Speed Camera Lottery

Who knew reducing speed in urban areas, and consequently improving the quality of the urban environment could be, well, fun?

Urban Mobility Beyond Cars: Dublin

Ecological Urbanism is delighted to announce that my research proposal 'Urban Mobility Beyond Cars" has recently been shortlisted for a research competition organised by the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland. The competition,
3Twenty10, was a call for Irish Architects to identify solutions to the challenges facing Ireland’s built environment in the aftermath of the boom years. It explores how the profession can contribute to the wider debate about national recovery.

10 principles for livable transportation

Last week, the Institute of Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) released 'Our Cities Ourselves: 10 Principles for Transport in Urban Life', a publication co-authored by Jan Gehl outlining “ten keys to building successful cities” and “show[ing] how cities from New York to Nairobi can meet the challenges of rapid population growth and climate change while improving their competitiveness.”

Copenhagen Cycling Superhighways

This is a great news video from current.tv's series on 'Urban Mobility- Rethinking Transportation in an Urban Environment.

Voted the world's most livable city in 2008, Copenhagen embraces bicycle culture as part of daily life with nearly 40 % of residents riding a bike to work. Blogs and fashion photos are dedicated to bike style, and throughout the city you'll find bicycle bars on sidewalks so riders can rest their feet; green lights that change early for cyclists; and even friendly signs greeting "Hi Cyclist!"

It's no wonder then that Copenhagen is innovating new ways of creating a bike-friendly city with a system of as many as 15 extra-wide, segregated bike routes connecting the suburbs to the center of the city. Technological advances will soon follow, so commuters can detect other riders on the routes, and help them to assemble into pelotons or "bike buses." These groups could in turn emit signals that trip traffic lights in their favor, resulting in a "green wave" of bicycle momentum.

David Engwicht:The Art of Placemaking

On Friday, I had the wonderful opportunity to speak with David Engwicht, and hear not one but two fantastic presentations delivered by the Australian Urban Philosopher. The earlier presentation encouraged everybody attending to use the power of story to deliver the future you want. The latter presentation entitled ‘Placemaking’ and arranged by Dublin City Council, attracted a huge crowd to its new wood quay venue despite its Friday night scheduling.

In his lecture, David outlined the lessons he has learned throughout his career of successful placemaking from around the world. In what was a highly interactive lecture, he began the night by asking the crowd ‘What makes you feel at home?’. Noticing that there were architects in the crowd (they’re easy to spot, just look for anyone dressed in black) he proclaimed “the sense of home is the inverse proportion of the amount of money you can spend on it”. He asks, what invokes a sense of home? Does a swish contemporary pad with clean lines and polished floors, or does a ramshackle house with some odd bits and bobs strewn about the place? His point was that poor people furnish their house with a sense of generosity that gives a spirit to the place.

RAIL[WAYS] Series: Chicago's Bloomingdale Line

Over the next few weeks here at ecocity we will be documenting urban projects from around the world that transform redundant railway lines into leisure amenities. Often physical and social barriers in cities, redundant railway viaducts have the potential to bind communities together and create social cohesion in often very difficult neighbourhoods. Also being examined is how exactly the projects develop from conception through to completion; many of which are realized due to the hard work of volunteer community organisations with the courage and conviction to pursue what they passionately believe in.

Retrofitting existing cities infrastructure is a strategy widely accepted as one that can deliver low carbon cities quickly and at a low cost. In fact, Retrofitting cities is one of the key components of 'The Future We Want' project that I was introduced to by Bill Becker back in Copenhagen in December '09 at the Culture|Futures conference. Bill is an hugely enthusiastic and inspiring guy with great resolve from the University of Colorado, Denver and is the executive director of Obama's Presidential Climate Action Project.

Reinventing the Wheel

Photo courtesy of Max Tomasinelli

As reported here at ecocity back in December at the COP15, MIT's 'SENSEABLE City Lab' launched the revolutionary 'Copenhagen Wheel', a simple, low-cost bicycle wheel that can convert any bicycle into an e-bike. Our friends over at Current.tv's Urban Mobility channel have recently created a great litle video about this ground breaking innovation, interviewing some of the designers involved.

Seoul Transforms Freeway Into a River (Video)

Cheonggyecheon stream in downtown Seoul

Below is an excellent 5 minute video from Fast Company describing why in 2003, city officials in Seoul decided to demolish a two-storey freeway feeding directly into the centre of the city...and replace it with a stream. I actually visited Cheonggyecheon when I was in Seoul last year and the river had seems like it was always there, and in fact it was. The demolished thoroughfare was built above the site of an ancient stream.

L.A. plans freeway system for bikes

L.A. officials currently has plans aloof to retrofit the city of angels into a more bicycle-friendly city. Comments on the plans have been both positive and negative, with some people finding the maps over-elaborate and confusing. To address this, a group of L.A. cycle activists have created their own map named the 'Central Los Angeles Backbone Bikeway Network' (shown below).

Cities for the people | Jan Gehl, Gehl Architects

Jan Gehl graduated from Architecture in 1960, a time to him represents an all time low point in city planning, when architects were big and people were quite small. After marrying a psychologist he started questioning why architecture solely focused on form and did not focus at all on people? For Jan Gehl, Architecture is the interaction between form and life. Cue Jan Gehl’s one stone, five birds policy. If you are sweet to people it is possible to create Lively, Attractive, Safe, Sustainable, and Healthy cities. Modernism, one of the evil of society according to Mr. Gehl, interpreted cities as bad and buildings as good. 1960, the year he graduated was also the year when post-war reconstruction started big time. At the same time there was an invasion on the city ten years after the war, the car invasion. Of course cheap petroleum fuelled this and all the city planner’s energy went into trying to make the car happy. Using Westport, a small town in the west of Ireland as an example, he argues that as a result of the car invasion, human dignity was being eroded. The ideologies of modernity need to be broken.

Dublin is one of the worst

Dublin has been ranked 21st out of 30 in a list of the greenest cities in Europe.

According to the Siemens European Green Cities Index, which was compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Dublin is the worst city in Europe in terms of its transport infrastructure.

New 30km/h Speed limit in Dublin

AS EXPECTED, motorists have criticised and environmental groups have welcomed the extension of the 30km/h speed limit zone in Dublin city centre. The AA has described the move as a “misapplication” of speed limits that it said other cities had primarily restricted to residential areas. The Dublin Business Association expressed concerns about car-borne shoppers going elsewhere.

Shite Cycle Lanes

Showing how utterly stupid some council's road traffic department are is always a good start to raising awareness on the appalling conditions cyclists are faced with on a daily basis. Of course when compared to best practices, such as cycling infrastructure in Copenhagen, it can be a useful technique to shame the council in question to actually do something about the situation.

Harmony City

If only China was so perfect. Remind me how ARUP's Dongtan Eco-city went again? That's right, down the toilet. Maybe there should be more focus on preserving the existing cities and existing cycling culture and integrating them into future development as opposed to simply bulldozing centuries of culture and tradition and quality vernacular architecture and sustainable urban form. Not to mention the uprooting of many thousands of people from their family homes. Then they wouldn't have the problems creates by the many 'harmony' cities that are popping up everywhere. Then they wouldn't have to ban avatar from their movie theaters. China's interpretation of Harmony is very strange indeed.

Via IDEO's Living Climate Change

Emerging City Innovation

Great short video on emerging solutions to mobility issues in emerging cities including 'Samba' bike sharing programme in Rio de Janeiro. Samba is an acronym in Portuguese for Alternative Mobility Solution through Bike Rental'.

Copenhagen 1937

Thanks to Inari at Cycle Consultants, Helsinki, part of British Council's Challenge Europe Climate Advocacy programme, for putting me on to this wonderful video of Copenhagen back in the day.


James A. Fitzpatrick's Traveltalks The Voice of the Globe

Fahrrad und Bahn

Translated from stuttgart.de

The Bicycle and train are highly complementary. The way to the train station or bus stop can be wonderful to travel by bicycle. Once there, stand under the bike and ride in the city of Stuttgart is often covered parking available. At the main station and the S-Bahn station Schwabstraße bike boxes can be rented. At stations in Möhringen Vaihingen and take the employees of the bike service stations at the good plays.
 

Those who want to cycle at the destination may take their bicycle in urban and suburban trains usually for free. Restrictions apply during peak periods. Thus, the carriage of bicycles in the light rail is permitted between 6 am and 8.30 clock and not in the evening between 16 and 18.30 clock. In S-Bahn, DB regional trains and the trains of the Württemberg railway company TRAIL may always bicycles are taken away. However, due in the morning peak period between 6 and 8.30 clock a child ticket.

A peculiarity of Stuttgart is the bike transport rack of the Marienplatz to Degerloch. With the help of special Vorstellwagens the "wave" brings you your bike comfortable, safe and free of charge from the valley to the Filderebene.

Photo: Stuttgart Department of City Planning and Urban Renewal

At stations in Möhringen and Vaihingen the staff of the bike service stations offer their services. Here bicycles can be parked safely. While the parking time from Monday to Fri from 7 am to 8pm you can clean his bike too, and wait. The bicycle service stations can also rent bicycles on offer. The donated and brought up to scratch bike can be rented for three to five euros a day.

The bicycle-service stations are open Monday to Fri from 7 20 clock. The prices for a "Bicycle Parking" as follows:
$ 0.50 per day
2 euros per week
5 Euro per month
50 euros per year 

Operated bicycle service stations from social enterprises "New Work". The employment project is helping young unemployed people on their way into a job on the first labor. Who his bicycle in a bicycle parked service station, so not only does his bike a good thing, but also helps in the integration of young unemployed.

Photo: Stuttgart Department of City Planning and Urban Renewal

Bike Boxes

Especially popular are the bike boxes at the central railway station at Schwabstraße. As in a mini-garage, the good pieces there are safe from thieves and protected from wind and weather. The bike boxes can be used for 5 euros or 50 euros a month in rent for the mobility counseling in the i-dot.

Photo: Stuttgart Department of City Planning and Urban Renewal

Share Space

In the German town of Bohmte, the highway code has been abolished in order to create a common code to cardrivers, cyclists and pedestrians. (Report: B. Boussouar)





Via France24

Biking in NYC

NYC DOT explains Bike Lanes in the Big Apple




Bike lanes: In some cities people are literally dying to have them and some people go so far as to mark their own. Here in New York City, it feels like every time I get on my bike there is a new bike lane - sometimes on the left, sometimes buffered, and sometimes completely separated from automobile traffic. To understand these lanes, I had the opportunity to go for a ride with the NYC DOT bicycle boys. They explained the classes of bike lanes and showed off some of these inventive facilities. You can use Ride the City to find a safe bike route in New York City and watch this video to see what lanes are used on your route.

Via Streetfilms

Innovative Cities

via good.is