Quality of Life
Streetsblog Basics
Running the Christmas Tree Gauntlet
Photo: Lars Klove, Sixth Avenue and 13th Street, Manhattan.
December 14, 2007
What Makes a Place Walkable?
Bikes at Work has an interesting database that uses census numbers to show how many people walk to their jobs in cities, towns and villages across the US. A quick search for the highest walk-to-work locations for towns with over 1000 people yields the following results:
December 14, 2007
This Holiday Season London’s Streets Are “Absolutely Jammed”
London retailers enjoyed a £100 million spending spree as Oxford, Bond and Regents Streets were closed to motor vehicle traffic for a day
December 10, 2007
Good Streets Include Streetcars
Last stop for Brooklyn's trolley dodgers at Fairway Market in Red Hook.
December 4, 2007
Houston Street Gets Tree-mendous New Sidewalks
We're just catching up to this piece of good news in The Villager last week:
December 3, 2007
Ciclovía: A Moving Experience in Bogotá, Colombia
Recently, I had the opportunity to travel with comrades Karla Quintero of Transportation Alternatives and Streetsblog editor Aaron Naparstek to Bogotá, Colombia to document some of the amazing advances going on in the livable streets movement there. We spent an entire Sunday, from 5am 'til nearly 5pm, riding bicycles around during Ciclovía, a weekly event in which over 70 miles of city streets are closed to traffic and opened to walking, biking, running, skating, recreating, picnicking, and talking with family, neighbors and strangers. Ciclovía was simply one of the most moving experiences I have had in my entire life (no pun intended).
December 3, 2007
Carrion Gets $30K Donation Following Yanks Walkway Deal
The Village Voice is reporting that Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion received $30,000 in campaign contributions from a firm that scored a $5 million air rights agreement for a pedestrian bridge to the new Yankee Stadium.
November 29, 2007
DOT Rolls Out Fort Greene Bike Lanes & Traffic-Calming
Via Brownstoner, the Department of Transportation is building out a nice street redesign project in Brooklyn right now as a part of its Ft. Greene Bike Lane & Traffic Calming Project (download a project description here). Formerly a 70-foot-wide one-way street, Carlton Avenue, above, has been converted to two-way operation with five-foot bike lanes on either side. DOT is now building a 20-foot wide planted median in the middle. The Carlton Ave. improvements are similar to recent projects on Park Slope's 9th Street and Vanderbilt Ave. in Prospect Heights.
November 12, 2007
Congestion Pricing Will Make You Happy
An op/ed by Eduardo Porter in today's New York Times makes a passing suggestion that by reducing the number of people who do solo car commutes, congestion pricing would make New Yorkers happier.
November 12, 2007