Archinect - News

Designer creates camouflaged rectilinear motorcycle that blends into the urban landscape

2020-07-31T15:36:00-04:00

Designer Joey Ruiter has recently created a new piece of urban architecture. Or at least, on the surface, it appears that way. The urban artwork sits as a canvas for graffiti, but, with the push of a button, the metallic cubic geometry lifts off of the ground, flips out a seat, and unveils a set of handlebars, transforming into a fully-functional motorcycle. "I wanted to create a piece that is museum-worthy that’s completely unnoticeable and so familiar, you’re just going to walk past it," Ruiter said about the piece on his website. Moreover, Ruiter said that he and his J.RUITER studio is all about "trying to push design to the point of not being there."

How the data collected by dockless bikes can be useful for cities (and hackers)

2018-10-05T14:37:00-04:00

In the 18 months or so since dockless bike-share arrived in the US, the service has spread to at least 88 American cities. (On the provider side, at least 10 companies have jumped into the business; Lime is one of the largest.) Some of those cities now have more than a year of data related to the programs, and they’ve started gleaning insights and catering to the increased number of cyclists on their streets.

Technology Review writer Elizabeth Woyke looks at ways how city planners in Seattle, WA and South Bend, IN use the immense stream of user-generated location data from dockless-bike-sharing programs to improve urban mobility — and how hackers could potentially access and abuse this (supposedly anonymous) information. "In theory, the fact that people can park dockless bikes outside their exact destinations could make it easier for someone who hacked into the data to decode the anonymous identities that companies assign their users," Woyke writes.

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.

Chicago to offer $5-per-year bike shares to low-income residents

2015-07-07T19:08:00-04:00

“In two years Divvy has grown to more neighborhoods and become a transit option for more residents, but cost was still a barrier for too many people,” said Mayor Emanuel. “Divvy only works when everyone has a chance to use it. Today we are bridging gaps by offering $5 annual memberships so more residents can benefit from Divvy, regardless of their ability to pay.”

Chicago's Divvy ride-share program is one of the most popular in the country. In its two-year history, a reported 9.25 million miles have been logged on more than 4.4 million trips. This Fourth of July alone, 24,500 trips were taken on the pale blue bikes.

Earlier this year, the City of Chicago announced that it would greatly expand the reach of the program, adding 176 stations and more than 1,750 bikes. This makes Divvy North America's largest bike-share program, both in terms of the amount of stations and its geographic reach. While other bike-share programs, like New York's Citi Bike, remain largely relegated to more affluent areas, the Divvy bikes can be found "as far south as 75th Street and as far west as Pulaski Road."

Today, Mayor Rahm Emmanuel announced that the city would offer $5/year memberships to the city's low-income residents. Specifically, the 'Divvy for Everyone (D4e) Program' will be made available to "Chicago residents with incomes below 300 percent of the federal ...

Copenhagen could ax its pioneering city bike program by month's end

2015-04-17T19:20:00-04:00

In 2013, Copenhagen—a city of ebullient cyclists—launched the mother of all city bike schemes. Its white bikes were fitted with motors and GPS-enabled tablets—expensive, but designed for a place whose people and visitors truly believed cycling was the best way forward. Now the city that pioneered its first shared bikes in 1995 is facing a stark possibility: no bike share scheme at all.

Senator proposes mandatory helmets for California cyclists

2015-02-13T12:56:00-05:00

Sen. Carol Liu on Wednesday announced a bill, SB 192, that will require bicycle riders to wear helmets or face a $25 fine. “Any responsible bicycle rider should wear a helmet,” Liu said ... “This law will help protect more people and make sure all riders benefit from the head protection that a helmet provides.”

California law currently requires anyone under 18 to wear a helmet when riding a bike, nonmotorized scooter, skateboard, or wearing in-line or roller skates. Liu's SB 192 bill would extend this provision to everyone, not just minors, and also require cyclists to wear reflective clothing at night – requirements that no other state has adopted.

It might seem like wearing a helmet is the first-move for safe cycling, but Dan Snyder, head of the California Bicycle Coalition, disagrees: as quoted in the Sacramento Bee, “We know that the most important thing to protect people who ride bikes is to get more people out there riding bikes. Forcing people to wear crash helmets when they ride is counter productive to that goal.” This is the same reasoning behind ”Critical Mass": organized cycling tours that flood city streets with so many cyclists as to force car traffic into submission. Safety, for cyclists, is in numbers.

In countries with a hefty number of cyclists, where infrastructural adapta...

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.

MIT's MindRider helmet draws mental maps as you bike

2014-08-29T14:55:00-04:00

Originally developed at MIT, MindRider is a new helmet that shows, in real time, how your rides, movement, and location engage your mind. The MindRider app maps and tracks your engagement, and allows you to share your maps with others. These maps provide quantified insight that empower you to maximize your riding experience, and they are a great resource for riding communities and street advocacy.

Unlike many other biometric monitoring devices, the MindRider helmet isn't just about recording your physical activities; it's about harvesting data from normal routines to better inform public policy. The MindRider "reads" electrical activity between the brain's neurons, but the technology isn't invasive enough to determine anything beyond where on the route you're concentrating ("Hotspots") or coasting ("Sweetspots"). For an individual rider, boiling down the data into these two categories simplifies the ride experience, but with enough participants, the service can paint the cycling personality of an entire city, and provide a highly personal way to publicly engage with cycling. Maybe it can even make drivers empathize with stressed out cyclists.

While the actual helmet isn't commercially available quite yet, MindRider recently reached its Kickstarter goal to create "The MindRider Guide to New York City", a map and guidebook to the city's mental cycling infrastructure. Whether tha...

Why Portland Is Building a Multi-Modal Bridge That Bans Cars

2014-08-20T14:44:00-04:00

Tilikum Crossing is the nation's first multi-modal bridge that will be off-limits to private automobiles. It will carry MAX light rail trains (the impetus for construction) as well as Portland's streetcar line and city buses, and of course pedestrian and bike lanes on both sides—but no cars. [...] "Transit has a huge impact on urban planning. I mean, if you look at our city, it was designed around streetcars. On some level, it has to be part of their DNA."

Why a bike city? Why not a mix of biking and transit?

2014-08-14T14:20:00-04:00

I see nothing wrong with replacing the hegemony of cars with the hegemony I am proposing, of bikes. Those who need buses would be no worse off than they are now. But a problem would come if a city like Amsterdam had a bike modal share of 90 percent, as could achieved if end-of-trip strategies were built into all buildings to eliminate the problem of bike theft, and if shelter removed the inequity of cycling being the one mode remaining where people get wet.

Rise in cycling expands NYC's real estate market

2014-05-29T13:07:00-04:00

As the search for more affordable real estate in New York City pushes deeper into neighborhoods that were once considered out of the way, bicycle lanes are taking on new importance. Since 2007, the city has carved out more than 350 miles of bike lanes in the five boroughs, according to the Department of Transportation. As a result, the distance from the nearest subway or bus stop has become less of a drawback for the two-wheeled set, particularly in transit-challenged areas of Brooklyn.

Biking to work in the U.S. has increased 60% over last decade

2014-05-14T13:14:00-04:00

Many U.S. cities are seeing an increase in bicycle commuters, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released today. Nationwide, the number of people who traveled to work by bike increased roughly 60 percent over the last decade, from about 488,000 in 2000 to about 786,000 during the 2008-2012 period. This is the largest percentage increase of all commuting modes tracked by the 2000 Census and the 2008-2012 American Community Survey.

If you're feeling wonky, you can read the full U.S. Census Bureau report here. It's the Census Bureau's first report to focus entirely on biking and walking to work, with statistics since 1990.

You can also explore commuting statistics for every U.S. neighborhood in the Bureau's Census Explorer, an interactive map that breaks down commuting by commuter age, census tract, type of transportation, and total time.

Protected bike lanes strengthen city economy, report finds

2014-01-22T13:07:00-05:00

According to a recent report from PeopleForBikes and Alliance for Biking & Walking, protected city bike lanes can actually encourage local business success. As trends show workers moving into U.S. cities (rather than out into suburbs), and businesses catering to a younger workforce that relies less on cars, cycling infrastructure has becomes integral to strengthening local businesses and encouraging long-term economic growth for the entire city.

A lot of what delays cycling infrastructure is the presumption that it only benefits cyclists. It can be hard to justify to citizens who don't cycle that bike lanes and bike-share programs will benefit the city at large, and not just the "cyclist" demographic. But cities have begun to take notice of the positive change that cycling infrastructure can help bring to their local businesses, in very concrete ways.

The report focuses on statistics from cities with expanding networks of protected bike lanes: Austin, TX; San Francisco, CA;...

Portland's "Bikescraper" breaks bike-parking record

2014-01-15T15:25:00-05:00

The 21-story, three-building apartment project now rising in Portland's Lloyd District will create more long-term bike parking than any other project in the nation, with four huge new storage facilities in four buildings and an on-site bike valet parking service to serve the biggest one. [...] Bike experts in Canada, Mexico and across the United States said they didn't know of any single project on the continent with more bike parking; Mexico's largest facility, at a train station, holds 800.

Portland, Oregon's new apartment complex by GBD Architects instates a new standard in bicycle infrastructure and planning, offering one bike parking spot each for its 657 housing units, plus underground parking space for as many as 547 bikes. That's 1,204 bike spots total, a number that assumes the average household will need to park 1.8 bikes. There will be 328 residential car parking spaces, squeaking by at roughly half a spot per household.

Known as Hassalo on Eighth (the four-block complex sits northeast of the corner of 7th and Holladay), the apartments fall in Portland's Inner East neighborhood, on the border of the city's center. Previously dominated by stretches of parking lots, the area could become a more active, walkable and dense neighborhood under GBD's plan. The building itself is not radically asserting the needs of "cyclists" -- a slippery and short-sighted demographic label that casts bicycle infrastructure as a radical objective of niche groups, and not just... a g...

Now try to imagine a purpose-built city for bikes

2013-11-27T19:30:00-05:00

My big vision is for urban districts developed on a bicycle mobility platform. What does that mean? Well consider: Venice was built around boating; Singapore has been built around transit and driving; LA has been built around driving, and the "bike city" of Groningen NL, was built around walking and horses. My work is in imagining new layers of cities, built by redeveloping brownfields and connecting them up, with unique forms, because they respond to the unique attributes of bicycle motion.

For more about Steven Fleming read Working out of the Box: Steven Fleming

Copenhagenize your bike with MIT's Copenhagen Wheel

2013-10-22T13:56:00-04:00

Superpedestrian, a start-up in Boston, announced on Monday that it has received $2.1 million in financing to help build a wheel that transforms some standard bicycles into hybrid e-bikes. The product, the Copenhagen Wheel, is a design from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology SENSEable City Laboratory. The original goal of the wheel was to entice more people to more bicycles in large cities in lieu of cars by giving them help from a motor.

Initially presented at the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change in 2009, SENSEeable City Lab's Copenhagen Wheel will soon be produced through Boston start-up Superpedestrian. Rather than buying a whole new bike or installing a cumbersome motor, the Copenhagen Wheel can be adapted onto most regular bikes, and will be comparable in price to most e-bikes. The wheel can be synced with the rider's iPhone to collect transit data, both for the benefit of the rider keeping tabs on exercise and commute regimens, and for the benefit of the city -- riders can choose to anonymously share data with their local government, aiding the improvement of cycling infrastructure and traffic management.

In Denmark, Pedaling to Work on a Superhighway

2012-07-19T15:00:00-04:00

The cycle superhighway, which opened in April, is the first of 26 routes scheduled to be built to encourage more people to commute to and from Copenhagen by bicycle. More bike path than the Interstate its name suggests, it is the brainchild of city planners who were looking for ways to increase bicycle use in a place where half of the residents already bike to work or to school every day.

Winning Entry of Bike Path Design Contest in Caracas, Venezuela

2012-07-03T14:33:00-04:00

The proposal for a bike path system for Venezuela's capitol Caracas, designed by architects Andrea Hernández and Cruz Criollo, has won the first prize in the competition Metropolitan Transportation System, Caracas to Pedal. The best and most innovative proposals of this competition, which seeks to promote cycling in the city, were recently awarded by the Metropolitan Mayor of Caracas.

Bike Pavilion by NL Architects

2012-05-16T17:56:00-04:00

NL Architects has sent us images of their recent project: a pretty rad mash-up pavilion for a bicycle club in the Hainan Province in southern China. The proposal is part of a big resort for developer VANKEN, and NL Architects told us that they've just received green light from the client! Looks like this will actually get build soon.

A New Cycling Superhighway. Not in the U.S.A.

2012-01-17T19:00:00-05:00

The proposed bicycle superhighway would, in addition to four lanes (2 in each direction) have exits but no intersections, two types of wind protection (low bushes as well as solid fencing) periodic bicycle service stations, and would take eight years to complete. Total cost of the superhighway is estimated to be about 50 million Swedish crowns (US$ 7.1 million).

Holcim Award-Winning Project Advocates Bicycle Commuting in Beijing

2011-12-21T13:05:19-05:00

Just last week, we published the outstanding winners of the 2011 Regional Holcim Awards for the Asia Pacific Region [...]. Taking the top prize in the program's “Next Generation” category was MIT student August Liau for a project to increase bicycle commuting in Beijing, China. The project advocates pedal power as a dynamic alternative for urban transit and recalls its well-proven potential in the world’s former cycling capital.

Bike Pasture Funded!

2011-11-15T13:30:00-05:00

Emily Lowery enrolled in an architecture course last May hoping to learn about different architecture and landscape design solutions. She walked out as part of a team of students who would design the University of Minnesota’s first ever ecologically friendly bike pasture –– a combination of bike parking, social space and a garden.

Making higher-ed more sustainable (and social) one project at time, the Bike Pasture Project was conceived and planned entirely by students in the College of Design at the University of Minnesota as a real life design-build project. Now it's one step closer to being built, thanks to $15k in funding.

VELONIGHT hits NYC!

2011-09-29T20:17:22-04:00

An unprecedented architectural public education event is going to take place in New York. After Rome, Moscow, Terni, and St. Petersburg, VELONIGHT, the unique project by professor Sergey Nikitin, founding director of Moskultprog, is inviting to explore the postwar cultural and architectural history of New York City on bicycles in the night between October 1 and 2.

Architects and cultural historians, including Rem Koolhaas, Guy Nordenson, Jean-Louis Cohen, Peter Eisenman, Ken Jackson, Tony Fletcher and others, will narrate the moonlight bike tour that will take participants from the Guggenheim Museum to Downtown Manhattan, riding past icons (and failures) of New York's architecture, urban policy and social/cultural life, culminating with a picnic at dawn on Pier 1 of the Brooklyn Bridge Park.

The VELONIGHT NYC event is free of charge. To register, please go here.

Interview: Bikes, architecture, and "Cycle Space" with Steven Fleming

2011-05-26T15:10:49-04:00

The reason I'm here and in this gallery is because bicycles in this city are being custom built and designed with love and skill and intelligence in a way that architects design buildings for people when they really get things right. Portland is a beacon to so many other cities. It's easy for people to dismiss Holland or Denmark, but not Portland.

Bankside BikeShed Competition: Winner Announced

2011-03-26T16:12:58-04:00

The Architecture Foundation, on behalf of London's Better Bankside initiative, just announced the winner of a competition to design a modular, portable, secure cycle parking solution to serve the Bankside area of London.