Clarence Eckerson Jr.

In the midst of a 2004 petition drive and campaign, Transportation Alternatives hired me to produce a mini-film called "The Case for a Car-Free Central Park." It featured interviews with many prominent New Yorkers, like Columbia professor Ken Jackson and author Roberta Brandes Gratz, along with dozens of everyday park-goers testifying about how they felt about cars in the park.

Tom Radulovich, the executive director of the local non-profit Livable City, describes the recent livable streets achievements in San Francisco as "tactical urbanism" -- using low-cost materials like paint and bollards to reclaim street space.

Guadalajara, Mexico is showing how amazingly transformative a ciclovia-style road closure can be for its citizens. In seven years, their inaugural Sunday event Via RecreActiva has grown from just seven miles with 35,000 participants to 41 miles with 400,000 users every Sunday. It goes from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and covers six municipalities.

Cycling in New York City endured an unprecedented media bombardment in 2011. But New Yorkers kept on riding and the public opinion polls kept on showing that despite the political and press attacks, bike lanes enjoy broad support. To celebrate a year of resilience, we figured we'd show a montage of New Yorkers out on their bikes, Streetfilms style.

Walking and bicycling in Guadalajara, Mexico can be dangerous in many parts of the city, but there's a movement afoot among many citizens to change that. GDL en Bici is a group of local advocates who have been organizing regular bike rides for years, and nothing is more impressive than their ride on the first Thursday of the month - the Paseo de Todos - which regularly draws up to 5,000 riders to celebrate and demand safer cycling conditions.

In the increasingly heated competition to see who deserves the title of America's most bike-friendly city, Minneapolis has plenty going for it. Last year Bicycling magazine anointed the city tops in the nation, knocking Portland off its long-held perch.

In 2007, in order to route cyclists away from a challenging 7-lane crossing on busy Hiawatha Avenue, Minneapolis built the Martin Olav Sabo Bridge.

Nice Ride MN is a hit. The Twin Cities bike share recently celebrated its one year anniversary in June.  And in July they started an expansion by adding more stations and bicycles to the network.

The NYC Bridge Centennial Commission, co-founded by "Gridlock" Sam Schwartz, organized a re-enactment today near the Williamsburg Bridge, calling attention to the hundredth anniversary of the last toll collected on the East River bridges. Mayor William J. Gaynor's century-old decision to eliminate bridge tolls translates to a cumulative loss of $31 billion in potential revenue for NYC. Tune in to hear what $31 million could do for the city's transportation system.