First of all, this post is not against light-rail transit-oriented development, but that it needs a better model if it’s to achieve its noble intended goals of increasing transit use while decreasing auto dependence.
As you can see by the graph above, in light-rail transit-oriented development (TOD), there are a whopping 50% more households with two or more cars than the area average, and 20% less households with no cars than the area average. In other words, the current model of TODs
Most every major city has car sharing, but it’s currently not like bike sharing, where you can pick up a bike in one location and return it to another. Well, car sharing in 2011 isn’t just going to match that service, but take it one step further.
First, Paris is building on the success of its Velib bike sharing system and rolling out Autolib (introduced in 2008 here) in 2011. You’ll be able to borrow one of 3000 all-electric cars for $20 a month, plus an additional $7 for every half hour.
Looks like your typical highway map doesn’t it? Except this isn’t for cars, this is the map for London’s new bicycle superhighway system. Check out the full size map with legend here.
From London Mayor Boris Johnson, “These radial routes are set to transform our great city into one where cycling is the first choice for many thousands of Londoners. As well as being good for your health and wallet, encouraging more people to commute to work by bike will in turn help us improve air quality, cut
You know what it was like with commuting by bike in the 20th century… you may as well wear a tie-dye as well.
When bicycle advertising campaigns are featured in business magazines, you know the times are a changin’. Check out the logos, gear, posters and website behind People for Bikes: Uniting a Million Voices to Improve the Future of Biking at the Fast Company article, Finally, Bike Branding Moves Beyond Hipster Ghetto. People may even want to choose their bike from the icons above and make
It’s no longer cool to be in a mobile device as much as it is to be on a mobile device.
To understand this evolution from (auto)mobile to mobile (device), it may help to quote someone who is playing a large role in it…
At the All Things Digital ‘D8’ conference on June 1, 2010, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple (now the second largest company based on market value next to Exxon) talked about the passing of the torch from the PC (desktop to laptop) to mobile devices, ironically using the auto industry
Some may argue that many states raised the minimum age for driver’s licenses, but as you can see above, the claim doesn’t hold true for those 18 and 19. Others cite the economic downturn for the drop in numbers, but in many ways, the downturn marks the difficulty in a massive shift
It’s not the first bike sharing system in the U.S. (which is SmartBike in Washington DC with 120 bikes and 10 stations), but the B-Cycle bike sharing program in Denver with 400 bikes and 40 stations was the largest at its April 22, 2010 launch (Nice Ride with 1000 bikes and 75 stations in Minneapolis now owns that distinction as of June 10, 2010) and definitely the most tech relevant. It’s also the first one designed and developed in the U.S.
One indication that people are becoming increasingly more interested in getting around within a downtown rather than in and out of it, is the continued rise of the streetcar.
Within the past year, federal funding for streetcars has shifted from buses to streetcars, and the first streetcar was built in the U.S. since 1951.
Cities looking to add new streetcar systems in the next two years:
- Washington, DC: 37-mile network proposed. 2-mile $75M locally funded Union Station to H Street
Given the shift to more pedestrian-oriented built environments, what kind of transportation can we expect to see? We know the Segway isn’t going to be a model for transportation - too heavy, clunky and where do you park the thing? Stackable cars are pretty nifty, but a decade away at the soonest. So then, how about the YikeBike?
Think of it as a cleaner, smaller, lighter, quieter, more portable moped
It’s a little ahead of it’s time (in other words, it has a $4450 price tag), though it’s
Onno Sminia and Louis Pierre Geerinckx represent what we need more of. The two Dutch industrial designers simply felt there was a better way to move within their urban neighborhood without having to depend on their parents, renting a moving truck and/or finding parking, much less do it on any kind of regular basis. So they innovated and built their own solution.
The solution? A ‘moving bike’, small enough to traverse most any place a bike can, yet big enough to haul a couch. They then
