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News & Notes

gcpvd — December 19, 2011 — Leave a comment

Boxpark

News & Notes → Shipping Containers & Shopping – London’s ‘Retail Revolution’ Finally Opens [This Big City]

London’s first pop-up shopping mall has finally opened, after originally being slated for a Summer launch. Located in east London, at the intersection of Bethnal Green Road and Shoreditch High Street, ‘Boxpark‘ is made entirely from reused shipping containers and has been called a ‘retail revolution’ by its owners. I paid a visit last week to see if it lives up to this ambitious statement.

Route 195 land?

→The wisdom of crowds – The strange but extremely valuable science of how pedestrians behave [The Economist]

Messrs Helbing and Moussaid are at the cutting edge of a youngish field: understanding and modelling how pedestrians behave. Its purpose is not mere curiosity. Understanding pedestrian flows makes crowd events safer: knowing about the propensity of different nationalities to step in different directions could, for instance, matter to organisers of an event such as a football World Cup, where fans from various countries mingle. The odds of collisions go up if they do not share a reflex to move to one side. In a packed crowd, that could slow down lots of people.

In News & Notes Bicycle, London, News & Notes, Pedestrians, Pop-Up Retail, Retail, Shipping Containers, Sidewalks, Speed Limit, Streetcars, Traffic Calming

News & Notes

gcpvd — October 5, 2011 — 1 Comment

→ Laneways a resource for livable cities [The Star Phoenix]

Laneways [American = alleys] typically make up about 20 to 30 per cent of urban space – more than parks – yet about all they are used for is garbage pickup, utility lines and deliveries. They are often dirty, ugly and forbidding. In progressive cities a “livable laneways” movement is catching on and the greening of alleys is adding to the vibrancy of neighbourhoods, especially downtowns.

→ The Curious Case Of The Vanishing Chinese City [NPR]

“Anhui province is today announcing the cancellation of Chaohu city,” the broadcast said. It went on to explain that the city once known as Chaohu had been divided into three. The nearby cities of Hefei, Wuhu and Ma’anshan each absorbed a piece of territory. The broadcast confusingly described the move as “an inherent need at a certain level of economic growth.”

“Chaohu’s development hasn’t been good, but Hefei is industrializing and urbanizing. It needs land, so absorbing Chaohu will benefit Hefei. The government hopes that redistributing the land will improve the entire province’s GDP,” he says.

Central Falls on a Chinese scale.

In News & Notes Alleys, Annexation, Cable Var, China, Complete Streets, Economy, Foreclosure, Funicular, New Zealand, News & Notes, Pedestrians, Suburbs, Traffic Calming, Transportation, Trees, Wellington

News & Notes

gcpvd — September 14, 2011 — 4 Comments

Károly körút in Budapest, photo from Origo fotó

→ Fixing a Boulevard [Railzone]

The street is called Károly körút, which is a ring road around the historic centre of Pest, exactly where a former city wall used to stand. It is a major artery for road traffic, including still too many through trips (i.e. trips neither originating nor ending in the city centre itself). It is also a tram route, which was almost discarded following a new subway line construction, but now, partly due to the reconstruction project itself, the future of the line seems certain and an extension to North is planned.

Be sure to click through from the link to the before & after photos.

→ House Approves Extensions for the Federal Surface Transportation and Aviation Programs [America 2050]

Transportation advocates were gearing up for a big push to ensure that the federal surface transportation program did not expire at the end of the month, but in a remarkable show of common cause and swift action on Tuesday, the House unanimously approved a six-month extension of SAFETEA-LU, as well as a four-month extension of the authorizing legislation for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The Senate still has to pass this bill before it’s final, but Harry Reid has promised to move it through quickly, leaving transportation advocates breathing a little easier.

Councilman Hassett moves to calm streets on Smith Hill

Jef Nickerson — August 19, 2011 — 3 Comments

Bath Street on Smith Hill. Image from Google Street View

(PROVIDENCE) Council President Pro Tempore Terrence M. Hassett, who represents Ward 12, announced that traffic calming measures will be implemented in the coming weeks on several Smith Hill streets.

Hassett appropriated funds from the Community Development Block Grant earlier this year, for the purpose of installing motor vehicle speed control devices, also known as speed humps, on six streets where speeding motorists are a chronic problem. The construction of the speed humps will be accompanied by appropriate signage and road striping with reflective lines.

In Pedestrians, Roads Complete Streets, Councilman Hassett, Pedestrians, Roads, Safety, Smith Hill, Traffic Calming

The traffic lights have been removed at the intersection of Weybosset, Broad, Empire, and Chestnut Streets.

Crossing is safer without the light

Jef Nickerson — July 21, 2011 — 8 Comments

The traffic lights have been removed at the intersection of Weybosset, Broad, Empire, and Chestnut Streets.
Traffic lights at the intersection of Weybosset, Broad, Empire, and Chestnut Streets on Weybosset Hill have been removed.

As part of the Downtown Circulator Project, the traffic light at the intersection of Weybosset, Broad, Empire, and Chestnut Streets (Weybosset Hill for short) have been removed. The roads will be rebuilt (with Weybosset and Empire both becoming two-way) and new lights will be installed, probably sometime this fall. Curiously, the intersection, which I walk through multiple times a day, has become much better without the lights.

In Downcity, Pedestrians, Roads Complete Streets, Downcity, Empire Street, Pedestrians, Roads, Safety, Traffic, Traffic Calming, Weybosset Street

Sidewalk over street in Providence too

Jef Nickerson — June 30, 2011 — 5 Comments

Remember a couple weeks back when I posted this photo from a Streetsblog story of a sidewalk crossing a street in Copenhagen?

Copenhagen sidewalk
Photo from Streetsblog

This is what I said I liked about it:

This Copenhagen sidewalk completely flips the script on the relationship between cars and pedestrians at intersections. Rather than there being a curb, the sidewalk ending, and pedestrians moved into the street via a crosswalk; the sidewalk continues across the road and it is the car that enters the pedestrians domain in order to move through the intersection. Why are we not making all minor side streets have this relation to the main?

Well, duh, we have at least one of these in Providence, on Westminster Street at Orange Street:

Sidewalk on Westminster Street continues right across Orange Street.

It is not quite as seemlessly sidewalk as the Copenhagen example, but observing motorists navigating it, it works the same way. Motorist get a cue that they are moving off the street and change the way they move, slowing to look for pedestrians and using more caution than if the sidewalk ended and there was only paint on the roadway for pedestrians. The fact that the sidewalk is at a higher level than the street also means that cars must slow to mount it. Meaning it acts as a sort of speed bump.

This should be firmly planted in the city’s road design bag of tricks. Imagine if all the alleys on Atwells worked this way for example; cars had to slow to cross the sidewalk rather than the other way around.

In Pedestrians, Roads Complete Streets, Pedestrians, Roads, Sidewalks, Traffic Calming

News & Notes

gcpvd — April 27, 2011 — Leave a comment

→ Seniors and the City [Governing]

Have you ever thought the walk signs at street corners weren’t long enough? Probably not. But if you’re over 65 years old, it may be a different matter. What seems like a reasonable amount of time to cross a street is more like an Olympic sprint for the elderly. It’s one of numerous issues that have grown in importance as our population not only ages but becomes increasingly concentrated in cities.

In 2006, just 11 percent of the global population was over the age of 60, but the number is expected to double by 2050, according to the World Health Organization. Meanwhile, the number of people living in cities continues to rise. In North America, 81 percent of the population lived in urban areas in 2005, and is expected to reach 87 percent by 2030.

→ Gridlock Sam: Too Big to Fall [Blueprint America]

…as pointed out in a new book, Too Big to Fall by Barry LePatner, there are tens of thousands of fracture critical bridges in the United States and nearly 8,000 are structurally deficient, which is a recipe for disaster.

Using the tragic collapse of the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis as a starting point, Barry LePatner lays out how our nation has neglected a majority of our 6,000 spans. LePatner presents a complete, well-researched story about the nation’s transportation infrastructure. This book is a must read for anyone in engineering, construction, architecture, and planning. Frankly, it is a must read for any American who is concerned about the continuing strength of our economy and our quality of life.

In News & Notes Books, Boston, Bridges, Complete Streets, Infrastructure, Minnesota, New York, News & Notes, Pedestrians, PILOT Program, Seniors, Taxes, Tolls, Traffic Calming

Streetfilms MBA: Road Diet

gcpvd — April 15, 2011 — Leave a comment

Streetfilms has launched a new series of videos, Moving Beyond the Automobile. As Streetfilms releases each video in the series, we’ll be posting them here for you to enjoy.

In Pedestrians, Roads, Video Moving Beyond the Automobile, Pedestrians, Road Diet, Roads, StreetFilms, Traffic, Traffic Calming, Video

Why oh why do we have to have sidewalks on Federal Hill?

Jef Nickerson — April 7, 2011 — 6 Comments

Nice headline, huh? OK, we need sidewalks certainly, but why do we have sidewalks along the alleys that thread between buildings in the Atwells Avenue area? Writing the post on the 50 Cedar Street proposal had me zooming down Jones Street via the Google Machine.

Check out the sidewalks on Jones Street:

jones-street
Jones Street, image from Google StreetView

In Roads Federal Hill, Infrastructure, Roads, Traffic Calming, Woonerf

Streetfilms MBA: Traffic Calming

gcpvd — April 6, 2011 — Leave a comment

Streetfilms has launched a new series of videos, Moving Beyond the Automobile. As Streetfilms releases each video in the series, we’ll be posting them here for you to enjoy.

In Pedestrians, Roads, Video Automobiles, Bicycles, Complete Streets, Moving Beyond the Automobile, Pedestrians, Roads, StreetFilms, Traffic Calming

"Providence" Pedestrian T-Shirt ($24.30)	"I Streetcar Providence" Button ($3.15)
"Providence" Streetcar T-Shirt ($26.45)	Providence Pride T-shirt ($25.35)

Archives For Traffic Calming

News & Notes

News & Notes

Councilman Hassett moves to calm streets on Smith Hill

Crossing is safer without the light

Sidewalk over street in Providence too

News & Notes

Streetfilms MBA: Road Diet

Why oh why do we have to have sidewalks on Federal Hill?

Streetfilms MBA: Traffic Calming

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