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Earlier this week, the City of New York released a request for proposals (RFP) to redesign a portion of Park Avenue, between East 46th Street and East 57th Street, by adding greenery, public seating, concessions, and safer crossings for pedestrians. This section of Park Avenue sits atop the... View full entry
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. — Gothamist
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... View full entry
Once it opens, construction will start on public playing fields, gathering areas, green spaces and a dog park at the foot of the bridge on the Boyle Heights side, and a performance stage and green spaces on the Arts District side. And cyclists can gear up for the fall unveiling of a 10-foot-wide bicycle lane going both directions on the bridge, which they can access from the bike lane at the river via a steep spiraling ramp. It is a ride that will take some energy. — KCRW Los Angeles
LA architect Michael Maltzan spoke about his desire for the reborn cinematic landmark to be received as a public space that is suis generis within the available Downtown and Boyle Heights vistas, which are mostly blocked by hilly areas and typified by a lack of public space. “The bridge is... View full entry
The Brooklyn Bridge finally caught up with the COVID-19-era rise in cycling last year after the city opened a dedicated bike path on the iconic span’s roadway.
It was one of the signature initiatives in the final year of the Mayor Bill de Blasio administration, and advocates lauded the addition, which was also the first reconfiguration of the bridge since old trolley tracks were permanently removed in 1950.
— amNewYork
Bicycle traffic on the bridge increased by more than a quarter from 2020 to last year. The jump is indicative of an overall city-wide trend, which has seen New Yorkers’ biking habits increase at a rate of 33%. The numbers likely correlate to the pandemic-era decrease in subway ridership caused... View full entry
A new report released by New York City-based, non-profit advocacy group Transportation Alternatives reveals the deficiencies of Mayor Bill de Blasio's Open Streets program, an initiative formed in the wake of the pandemic to create safe, socially distanced outdoor space for New Yorkers. Less than... View full entry
A new study published in Accident Analysis & Prevention shows how biometric data can be used to find potentially challenging and dangerous areas of urban infrastructure before a crash occurs. Lead author Megan Ryerson led a team of researchers in the Stuart Weitzman School of Design and the School of Engineering and Applied Science in collecting and analyzing eye-tracking data from cyclists navigating Philadelphia’s streets. — Penn Today
As explained in a piece by Penn Today, current federal rules for making safe transportation interventions require the notation of crashes. This reactive approach relies on previous human cost before new considerations are made. Seeking to minimize harmful events altogether, Ryerson and her team... View full entry
A new mixed-use high-rise development designed by Olson Kundig is currently under construction along Atlanta’s BeltLine. Led by developer New City, LLC, 760 Ralph McGill Boulevard is a 1.1 million-square-foot project that includes office space and street-level retail organized around a central... View full entry
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced the “Open Boulevards” program, a new initiative to enhance and expand ten multi-block corridors to create more open space throughout the city. The plan builds off of last year’s “Open Streets: Restaurants” program, which transformed miles... View full entry
Private car travel will decline in the world's largest cities by 10% over the next decade, according to a study from research consultancy firm Kantar, revealed this week at the UN-Habitat World Urban Forum.
Based on the survey, Kantar predicts greener means of transport will represent nearly half (50%) of all trips taken in cities in 2030, with cycling to increase globally by 18%, walking to increase by 15% and public transit use to increase by 6%.
— Smart Cities Dive
According to Smart Cities Dive, the UN-Habitat World Urban Forum surveyed 20,000 city dwellers across 31 cities to better understand how their preferred methods of travel might change over the next decade. The10 cities that will see the biggest change in green transport are Manchester... View full entry
No disciples of Le Corbusier, Harvey Corbett, Robert Moses or Norman Bel Geddes have been to Velotopia. That means there are no highways and no racks of car-parking stations. Neither have any disciples of Ebenezer Howard been there to suggest that development be clustered around satellite towns with train connections back to the core. — The Guardian
Steven Fleming (previously featured in our Working Out of the Box series), founder of the Dutch bike-centric planning consultancy Cycle Space, recently published a new book that lays out an utopian city built around bicycles as the main form of transportation. In Velotopia people enjoy their... View full entry
...Given all the harm we know air pollution can cause, does cycling actually help, or could it hurt? After all, I’m not breathing in the foul fumes of a truck when I’m sitting inside an air-conditioned train. I’m certainly not breathing them in deeply, as I would while huffing and puffing on my cycle.
Air pollution kills more than 5 million people every year, yet there has been no analysis of the costs versus benefits of city cycling. Until now.
— Quartz
Long story short: keep biking. Researchers found that, in almost every city around the world, the health benefits of biking "far exceed" the damage than can be caused by breathing in dirty air. Even in the worst polluted cities in the world, you have to ride at least 60 minutes a... View full entry
Stephen Lund considers the Canadian city of Victoria his canvas and a bicycle his brush. And the paint? Strava, a GPS tracking system which marks his routes with crimson lines.
So far, he has pedaled around in the shapes of critters such as an angler fish, giraffe, giant anteater, and nine-banded armadillo; mythical and interplanetary creatures such as the Siren of the Salish Sea, the Sea Serpent of Haro Strait, and the Dark Lord of the Sith.
— atlasobscura.com
Take a look at some of Lund's intricate "GPS Doodles," also known as "Strava art:"Head over to Stephen Lund's blog gpsdoodles.com to find way more of this goodness and watch him explain his approach in the video from the recent TEDxVictoria below.Related stories in the Archinect news:Cut away... View full entry
Minneapolis, despite its frigid winters, has surged to the top of national rankings for urban biking and was the only U.S. city included last year on a global index of bike-friendly communities. Since 2000, the percentage of bike commuters here has jumped 170 percent [...]
Minneapolis' bike-friendly reputation advanced on the saddle of key elected officials, grassroots advocates and critical investments that over the past decade helped transform it into a mecca for biking.
— The Des Moines Register
Related news from the cycling beat:Germany opens first stretch of new cycling superhighwayPoor street design makes California city liable for damages in cyclist's deathCar-free events significantly improve air qualityJakarta's "car-free days" are only the start of the city's long journey to... View full entry
The newly opened portion is just 5km (3 miles)— but the completed highway is set to span over 100km and will connect 10 cities and four universities .... Almost two million people will live less than a mile from the new cycling autobahn [...]
the bicycle highway will be 13-feet wide—or almost double the width of normal cycle paths—and have no crossroads or traffic lights. [...]
it’ll also be greener. RVR estimates that the route will take 50,000 cars off the roads every day.
— qz.com
More on cycling infrastructure:As bicycle ownership in North Korea rises, Pyongyang introduces bike lanesBoris Johnson greenlights London's "Crossrail" bicycle superhighwayGensler proposes "Underline" bike paths in London's abandoned tube tunnelsAtlanta plans big for bikes, and Atlantans turn out... View full entry
Dr. Gerald Brett Weiss ... was killed when he was hit from behind while riding his bicycle in the community of Indian Wells, CA. [...]
his family won a $5.8 million judgment against Indian Wells, claiming that the city was negligent in not providing sufficient width for bike lanes or lighting [...]
California is one of thirteen states that follows the Pure Comparative Fault Rule, meaning that even if the city is only partially at fault—even only one percent—the plaintiff can recover damages.
— ssti.us
Weiss was hit from behind by an allegedly drunk driver in June of 2012, on a road that, previous to a redesign in 2005, had been marked as a bike route and had bike lanes.More news on cycling design and safety:Senator proposes mandatory helmets for California cyclistsProtected bike lanes... View full entry
