Archinect - News

Where the sidewalk (ext)ends: Gensler reveals updated plans for Hollywood Walk of Fame pedestrian improvements

2022-08-04T19:28:00-04:00

Two years after its initial announcement, Gensler has shared updated project renderings and new site plan details for its pedestrian enhancement of LA's Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The project entails a number of hastened improvements to the road surface and overall streetscape. Construction is expected to begin next summer and take $7.2 million to complete its first phase through the end of 2024. Gensler is the prime consultant for this segment of the larger $60 million comprehensive plan authored by Los Angeles Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, while full design details are still being finalized.

Image courtesy Gensler

As reported by Time Out, the construction will affect a segment of Hollywood Boulevard between Gower Street and Orange Drive. Among the upgrades, added planters and outdoor dining areas will feature prominently alongside new shade trees, kiosks, and spaces dedicated to temporary art installations. The project will also include a bus stop consolidation and important traffic la...

New York City is testing out new bike lane barriers across three boroughs this summer

2022-06-13T15:28:00-04:00

The city is experimenting with new types of bike lane barriers to separate cyclists from traffic ahead of what’s typically a busy summer biking season. It plans to install the materials in five locations in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. It will also put up a new type of barrier in the Bronx to protect a bus lane there.

If effective, New York City’s Department of Transportation could include the new rubber and concrete barriers and curb designs as part of its plan to reinforce 20 miles of bike lanes in the city by the end of 2023. These barriers can effectively separate bike lanes from vehicular travel lanes without large-scale installation operations. The city also recently began deploying Jersey barriers, modular concrete or plastic barriers used to separate traffic, to secure bike lanes. The test for these new bike lane barriers is to see how effective they are in preventing vehicles from driving over them. The first of the barriers will be installed in Union Square this coming weekend. A protected bus lane pilot lane will also be installed in the Bronx.

This initiative aligns with Mayor Eric Adams’ plans to spend $900 million to build more bus and bicycle lanes throughout New York as part of the Streets Master Plan, passed in 2019, requiring the city to build 250 miles of protected bike lanes ...

How Portland State's TREC hopes to improve bike lane design regulations

2016-04-19T20:48:00-04:00

Even where protected lanes are in place, when they meet up with busy intersections, those protections typically go away, and the logic behind their design can quickly fall apart...Will more widespread standards for bike lane treatment at intersections ever emerge in the U.S.? The Transportation Research and Education Center at Portland State University aims to move that conversation forward with its newest study.

Portland State University's TREC research group is working to develop a resource that will aims to help transportation agencies in any city design the safest and most useful bike lane infrastructure for both cyclists and drivers.

The Bike Wars Are Over, and the Bikes Won

2016-03-09T15:16:00-05:00

None of the bike-lane opponents’ predictions has come to pass. City streets have never been safer, more economically thriving, or offered more transportation options than they do today...Sometimes a bike lane is just a bike lane, but this one is also a moribund metaphor for the fights that cities across the nation face when reclaiming and resetting their streets.

Over at the Daily Intelligencer, Janette Sadik-Khan published an excerpt/essay (from Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution), which looks back on her work as NYC's transportation commissioner. Specifically, the fight over expanding bicycle infrastructure and the Prospect Park West bike lane.

Australia's "biggest bike-lane skeptic" plans to remove a popular Sydney cycleway

2015-08-27T15:33:00-04:00

[Duncan Gay, self-described as 'the biggest bike-lane skeptic', and the] NSW government [are] about to get rid of a much-loved and much-used AU$5M protected cycleway in Sydney’s city centre...Gay’s move seems to go against the flow, with cycling increasingly feted as a potential congestion and pollution game changer in major cities around the world...But he is not alone.

Previous bike-lane news on Archinect:

Copenhagen Tops List of the 20 Most Bike-Friendly Cities

As bicycle ownership in North Korea rises, Pyongyang introduces bike lanes

LA Gets its First Parking-Protected Bike Lanes

Bike Lanes Don’t Cause Traffic Jams If You’re Smart About Where You Build Them

Archinect's Lexicon: "Bike-Wash"

As bicycle ownership in North Korea rises, Pyongyang introduces bike lanes

2015-07-14T12:59:00-04:00

North Korea has installed cycle lanes on major thoroughfares in Pyongyang in an apparent bid to cut down on pedestrian accidents, as more residents are able to afford to buy bicycles. Bicycles are an expensive but increasingly popular mode of transport for many in the country where private car ownership, although on the rise, is still rare. [...] As recently as 2014, cycling was still illegal for women, though the ban was much flouted.

LA Gets its First Parking-Protected Bike Lanes

2015-04-07T17:26:00-04:00

Yesterday, the city of Los Angeles installed its first ever parking-protected bike lanes. They’re on Reseda Boulevard in Northridge, part of the mayor’s Great Streets Initiative. As of this morning, the project is roughly one-quarter complete. The new protected lanes, also known as cycletracks, are mostly complete on the west side of Reseda Blvd from Plummer Street to Prairie Street. The full one-mile protected lanes will go from Plummer to Parthenia Street.

Gensler proposes "Underline" bike paths in London's abandoned tube tunnels

2015-02-05T13:47:00-05:00

Could the answer to London’s congestion be a network of subterranean cycleways? A new project from design firm Gensler suggests that maybe – just maybe – it might. Dubbed the London Underline, the project would turn London’s abandoned tube tunnels into living streets beneath the city. [...] London Underline is being taken seriously enough in some quarters. Earlier this week, it won the Best Conceptual Project gong at the London Planning awards.

Boris Johnson greenlights London's "Crossrail" bicycle superhighway

2015-01-29T15:10:00-05:00

Boris Johnson today confirmed he would build Europe’s longest segregated urban cycle lane through central London after delays likely to be suffered by motorists were reduced. The Mayor approved the “Crossrail for bikes” protected route through Parliament Square and along the Victoria Embankment and Upper Thames Street after it won overwhelming public support.

New Jersey's first protected bike lane about to be removed again

2014-12-26T13:15:00-05:00

Mt. Prospect Avenue in Newark has New Jersey’s first protected bike lane, as far as we know. But unfortunately it looks like the Garden State will soon be back to zero. Andrew Besold at WalkBikeJersey is reporting Mayor Ras Baraka has ordered the removal of the bike lane, and in the meantime is allowing people to park in it.

Bike Louisville implementing Neighborways, a city-wide bike boulevard system

2014-11-11T14:06:00-05:00

Louisville is currently implementing such a system, what the city’s bike department, Bike Louisville, is calling “Neighborways.” The city hopes these new bike boulevards will encourage and enable bicyclists and pedestrians to take advantage of alternate-route options for moving safely around the city—and eventually lead to an uptick in biking overall.

h/t StreetsBlog

Atlanta plans big for bikes, and Atlantans turn out big time

2014-10-17T18:13:00-04:00

The massive Beltline and an impressive grid of protected lanes that will connect the trail system to key urban destinations are poised to remake transportation in the city that anchors the country's ninth-largest metro area. [...] As the video above shows, Atlanta's embrace of active space is part of a psychic shift in a city that's shaking off its old Sprawlville USA image with a combination of bike, transit and affordable housing infrastructure.

Similar bike-friendly development is underway in the South's other notorious mega sprawl metro area, Houston: The Bayou Greenways Plan: A Game-Changer for Houston?

U.S. DOT to Publish Its Own Manual on Protected Bike Lanes

2014-09-23T19:20:00-04:00

Before the end of this year, the Federal Highway Administration will release its own guidance on designing protected bike lanes. The agency’s positions on bicycling infrastructure has matured in recent years. Until recently, U.S. DOT’s policy was simple adherence to outdated and stodgy manuals like AASHTO’s Green Book and FHWA’s own Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) — neither of which included protected bike lanes.

The Bayou Greenways Plan: A Game-Changer for Houston?

2014-07-28T14:27:00-04:00

Houston’s Bayou Greenways plan is perhaps the largest active transportation project in the country right now — if residents can actually use it for transportation when it’s completed. Jen Powis of the Houston Parks Board has described the greenway project as a cross between the Atlanta Beltline and the Portland Bike Master Plan, which “re-envisions transportation” in the city.

Shared Space and Slow Zones: Comparing Public Space in Paris and New York

2014-05-27T13:34:00-04:00

At a larger scale, the metropolitan regions of Paris and New York City both show significant pedestrian mode shares. New York City has a pedestrian mode share of 34% for all trips citywide ahead of car (33%) and transit (30%)[4] when the Ile-de-France region has a weekday pedestrian mode share of 32%, a car mode share of 43%, and a public transport one up to 21%[5]. [...] How do they support this large pedestrian population and decrease auto-dominance in public space?

The PeopleForBikes Green Lane Project celebrates national kick-off in Indianapolis

2014-04-29T18:19:00-04:00

The Green Lane Project, established in 2012 by non-profit group PeopleForBikes, continues its ambitious mission to expedite the process of building more protected bike lines with six new U.S. cities in tow: Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, and Seattle.

The program celebrated its national kickoff in Indianapolis today with transportation officials including U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, who discussed the Department's prioritization on improving bicycle and pedestrian safety as more Americans are looking for alternative methods of commuting.

Back in March, the program selected the six cities out of 100 that submitted letters of interest. In addressing each city's current situation, The Green Lane Project will provide each city with financial, strategic, and technical assistance in constructing the bike lanes, which are valued at more than $250,000. The on-street lanes are separated from traffic by curbs, planters, parked cars, or posts to help organize...

Bike Lanes Don’t Cause Traffic Jams If You’re Smart About Where You Build Them

2014-04-16T13:45:00-04:00

New bike lanes certainly make life better for cyclists, but how do they affect drivers? This question is hotly debated, especially when a new bike lane replaces a lane used by vehicular traffic. It seems that unless a ton of people start commuting by bicycle, giving away a lane would cause increased car traffic. But is this really the case?