High school rowers in Philadelphia for the Stotesbury Cup Regatta leave the Schuylkill in the shadow of a  bridge that carries Northeast Corridor Amtrak trains over the river.

The pace is right for Brutus the brown and Gabriel the gray, hauling people for $1 apiece during a sidewalk fest in Narberth, Pa., on May 10, 2008, directed by Kathy on the wagon and Mary, escorting.

A schoolbus in Normal, Ill., seems to have sprouted forward landing gear — with high-impact wheels for smooth rolling.

Philadelphia’s public transit system in 2007 eliminated its ticketing machines, which means regional rail passengers must go to a window to buy single tickets or rail passes, or pay a hefty surcharge for tickets bought aboard a train. Lines such as this one at 30th Street Station (in April 2008 ) are common.

In this case on a Saturday afternoon, two service windows had agents, but only one of the agents was actually helping customers — a common frustration of the crippled system. If riders need a ticket when the offices are closed, the only option is to buy aboard the train, with surcharge.

Why would a major transit system remove its ticketing machines? The agency said the machines could not recognize the new U.S. currency. Clearly Septa did not have the money to upgrade or replace the machines, but when it instituted the hard-line surcharge policy — even though many of its regional rail stops do not have ticket agents — it was met by derision from its customers, particularly those who did not use the system frequently enough to need a rail pass.

In response, the agency eventually devised a byzantine procedure for a return-trip credit that compensates for the surcharge, but only if the credit application is made on the day of travel at a staffed window. Which means being at a station that has a staffed window and, chances are, standing in line.

A young skateboarder ably executes a board flip — foot-slapping his board so that is flies up within hand’s reach — as a pedestrian looks on with amusement in Central Park near W. 96th Street in New York City.

Just beyond the stuttering fountain, a Northwest Airlines 747 is anchored to its jetbridge at Detroit’s airport on the day after the airline’s announcement that it would merge with Delta Air Lines.

Two robins, looking a bit primitive, perform a getting-to-know-you dance in a back yard in Narberth, Pa., on April 23, 2008, the day after Hillary Clinton won the Pennsylvania primary.

Don’t be fooled by the old guy who almost fell — he’s a ringer and a showman. His name is Tony Steele, he’s 71, and his trapeze flying was one of the highlights of the Gamma Phi Circus, an elaborate student production at Illinois State University that just had its annual two-day run in Normal, Ill., about two hours south of Chicago. More photos from the circus of athletes here.

This is the antidote to all those cars with too many stuffed animals piled on the dash and in the back window. But whose car would you feel more comfortable climbing into? Spotted in the tiny town of Utica, Illinois.

The tunnel from Terminal A to Terminals B and C at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport is a trip in itself — the light pattern changes almost by the second, all to the sound of ambient music, turning what would be a tedious tunnel into a multimedia experience.  Take note, subway systems of the world.