News from the [complete, walkable] Street

Byrne, Bluemenauer and Sadik-Khan at Cities, Bicycles, and the Future of Getting Around event in Washington DC WashCycle summarizes remarks by the star studded panel at the December 8 event.   New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan’s called for a federal framework for urban street planning, saying local frameworks are too easily tied up in red tape and applauding Cities for Cycling.

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NACTO launches Cities for Cycling The National Association of City Transportation Officials’  Cities for Cycling initiative will catalog, promote and implement the world’s best bicycle transportation practices in American municipalities.  According to the press release:  Cycling is booming in cities across the nation. Based on the American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. census bureau, cycling as a share of transportation is up in major cities by as much as 72% from 2007-2008, with an average growth rate of over 30%…. From protected cycle-tracks to bike boxes and special traffic signals for bikes, Cities for Cycling seeks to share these best practices among leading cities and encourage State and Federal governments to adopt the new design treatments as standard practices, opening up funding and technical support opportunities and cutting red tape.

Mind the Gaps. Picture =1000 words. Connecting cul de sacs streets to form a grid is easy to visualize; a no brainer.  But can it happen in suburbia?   We hear the screaming already.  Maybe just easier to abandon dead houses on dead streets.  Sad.

New Urban News aggregates articles on Walkable Streets. Is it just our imagination, or was 2009 the year when Walkable Steets and the 20 minute neighborhoods became kitchen sink concepts?  And concepts that beg so many other questions: transportation policy, design standards, connecting the grid, the need for motorists,  razing freeways, multi-modality, shared streets, pedestrians and cyclists dealing with one another more intuitively.   Great stuff.

Complete streets fundamentals and policy guidance.  The National Complete Streets Coalition also has a bunch of basic tools for activists working with planners and city officials. There are FAQs, fact sheets on a whole slew of sub-issues, and  community workshops.

Walmart rejects idea of integrating store in walkable community.

Hurricane Katrina wrecked a WalMart in a Mississippi town, opening the way for new ideas about what WalMarts should look like.  Local architects presented three different plans, all with a full-size store and housing  above ground-level parking. Residents would have had views of the Gulf of Mexico and protection from hurricane-driven water. But Walmart reverted to a single-use building elevated six feet higher than the one ruined by Katrina with no on-site housing.

Byrne, Bloomberg, Moses and Videos from Chinatown

Location as Destiny? What is it about certain cities and places that fosters specific attitudes? .. To what extent does the infrastructure of cities shape the lives, work, and sensibilities of their inhabitants? Quite significantly, I suspect, writes David Byrne in his new Bicycle Diaries.  All this talk about bike lanes, ugly buildings, and density of population isn’t just about those things, it’s about what kinds of people those places turn us into… Do creative, social, and civic attitudes change depending on where we live? Yes, I think so. Check the excerpt for musings on what may account for developments in Hong Kong. After missing Byrne at the talking bike heads book shindig to  last week at the Baghdad, it was good to catch him being interviewed this morning by Jacki Lyden on Weekend Edition.

Making Parking Cool. Bike lane building Michael Bloomberg reaches out to the frustrated motorist trying to find a parking place.   In his opinion piece in the Daily News this week, the New York Mayor challenges app developers to make parking and parking revenue collection more efficient.   How would you like to use your mobile device to see a map of available parking spaces in your neighborhood – and also use it to pay your meter? Or how about getting a text message as your meter is about to expire, so you can get back to your car before getting a ticket?

Dead Freeway Reference Work Sarah Mirk’s discussion of  never built Portland area got the attention of a lot of folks, including us.  Now the Mercury journalist has located the study of Portland that Robert Moses did 66 years ago with all of its now very quaint-looking hand drawn map and gentle watercolors of what might have been.  Writing from the other Portland, blogger Christian McNeil provides a nice review .

Chinatown Past and Future. New talking pictures this week!   Brought to you by the Portland Development Commission and staring, among others, our own Stephen Ying, is Portland’s Old Town/Chinatown.  

And Ivy Lin,  the energetic chronicler of the neighborhood and creator of Pig Roast and Fish Tank, Ivy Lin has issued an invitation to her next premiere. Coming Together Home, the story of the Chinese interred (not interned, as the sub title suggests) at Lone Fir Cemetary screens at 7 pm October 11, 2009 at Someday Lounge.   See you there.

A trove of streetscape design manuals

An especially useful post Rethinking the Street Space: Toolkits and Street Design Manuals http://www.planetizen.com/node/40394 appears today on Planetizen.   Amber Hawkes Georgia Sheridan review a number of publications  from New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle.   Most are available free on line.

The common goals of all toolkits include the following, as defined here by the authors.

Livability and Placemaking: Making streets places to linger and places to cherish.

Access and Mobility: Improving the public right-of-way for all users.

Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety: Supporting design improvements such as raised crosswalks, bulbouts, bike lanes, and roundabouts that improve safety for pedestrians and bike riders.

Flexibility: Giving designers choice, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

Context: Designing streets based on their place within a hierarchy of streets and their relationship to surrounding land uses, densities, and commercial activities.

Balance: Maintaining several functions in the street that include safety, roadway infrastructure, environmental sensitivity, and others.

Healthy Environment: Minimizing negative environmental effects and creating places that encourage walking and exercise.

Visual Excellence: Improving the overall aesthetic with an emphasis on high quality, lasting design and materials.

Earlier posts by the authors in the three part series include Rethinking the Street Space: Why Street Design Matters http://www.planetizen.com/node/39815 and and Rethinking the Street Space: Evolving Life in the Streets http://www.planetizen.com/node/40066

An especially useful post entitled Rethinking the Street Space: Toolkits and Street Design Manuals appears today on Planetizen.   Amber Hawkes and Georgia Sheridan review a number of publications  from New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle.   Most are available free on line.

The common goals of all toolkits include the following, as defined here by the authors.

• Livability and Placemaking: Making streets places to linger and places to cherish.
• Access and Mobility: Improving the public right-of-way for all users.
• Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety: Supporting design improvements such as raised crosswalks, bulbouts, bike lanes, and roundabouts that improve safety for pedestrians and bike riders.
• Flexibility: Giving designers choice, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
• Context: Designing streets based on their place within a hierarchy of streets and their relationship to surrounding land uses, densities, and commercial activities.
• Balance: Maintaining several functions in the street that include safety, roadway infrastructure, environmental sensitivity, and others.
• Healthy Environment: Minimizing negative environmental effects and creating places that encourage walking and exercise.
• Visual Excellence: Improving the overall aesthetic with an emphasis on high quality, lasting design and materials.

Most of cities have created regulatory manuals in which street design methods and improvements are directly integrated into current zoning and regulation.   An exception is the Seattle manual where “street design methods and improvements are directly integrated into current zoning and regulation.”

Earlier posts by the authors of the three part series are Rethinking the Street Space: Why Street Design Matters and Rethinking the Street Space: Evolving Life in the Streets .

All appear to be profusely illustrated and written for citizen advocates as well as specialists.

Weekend extras

Does Guam lead restroom availability in the US?:    In this fairly comprehensive interview with Guan talk show host Travis Coffman, David King discusses restroom availability in the US and the work of the American Restroom Association.   Guam appears to be a hot bed of public restroom awareness.  Coffman also interviews Guam Parks chief Joe Duenas on toilet upgrades to meet the discriminating standards of Japanese tourists and Ray Gibson and Monty McDowell of Advance Management Inc whose public restroom cleaners will also provide tourist information.   The Guam press recently reported on the installation of the island’s 250th waterless urinal and the owner of a restaurant who offers free use of restrooms because it’s tourist friendly and good for business.

Recycling Plastic Bottles into Bikes.  Check out these stunning photos of the prize-winning work by a bunch of kids at Appalachain State.  Check out their progress from their first scrappy video to the portfolio of their new firm, 2one2 Design.  These guys rock!

Sotomayor on eminent domain.  Conservatives still reeling from a 2005 Supreme Courts  ruling in favor of eminent domain will have some hard questions for nominee Sonia Sotomayor.  Elana Schor’s well documented wonky piece appears both in Streetblog  and Greater Greater Washington

A sociolinguistic look at reports of car and motorcycle mishaps.    Have you noticed that reports of car accidents often refer to the car, rather than the driver, as the actor?   As for reports of motorcycle accidents, they usually refer the driver, rather than the vehicle.    Says blogger David Alpert,  No news story ever began saying, “A person was killed yesterday when he collided with a bullet moving at high speed in the opposite direction.” Yet that’s exactly how news stories about traffic “accidents” often begin.  For cars, that is.

Portland’s Daybreak co-housing seeks members  Shared balcony walkways, kids’ playroom, communal dining room, commercial kitchen.  The multi-generational Daybreak community  is looking for members . Visit st 2525 North Killingsworth St, Portland, on Saturday, June 6 from 1–4PM. 

 Book Review:  Streetblog reviews Jeff Mapes’ Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists are Changing American Cities.  

Tank Art:  Another reason besides gay marriage to go to Iowa.  

 

The Daybreak development is actively seeking members and will hold a public tour at the Daybreak site, at 2525 North Killingsworth Street, on Saturday, June 6 from 1–4PM. Other socials and tours will be held throughout the summer including on-site tours on July 5 and August 2.

“Idaho Stop” illustrated

For over 25 years, Idaho bicyclists have have been able to treat stop signs as yield signs.  Portlander Spencer Boomhower has put together a cool little animation entitled “Bicycles, Rolling Stops, and the Idaho Stop” that illustrates exactly how the Idaho Stop works and why it’s a great idea in many urban environments.