Urban Design
Streetsblog Basics
Commerce Bank to Cyclists: Your Money’s No Good Here
From a tipster comes this story of what happens when a cyclist tries to conduct business using the "vehicles only" windows at the Commerce Bank branch on Prospect Park Southwest at Park Circle.
August 13, 2008
Astor Place Moves Closer to Becoming a Great Public Space
Remember the Alamo? That's the public sculpture (AKA "The Cube") located on a pedestrian island in the middle of Manhattan's Astor Place. It's a decent landmark for meeting up with a friend, but it always looks forlorn out there with lanes of traffic moving by on every side, a constant reminder that huge swaths of Astor Place and its environs can be reclaimed from vehicles and put to better use.
July 28, 2008
Livable Streets Projects Getting Hung Up in Budget Bureaucracy?
From today's Crain's Insider:
July 23, 2008
Weiner Invokes Jane Jacobs, Endorses “Alternative Modes”
Queens Congressman and 2009 mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner released a manifesto of sorts yesterday. "Keys to the City" lays out his plan, in broad strokes, to "keep New York the capital of the middle class." Toward the end, Weiner touches on transportation policy. While he remains opposed to congestion pricing, he comes out in favor of making "alternative modes" more viable:
July 23, 2008
T.A. Offers Reward for Park Slope “Post-Automobile Street” Designs
9th St. and 4th Ave.: "A dangerous crossing that divides surrounding neighborhoods and inhibits street life."
July 7, 2008
Streetfilms: Depaving Day in Portland
Our coverage of the Toward Carfree Cities conference continues with this Streetfilm from Elizabeth Press, who brings us a unique public service project.
June 19, 2008
DOT Gives Its Regards to Broadway
Last night's Tony winners aren't the only newsmakers on Broadway these days. In May DOT quietly rolled out plans to give the city's premier north-south thoroughfare the livable streets treatment from Times Square to Herald Square (between 42nd and 35th Streets). The redesign replaces two car travel lanes with pedestrian plazas and a protected bike lane.
June 16, 2008
Sadik-Khan Introduces the New York City Model
DOT revealed its "Sustainable Streets" strategic plan last night, in the very same room where the New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign held its kick-off event a little more than two years ago. Once again, Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson was there. Here are excerpts from the presentation by Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, who says that, rather than duplicate the livable streets efforts of cities like London, Paris and Copenhagen, her agency intends to implement "the New York City Model" of sustainable transportation and urban design.
April 29, 2008