The green man, an icon for pedestrians across the UK, could be joined by a countdown clock as part of London’s plans to ease traffic flow. But from Cairo to Chicago, how people cross the road speaks volumes about a country’s cultural values.
Popularity: 16% [?]
Most bike commuters find that the negative assumptions they had about bike commuting are mostly false. This goes double for women, who might find that riding in high heels is easier than walking in them; a special wardrobe is not necessarily required (though fun); and that biking boosts a sense of freedom in ways a car no longer can. Benefits to women are multiple, and the benefits to society are just as big. Read on for how we all get dividends when women take to their bikes.
Popularity: 17% [?]
I used to do cycle promotion work in the UK, travelling from city to city and talking to a great number of people about cycling. They all already knew that cycling was healthy, good for the environment etc. Many people would like to be able to cycle. The number one reason that the average person in the street would give for not cycling was “it’s too dangerous”. So, what did they mean by this?
Popularity: 9% [?]
You come across them more and more in new housing districts: high-voltage parks. These remarkable, elongated strips of parkland, with high-voltage masts as their central features, often slice right through neighbourhoods. Leiden, Almere, Rotterdam and Dordrecht already boast such strips of land, while another fifty are planned around the country over the coming years. But how pleasant is it in a park beneath ominously crackling wires?
Popularity: 22% [?]
A pair of new studies say that more people than ever lie in harm’s way from earthquakes, droughts, floods and other disasters, largely because of a surge in urban populations in developing countries.
Popularity: 12% [?]
An interesting Portugese campaign (via Osocio and social design notes) used crosswalk stripes made out of the names of pedestrians killed in car accidents to at once remember those lost as well as call attention to pedestrian safety. The curb message says,”One quarter of the victims of auto accidents are pedestrians.”
Popularity: 21% [?]
A study of the most and least safe places to cycle in Britain, released today, shows that where there are more riders on the roads there is generally a lower accident rate, while in areas less popular for bikes, cycling can be notably more risky.
Popularity: 6% [?]
The most unsafe cities in California, in terms of traffic fatalities, are the newest ones — those developed primarily since 1950. The cities with the fewest fatalities, by contrast, are those with significant portions built before 1950.
The newer cities tend to have more “dendritic” networks — branching, tree-like organizations that include many cul-de-sacs, limiting the movement of traffic through residential areas. They also don’t have as many intersections. The pre-1950 cities, on the other hand, tend to be more grid-like, giving motorists many more routes to choose from.
Popularity: 23% [?]