Evidence in favor of TODs (transit-oriented development)
Transit Cooperative Research Program provides some evidence for the logic that assumes fewer auto trips will result simply because people will take transit or walk more often, and drive
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
The most bike-friendly cities in the world
I don’t know what it is, but this seems to be the year of the bicycle…
Based on criteria (see below, which are very U.S. oriented, thus skewing the rankings significantly) provided by the League of American Bicyclists, Virgin Vacations presents the 11 most bike friendly cities in the world:
1. Amsterdam, Netherlands - You have to check out the video on the site - amazing, though it may help to ignore the rather nerdy-sounding narrative. 40% of all trips are by bikes, and there are more
…Monday, November 12, 2007
The world’s first ‘bike lift’
How can you tell a city really cares about bicyclists? By spending the money to design and install the world’s first and presently only bike lift to encourage biking to popular, but difficult to reach places. In this case, it’s a steep hill between the city’s main university and its downtown.
Built in 1993, the ‘Trampe’ (bike lift) has been averaging 46 uses/day since. Cities today can build one for $450-$550 foot, or as the company website says, “the same building costs as an ordinary
…Wednesday, November 07, 2007
The stackable city car - revisited
The stackable city car - revisited
Almost two years ago we profiled the wildly innovative, stackable, electric City Car, designed via the MIT Smart Cities program.
Think of it as a cross between car sharing and bike sharing, where you have the access to a dual-passenger car, but parked in a space not much larger than a bicycle.
It was pretty difficult for people to understand the concept based on images, so the folks at MIT finally produced a video to show how it works.
Considering
…Tuesday, October 09, 2007
U.S. mayors following the European lead on bicycling
Inspired by the huge political, social and economic success of Paris’ bike sharing system, U.S. cities are looking for ways to instill a more profound biking infrastructure and culture. In Europe, a woman in a dress on a bicycle is the norm, while in the U.S. it’s a curiosity.
In a USA Today article, Big cities try to ease way for bicyclists, several cities are at least talking about big changes to support a more authentic biking culture:
New York City is creating the first ;a
…Tuesday, October 02, 2007
It’s a bicyclist’s world once a month
It’s a bicyclist’s world once a month
Starting out 15 years ago on September 25, 1992 in San Francisco as a group of 48 bike riders making a stand against traffic, Critical Mass has since become a cultural phenomenon in hundreds of cities and dozens of countries, from India to South Africa to Russia, and of course Hungary and Denmark.
Every last Friday of the month after work up to a thousand or so bikers meet at a common point in a city and take off on an unplanned ride through the city.
…Friday, August 10, 2007
Spontaneous social excursioning like never before
Goloco!
Robin Chase, the founder of Zipcar, is fusing the concept behind her progressive car sharing service with a bit of Evite, Facebook and eBay, turning social networks into fun trip-sharing networks.
How’s it work?
1. Post your
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
What’s your ‘Walk Score’?
triple bottom line is its walkability, and no site does that better than
Walk Score. Based on the number of retail businesses and amenities, you type in an address in its google-run system and it spits out a rating from 1 to 100 telling you just how walkable it is. Check out their rating system and benefits for scoring higher. One pretty darn handy feature is a left column list of the nearest common amenities, listed by distance.
As you can
…Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Paris launches world’s largest bike sharing system
Velib (short for velo libre, “free bike"), after one week? 45,000-trips-a-day’ popular, and that’s just the beginning.
The basic facts:
- 10,000 bikes, 20,000 by the end of 2007
- 300 stations, 900 by the end of 2007
- 17,000 annual passes sold after one week
- 45,000 trips/day, with a goal of 250,000 trips/day
- $40/29 euros for an annual pass
- $1.40/1 euro for a half-hour trip, and the price increases over time to
Monday, July 23, 2007
triple-bottom-line bank, Wednesday, July 11, 2007
NY follows France’s lead with bike sharing
France, started in Lyon and recently adopted by Paris with 10,000 bikes at 750 stations.
Today is the last day you can pilot the system during a test run of 20 bikes with a few stations. As described in our profile of the overwhelmingly successful French model, the first half an hour is free and you can leave the bike
…Thursday, May 10, 2007
Cities celebrating pedestrians in a big way each week
El Paso, Texas is a big city (pop. 600,000) without much buzz outside of UTEP, and even worse, it had a less than envious reputation, according to one local representative, “City leaders were faced with a challenge: to get a poor city of overweight, sedentary people moving when there weren’t any parks or [bicycle] lanes. A national magazine declared the city one of the four fattest in the US, and that really got everyone’s attention.”
Welcome Ciclovia! Starting this month, the City will
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Thursday, April 19, 2007
You’ve heard of car sharing… how about bike sharing?
You’ve heard of car sharing… how about bike sharing?
Car sharing has become standard equipment in many cities, but what about those of us who want something even quicker, less expensive, more convenient and healthier? Well then, there’s Cyclocity.
First of all, the caveat is that you have to live in Lyon (France’s third-largest city) or Paris (coming this summer), but this is just a sign of things to come. Perhaps it’s easiest to compare how it is, and isn’t similar to car sharing:
How
…Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Redefining the routine business meeting
Redefining the routine business meeting
When you live in a cool town, this is how you have your business meetings.
Hey, it’s not called the Conference Bike for nothing.
It’s probably the only way to have a meeting, exercise, and get outdoors at the same time. 7 people share the pedaling, while one steers. It’s got some heavy-duty specs, including Porsche rack-and-pinion steering and automotive disc brakes, so the rental rates aren’t cheap (up to $20/person/hour), but as far as providing
…Friday, February 23, 2007
$2000 reward for living near your work
$2000 reward for living near your work
If you live in Baltimore MD, work for one of these companies and buy a home nearby, you’ll be rewarded $2000 via the Baltimore City Live Near Your Work Program.
That’s $1000 from the City, and $1000 from the employer. The State used to contribute $1000 as well - don’t know what happened to that. What’s in it for the City? Less expense on public roads and transit. What’s in it for the employer? Happier, more productive employees who don’t waste
…Thursday, February 22, 2007
Romance with streetcars reviving
They’re back! ...and people are glad to see them again, for the country had a love affair with them before the infamous streetcar funeral pyres in the early 20th century via GM’s relentless agenda to replace them with their buses. But they’re not back for the reasons people may think - nostalgia. No siree, for believe it or not, cities are bringing back these lovable people movers because they make economic sense, and a lot of it as well.
Read more in this USA Today article, and check
…Wednesday, December 27, 2006
‘Give me walkable or give me death’
‘Give me walkable or give me death’
Those people who think they’re more likely to die from sharks than deer (you’re 300 times more likely to get killed by a deer via car collision), are probably the same who think you’re more likely to get hit and killed by a car in New York than in Arizona or South Carolina. See the graph above - not true.
Yes, there are a lot of cars in Manhattan (and Boston), for instance, but there are way more pedestrians. Not only that, only half of Manhattanites
…Tuesday, December 05, 2006
The most beautiful train stations in the world?
The most beautiful train stations in the world?
There is probably no greater diversity or activity over a given time period than at your city’s train station. So, which ones do the best at inspiring people to linger, want to return, or regret leaving? Here are some examples, with a primer provided by the UK’s Guardian and their local favorite in London.
Clockwise from the top left:
Grand Central Terminal, New York, 1913 - There’s a reason why it’s featured in so many movies, referred to
…Thursday, October 12, 2006
Your uh, bus is here? Making mass transit cool
Your uh, bus is here? Making mass transit cool
That’s the thing about mass transit isn’t it? It’s extremely practical and environmentally-conscious, but sooooo uncool. Well, one of the only uncool things left about city living is destined to change in a few years as well.
Almost two years ago, this website profiled the benefits of bus rapid transit (BRT), and how it is able to operate on both high-speed paths and regular roads. Well, mass transit is evolving pretty quickly in light of
…Wednesday, September 27, 2006
The rising demand and development of ‘TOD’s
The rising demand and development of ‘TOD’s
Since transit-oriented development (TOD) sites are the most logical for initial investment in city downtowns, the Urban Land Institute (ULI, the leading organization for real estate developers) brings us an update on TOD demand, trends and incentives in TODs: Location, Location, Collaboration.
Demand - By 2030, the nine-county SF Bay Area will experience added potential demand for 248,000 housing units near transit (source - ABAG, while the same
…Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Car sharing’s popularity continues to rise
Car sharing’s popularity continues to rise
Ok, so maybe this image of a pedestrian-only street, sleek streetcar and Smart car sharing is the future rather than the present in the U.S. (it happens to be a current image in Germany), but maybe not so far down the road. Progressive efforts like in Arlington County, Northern Virginia, helps.
Two years ago, I highlighted the car sharing program that Arlington County was piloting. So, how’s it doing? Some of the results:
- Car sharing
…Thursday, June 29, 2006
If there was such a thing as a pedestrian-friendly car…
...the Smart car would be it, and as of yesterday, it’s officially coming to the U.S. (finally) in less than two years… and speaking of Dublin’s medieval pedestrian-only streets in yesterday’s entry, this is probably the only car in the U.S. that would fit, not that they’re allowed in the Temple Bar district.
Though not quite stackable, Smarts are found all over Europe, especially in the narrowest streets throughout Italy where pedestrians come first. They were originally designed to be as
…Friday, April 28, 2006
…or maybe some oddballs walked
...or maybe some oddballs walked
In our tribute to Jane Jacobs this week, the following is classic Jane. Here’s a favorite study conclusion she included in her last book, Dark Age Ahead (pg. 75.) The question is what happens when you close roads? The study findings from over sixty cases worldwide:
[Planner’s models assume that closing a road causes the traffic using it to move elsewhere… The study team… found that computer models used by urban transportation planners yield incorrect
…Tuesday, April 04, 2006
In the UK, new car-free developments a fast-growing trend
In the UK, new car-free developments a fast-growing trend
London’s Telegraph article, The fond farewells to four wheels, says it all here:
“Ms Cameron and Ms Jones are part of a new generation of homeowners being lured away from their cars. It’s a fast-growing trend. There are already quite a few developments - mostly urban new-builds - that aim to diminish car use among their residents, if not to phase it out entirely.”
One of the developments profiled is Carlton Drive, a 22-unit
…Monday, January 02, 2006
Mass personalized transit - the ‘city car’
What happens when you cross car sharing with a shopping cart?
The people at MIT have an answer that poses such a question - the city car… and it’s set to be built as a prototype by GM.
Stackable like a shopping cart to save space, the electric two-seat city car is designed for pedestrian-oriented communities (ie cities) that suffer from single (or double) occupancy vehicle congestion and a dearth of parking. With independent wheels, it ‘drives like a computer chair’, thus making parallel
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