Archinect - News

Jan Gehl has his doubts about 'Smart Cities'

2018-05-07T14:52:00-04:00

I think we haven’t thought through the challenge of technology for city mobility. We are stuck with some 120-year-old ideas that the industry is desperately holding on to. I tell students: Whenever you hear the word “smart,” beware, because that is somebody who wants to sell as many millions as possible of some new gimmick. And he is not necessarily giving you a better quality of life.

Annette Becker and Lessano Negussie, curators of the new exhibition RIDE A BIKE! Reclaim the City at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) in Frankfurt, Germany, interviewed the 81-year-old 'people-friendly city' evangelist for the show's accompanying book.

News cycle: August's noteworthy bicycle news

2015-08-19T14:59:00-04:00

Germany might still be a car-obsessed country, but it's starting to build an Autobahn for bikes.

From the U.S. to Germany, urban planners and major corporations are starting to purposefully design for bicycles instead of individually operated cars. In Munich, a proposed network of two-lane bike paths would radiate out from the city center to the surrounding suburbs, creating 400 miles of cyclist-only access. Meanwhile, according to WebUrbanist, international fast-food chain McDonald's has created an unfolding bicycle-oriented food transport container known as "McBike," which allows a bicyclist to visit the drive-through lane and comfortably transport a beverage and hot food home. The program was launched in Copenhagen, and may soon make its way to a Mickey Dee's near you.

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 Tops List of the 20 Most Bike-Friendly Cities

2015-06-02T18:19:00-04:00

The bicycle makes sense in cities. With rising urbanization, our cities need modern mobility solutions, and moving around on two wheels proves time and again that it can offer results [...] With each edition, the Copenhagenize Design Company’s Index of the most bike-friendly cities in the world evolves...This year, we considered cities with a regional population over 600,000 (with a few exceptions because of their political and regional importance, and to keep things interesting).

Copenhagenize is a design consultancy based in Copenhagen, Zurich, Brussels and Amsterdam that advises cities on how to become more bike-friendly, often through implementing strategies developed in the Danish capital (which consistently tops the list). These strategies are both infrastructural, for example creating dedicated and protected one-way bike lanes, as well as social, involving advocacy to increase social acceptance of bicycle culture.

This year, Copenhagen regained the top place from Amsterdam:

Copenhagen
Amsterdam
Utrecht
Strasbourg
Eindhoven
Malmö
Nantes
Bordeaux
Antwerp
Seville
Barcelona
Berlin
Ljubljana
Buenos Aires
Dublin
Vienna
Paris
Minneapolis
Hamburg
Montreal