Archive for Great Streets
October 21, 2011 · Filed under Authenticity, Creative Cities, Density, Diversity, Grassroots, Great Streets, Public Space
In Japan, ‘public’ is more of a mental construct than a physical presence” and the concept of ‘privacy’ has never taken hold. The closest native Japanese approximation of private-public may be uchi (family, clan, group)-soto (that which is not uchi) where uchi extends the Western ‘private’ to ‘other private’ plus ‘public’. A history and present of close quarters, paper-thin walls and sliding doors that open onto the street evoke the permeation of daily life into public space. Memory and current practice/conception regard whole neighbourhoods as ‘home’, with parks as multifunctional common yards.
More…
Popularity: 1% [?]
April 27, 2010 · Filed under Active Transportation, Great Streets, Mobility, Pedestrians
One of the foundational documents in our country’s history of car-centric street design is what’s known as the Green Book. These engineering guidelines, which have been published in various editions by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) since the 1930s, are only “green” if you’re looking at the cover.
More…
Popularity: 31% [?]
April 6, 2010 · Filed under Active Transportation, Authenticity, Beauty, Creative Cities, Cycling, Diversity, Great Streets, Happiness, Nature, Public Life, Social Justice, Social Networks, Uncategorized, Urban Design
Happiness itself is a commons to which everyone should have equal access.
That’s the view of Enrique Peñalosa, who is not a starry-eyed idealist given to abstract theorizing. He’s actually a politician, who served as mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, for three years, and now travels the world spreading a message about how to improve quality-of-life for everyone living in today’s cities.
More…
Popularity: 70% [?]
March 16, 2010 · Filed under Active Transportation, Cycling, Great Streets, Pedestrians, Public Space, Street Furniture, Urban Design
New York’s ambitious experiment that closed parts of Broadway to vehicles last spring will become permanent, city officials said on Thursday, even though it fell short of achieving its chief objective: improving traffic flow.
More…
Popularity: 58% [?]
March 16, 2010 · Filed under Graffiti, Great Streets, Infrastructure, Public Art, Revitalization
Last week, a group called the Urban Repair Squad painted sound-effect words—”Thunk!” “Oof” and the like—along Toronto’s Harbord Street where potholes and other perils threaten cyclists. They’re calling the project “Pothole Onomatopoeia.”
More…
Popularity: 20% [?]
January 5, 2010 · Filed under Beauty, Diversity, Great Streets, Modernism, Planning
Passing through the D.C. metro area yesterday, we decided to visit two classic planned communities in the Maryland suburbs. Both were planned and built from the ground up and both contain around 2,000 households. Otherwise, they could not be more different. One was entirely created by the federal government, the other by private developers. One was born in the depth of the Great Depression, the other during boom years of the American economy. One has a current average home sale price of around $160,000, the other $800,000. One is exclusively modernist in style, the other highly traditional both in planning and architecture.
Anyone who seeks to pigeonhole planning into one ideological camp or the other may want to take a look at these two very different models. While there are certainly arguments to be made either for or against each of these, it seems pretty clear to me that they fit into different economic niches and lifestyle preferences. The overall metro area is that much richer for having both of them.
More…
Popularity: 22% [?]
November 19, 2009 · Filed under Beauty, Great Streets, Urban Design
What do you want from your streets? Clean-liness, safety and good lighting, and the ability to go where you want and do what you want.
More…
Popularity: 35% [?]
November 17, 2009 · Filed under Active Transportation, Great Streets, Traffic
A 30-day test run of a new streetscape design in St. Louis has been so successful that the city may leave it in place, including restriped lanes and temporary concrete barriers, until final construction can begin next summer. With four city streets chosen for upgrading by the East-West Gateway Council of Governments, the six-block-long slice of South Grand Boulevard is the first that is seeing results.
More…
Popularity: 35% [?]
November 10, 2009 · Filed under Active Transportation, Cycling, Great Streets, Traffic, Transit
A new report ranking the nation’s most dangerous metropolitan areas for walking finds that ‘incomplete’ streets are a major culprit in the deaths of thousands of Americans every year. Dangerous by Design, from Transportation for America and the Surface Transportation Policy Project, finds that as many as forty percent of fatal pedestrian crashes are in places where no crosswalk was available, and that arterials designed only for cars are the most dangerous.
More…
Popularity: 28% [?]
October 21, 2009 · Filed under Great Streets, Pedestrians, Public Space, Retail, Street Furniture
We all know the kiosks on the busy streets of our world cities — those small, neat pop-up booths that sell about everything, from newspapers and magazines to cigarettes and cold drinks. Kiosks mean a lot to me, and to the city itself. At these colourful places, where tourists buy their public transport tickets and commuters grab a fresh newspaper in the morning, is the metropolitan vibe at its best.
More…
Popularity: 42% [?]
Next entries »
