapid transit
Montreal : The metro as showcase megaproject
New Orleans : How a big city grew into a small town
New York City : The tortured history of the Second Avenue subway
Philadelphia : How not to run a railroad
Pittsburgh : How to make buses work
Richmond : The first streetcar system
Rochester : The only city to open a subway, then close it
San Francisco : The view from Geary Street
Seattle : Consensus through exhaustion
Toronto : Subway line as political football
Vancouver : An exceptional elevated
Washington, DC : The freeway revolt and the creation of Metro
Conclusion.