Fighting against private car invasion….in 1896

Some weeks ago I came across a great story in The Urban Country blog. The photograph shows the front cover of the San Francisco Call, headlining a demonstration of thousands of protesters -more than 100.000 according to the newspaper- who gathered to protest against what started to be an excessive presence of private cars in the streets of this Californian city.

@manufernandez

massurban:

“Los Angeles Seeks Pedestrians

The automobile is undoubtedly the dominant mode of travel in Los Angeles. But to write off the city as made up entirely of car-driving, bumper-to-bumper rush hour commuters is clearly an over-generalization. A growing group of Angelenos is finding ways to make transit, cycling, and walking (and, often, a combination thereof) relevant and viable in their daily lives.

A physical example of this transition opened this weekend in the city’s Silver Lake neighborhood. On a short strip of street bordering a small triangular park within a vibrant commercial area, officials from the city’s departments of planning, transportation, and public works partnered with the county’s public health department to close the street off to car traffic and convert it into an outdoor plaza. On 11,000 square-feet, the roadway has been effectively removed form the automobile grid with the simple application of paint (in glowing neon green polka-dots), bike racks and planters around the edges and seating in the middle. The project was inspired by similar street plazas created in New York City and San Francisco.

“In L.A., 60 percent of our land area is devoted to streets and parking lots. So the real hope here is that we can take that and transform it into something really different than just spaces for cars,” says Bill Roschen, president of the city’s planning commission.

Roschen helped spearhead the street-to-plaza project, part of an effort called Streets for People. His intention is to spread projects like this one throughout the city.

“It’s about culture change,” Roschen says. “It’s looking at streets as not always for cars, but a real shared effort around mobility.”

At least a hundred people were milling around the plaza for its opening day ceremony this past Sunday – an especially warm and sunny day. A line trailed out of the door of a café right on the plaza’s edge, and people moved chairs to find some shade underneath the umbrellas sprinkled throughout the area. Kids ran around, while adults and community members crowded around local officials to talk about – and congratulate each other on – the project.”

Via: The Atlantic

Photo: Nate Berg

sebastianwaters:

Let’s have a Moment of Silence for all those who are stuck in traffic on their way to the Gym to ride stationary bicycles.

(via olishaw-journal)

llysakowski:

Eric Fischer’s beautiful data visualization map of the Bay Area. Eric is plotting Flickr photos on a map and highlighting 50 major cities in a vector view. The different colors represent different modes of transportation: Black is walking (less than 7mph), Red is bicycling or equivalent speed (less than 19mph), Blue is motor vehicles on normal roads (less than 43mph); Green is freeways or rapid transit.

Photos by Eric Fischer

Via: Larissa Zimberoff

(Source: blog.flickr.net)

futurejournalismproject:

Visualizing Taxis in Manhattan

Via Digital Urban:

Taxi! is an analytical model that maps the trip data for 10,000 taxi rides over the course of 24 hours. Geographic location data for the origin and destination of each ride is combined with waypoint data collected from the Google Maps API in order to generate a geographically accurate representation of the trip.

The team used data from taxi rides originating or ending in the neighborhoods of Lincoln center or Bryant Park. The visualization recreates a ‘breathing’ map of Manhattan based on the migration of vehicles across the city over a period of 24 hours, displaying periods of intensity, density and decreased activity.

Created by Tom McKeogh, Eliza Montgomery and Juan F Saldarriaga.

H/T: Flowing Data.

(Source: futurejournalismproject)

How 300.000 Norwegians Move House in a Year

(Source: Guardian)

dreamsforthecity:

studentofplanning:

thedailywhat:

Optical Illusion of the Day: An aerial photo of an expanding-contracting toll road creates a real-life-Inception-esque illusion.

[22words.]

This hurts my eyes.

So much road.

Autophobia: Love and Hate in the Automotive Age | Brian Ladd | University of Chicago Press | 236 pages | $15.00 (Softcover)

Another one on paved spaces, parking lots and roads devoted to car culture. Texas, Atlanta, and now Hollywood-LA. More examples or figures?

martinleitner:

Surface Parking Lots in Hollywood
Just beyond L.A.’s fabled Hollywood Boulevard surface parking lots dominate the city form. A sure sign that more needs to be done to transform Hollywood and Vine into the urban, mixed-use neighborhood it is striving to become.

Analysis drawing by John Kaliski Architects

Cars Kill Cities

Red Squares Indicate Land that is 100% Dedicated to Parking in Midtown Atlanta

This is a (maybe) extreme example, but it is very illustrative.I have not yet been able to find figures of urban land dedicated to parking and roads globally or a comparative review of most important cities. Hints for search/links?

(Source: yippiyeay)

The global transportation system

thegreenurbanist:

“The California Cycleway, opened in 1900, was an elevated tollway built specially for bicycle traffic through the Arroyo Seco, intended to connect the cities of Pasadena and Los Angeles”

…

“In the first decade of the 20th century, the structure was dismantled… Later, the California Cycleway’s right-of-way became part of the Arroyo Seco Parkway (Pasadena Freeway).”