The Atlantic Cities:

“The Forgotten Urban Transportation Problem We Should Be Try to Fix

Eric Jaffe. May 22, 2013

In the grand scheme of urban mobility, it’s easy to lose track of commercial freight movement. Commuters are the primary source of traffic coming into and out of the city, and parking causes much of the street-to-street congestion within it. Fact is, says transport scholar Genevieve Giuliano of the University of Southern California, it’s so easy to forget about freight that metropolitan areas have done so for years — at their own peril.

“Any of us who live in cities and metropolitan areas are very dependent on urban freight, because that’s how all of the goods and services we purchase get here,” says Giuliano. “It’s fascinating to me that it’s never been a part of city planning.”

The consequence of this historical oversight is that handling cargo has become the “newest urban transportation problem,” according to Giuliano. While cities have been places of trade and exchange for as long as they’ve existed, planners have only recently begun to give freight its due consideration. Even the new wave of smart growth strategies — with its emphasis on reduced road capacity as well as mixed-use development — has created some unintended complications for commercial movement.”

Photo: Reuters

The Atlantic Cities: 

The Golden Age of Gondolas Might Be Just Around the Corner

Henry Grabar. April 9, 2013

Laugh all you want (or cower in fear), but cable-drawn aerial transportation just might be the next big thing.

To hear the evangelists tell it, the skyborne pods that have ferried skiers through the Alps for most of the last century are an integral part of the future of urban transport. Cheaper than terrestrial fixed guideway transit and quicker to build, the gondola is finally taking its rightful place in the urban landscape.

“Depending on how you measure it,” says Steven Dale of the Gondola Project, “it is the fastest growing transportation method in the world.”

Comparatively, that is. Until the last decade, the idea of relying largely on gondolas for mass transit was considered comical, if it was considered at all. Into the 1990s, Dale says, “there was no literature. There was nothing.”

Today, as gondola construction accelerates, Dale’s Gondola Project is probably the single most valuable database on the subject. And yet when the talk turns to gondolas, there are still two kinds of people in the world: those who think the gondola is the answer to a city’s short-range transportation needs, and those who can’t understand why everyone is talking about those tippy Venetian boats.”

Photo: Albeiro Lopero/Reuters

The Atlantic Cities:

The Case Against One-Way Streets

Eric Jaffe. Jan 31, 2013.

You might say that a number of cities are heading the other direction on one-way streets.Dallas, Denver, Sacramento, and Tampa are just some of the places that have converted one-ways into two-way streets in recent years. Any number of reasons are cited for the shift:

• Livability: vehicles stop less on one-way streets, which is hard for bikers and pedestrians.
• Navigation: one-way street networks are confusing for drivers, which leads to more vehicle-miles traveled; they also make it tough for bus riders to locate stops for a return trip.
• Safety: speeds tend to be higher on one-way streets, and some studies suggest drivers pay less attention on them because there’s no conflicting traffic flow.
• Economics: local businesses believe that two-way streets increase visibility.

One thing that’s not typically cited is traffic flow. Cities have long been home to one-way streets because transportation engineers believe they move cars better than two-way streets do. That’s largely the case because one-way streets eliminate tough left turns through oncoming traffic. Any way around conflicting lefts, on two-way streets, creates congestion: left-turn lanes take up space, and guarded signals take up time.

Vikash Gayah, a civil engineer at Penn State University, isn’t so sure about that conventional wisdom. In addition to the aforementioned reasons to convert one-way streets, Gayah believes congestion will improve as well. He makes his case in a recent paper published in theTransportation Research Record, and offers a popular summary in the transportation quarterlyAccess [PDF].*”

Photo: Shutterstock 

SF Examiner:

San Francisco lays out $200 million in bike projects in next 5 years

Will Reisman.  Jan 27, 2013

The City is proposing $200 million worth of changes to its cycling network in the next five years.

Building 12 new miles of bike lanes, upgrading 50 miles of existing paths and installing more than 20,000 new racks are all part of the plan.

Biking has increased by 71 percent since 2006, and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which manages cycling policies in The City, is hoping to build out its network to meet the demand.

At the board of directors’ annual workshop meeting Tuesday, the agency is expected to discuss potential scenarios for bicycling expansion.

As part of its five-year strategic plan, the agency proposes to upgrade 50 intersections to accommodate bicycles and deploy and maintain 2,750 bikes as part of a grab-and-go bike-sharing network.”

Photo: Anna Latino/ Special to the S.F. Examiner

The Atlantic Cities:

Why New York’s Sandy Commission Recommendations Matter

From a behavioral perspective, the hardest thing about adapting to the slow process of climate change is creating a sense of urgency. After a close call with Hurricane Irene a couple years back, and a horrible clash with Hurricane Sandy this past fall, New York is beginning to accept the fact that when it comes to weather patterns along its coasts, there’s a terrifying new normal.

Late last week, just two months after Sandy, a state commission released a massive, 200-plus page blueprint on ways to develop resilience in the face of tomorrow’s environment [PDF]. The NYS 2100 Commission — one of several formed by Governor Andrew Cuomo following Sandy — evaluated the state’s critical infrastructure systems and recommended a gradient of goals, from broad to specific, to reduce their vulnerability.

“There is no doubt that building resilience will require investment, but it will also reduce the economic damage and costs of responding to future storms and events, while improving the everyday operations of our critical systems,” write commission co-chairs Judith Rodin of the Rockefeller Foundation and Felix Rohatyn of Lazard in a foreword.

While the commission offered statewide suggestions, its emphasis fell naturally on the New York City metro area — especially coastal parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Long Island — where Sandy hit hardest.”

Photo: Reuters

“ GOOD: 

An Overlooked Survival Tool: The Bicycle

A. Martin Nov 3, 2012

Before Hurricane Sandy took out power, subways, buses, and some roads this week, New Yorkers stocked up on food, water, duct tape, flashlights, and batteries. After the storm, they stocked up on bicycles. An overlooked survival tool, the bike has become the only realistic mode of transportation for thousands of residents of the nation’s densest and most populous city. That shouldn’t come as a surprise.

From post-Sandy New York to rush-hour in Jakarta, the bicycle steps up where infrastructure falls short. It’s narrow enough to squeeze through traffic, efficient and fast enough to cover lots of ground, and simple enough that just about anyone can operate and maintain one. Consider this wise passage from the Zombie Survival Guide, about the value of the bicycle for survivors of the zombie apocalypse (which the CDC would like to remind you can work as an analogy for just about any disaster situation):

The common bicycle is fast, quiet, muscle-powered, and easy to maintain. Add to this the additional advantage that it is the only vehicle you can pick up and carry if the terrain gets rough. People using bicycles to escape from infested areas have almost always fared better than those on foot.

This week, many New Yorkers or were reminded of just how useful this oft-overlooked form of transportation can be. “I woke up on Wednesday with the feeling I had better be ready for a busy day, but nothing could have prepared me for how busy it was,” said Henry Carter, owner of Brooklyn’s 9th Street Bicycles, when we stopped in for a pair of gloves before riding through the chilly, November afternoon to Manhattan. “We’ve been totally cleared out,” he said, gesturing to an empty wall normally crowded with reflectors, pumps, and tires. A few blocks away at Bicycle Habitat, “we outsold our busiest summer Saturday” on Wednesday, manager Emily Samstag told CNBC.com.”

Photo: Image (cc) flickr user Celeste OP

“Is London Serious About Building a Network of Elevated Bike Lanes?

• HENRY GRABAR
• SEP 06, 2012

The bicycle infrastructure arms race has moved forward once again with the news that London is toying with the idea of elevated bike highways.

The project is the work of Sam Martin, of Exterior Architecture, who’s spent the last two years developing a concept for bike lanes truly separated from traffic. Martin doesn’t bike anymore for safety reasons. But he would get back on two wheels to ride the SkyCycle, his proposal for elevated bike lanes that’s already piqued the interest of London Mayor Boris Johnson.

“It came as all good ideas do,” Martin says, “walking to the pub.” London’s outer districts are threaded with overhead railways, erected during the Victorian era and still used daily by commuter trains. Passing under one such viaduct, a young colleague of Martin’s, Ollie Clark, mentioned to his boss an idea he had to use that infrastructure for something else — why not bike lanes, they reasoned. Two years after hammering out a concept, Martin and co. got the chance to pitch it to Johnson and affiliates of Network Rail, which owns the city’s overground rail infrastructure.

The meeting, he says, went well. “There’s a huge appetite and desire to make this happen, but it needs to be thoroughly tested and we need to identify potential sites.” Exterior Architecture is working now on assembling a more concrete proposal. Contrary to reports in the Daily Mail, Martin says, no location has been chosen. It would probably be somewhere in North London.

Made of steel and glass, the SkyCycle pathways would provide an above-ground path for long-distance bicycle commuters. Entrances and exits would be placed at regular intervals, perhaps at stations, and users would pay a swipe-in toll of one pound with their Oystercards. Because overhead rail links suburbs to the city and runs between London’s biggest stations, such a network could serve all types of commuters. With a corporate sponsor, SkyCycle could avoid dependence on public funding. Londoners are wary of the latter option, particularly with a project as fantastic as this one.

Johnson has said he’s interested, and has a record for realizing biking infrastructure. “The Mayor is committed to leading a cycling revolution in London,” a spokesman for the mayortold the Times of London. “The use of railway land or elevated cycleways to provide fast and direct cycling routes around the capital is an exciting idea that his team are looking into.”

Via: The Atlantic Cities

Image: Sam Martin/Exterior Architecture

“Better Block: Bottom-Up Urban Reboot In a Single Weekend

Julie Ma. August 23, 2012

It’s remarkable what some people can accomplish in a single weekend. While others spend those days catching up on lost sleep or exploring their city with friends, Texas-based nonprofit The Better Block uses that time to rally communities to rethink their neighborhoods. Since itsinception in 2010, the project has built temporary dog parks, pop-up shops, urban forests, cafes, and bike lanes. They’ve left their mark in more than 35 cities including Philadelphia, Wichita, Cleveland, Houston, and Oklahoma City.

The organization’s next stop: Detroit, where the city’s first-ever Better Block project will take place from September 22 to 23 as part of theDetroit Design Festival. Headed by volunteers from the US Green Building Council and Wayne State University, the project aims to reshape a location with plenty of vacant commercial space—New Center.

Better Block will fill the vacant lots with work from local artists and artisans, food and drinks, and art exhibits via collaborations with local galleries and art organizations. There will also be pop-up retail shops, music performances, outdoor games, yoga instruction, urban farming demonstrations, and general lounging. The project aims for zero net waste, a temporary bus route to access the site, plus bike lanes and crosswalks painted around the block for the occasion. 

Better Block wants to jumpstart local policy shifts. “We want to change the planning process in the United States,” says organizer Andrew Howard. “It can be frustrating when things are taking too long, and our idea is that we don’t have to wait for the perfect city. It starts from the bottom up.”

The Better Block gives neighborhoods a temporary community-focused facelift, and can give struggling areas a glimpse into their futures. The organization provides training to community members interested in revitalizing their blocks by increasing multi-modal transportation and fostering economic development. Post-project, the communities work with The Better Block to see what was successful and take the steps necessary to turn these temporary solutions into permanent fixtures. In some cities, weekend pop-up shops have even turned into lasting storefronts. “

Via: GOOD Magazine

Photo: Better Blocks

“Tunneling Below Second Avenue

By KIM TINGLEY. Aug 1 2012

Unlike ants, moles, gophers and skinks, humans aren’t instinctively tunneling creatures. When we go underground, we are partly admitting that we’ve made a mess on the surface and partly showing off.

In Manhattan, where street traffic tends to stall, only one subway runs the length of the East Side. Every weekday, 1.3 million passengers — more than are carried in 24 hours by the transit systems of Boston, Chicago and San Francisco combined — cram onto the Lexington Avenue line. Yet the chaos above and below has inspired afeat: about 475 laborers are now removing 15 million cubic feet of rock and 6 million cubic feet of soil — more than half an Empire State Building by volume — out from under two miles of metropolis. In December 2016, that tunnel will make its debut as a portion of the Second Avenue subway — the great failed track New York City has been postponing, restarting, debating, financing, definancing and otherwise meaning to get in the ground since 1929.

This past spring, between 69th Street and 72nd Street on Second Avenue, cages descended every eight hours, five days a week, lowering roughly 50 men in neon vests and hard hats into a deep hole. Overhead, fluorescent bulbs provided a noonish light and yellow ventilation tubes undulated. A cool, roaring wind filled the void and carried the intense aroma of Emulex explosives, an ammonia like, Fourth of July smell. Men with tripods surveyed; men with blowtorches welded; men guiding hoses poured concrete (men outnumber women 100 to 1). They took brief lunch breaks and relieved themselves hastily where and when they could.

The hurry actually began more than 80 years ago, when city leaders first proposed constructing a new subway parallel to the Lexington line to serve the developing East Side. It would run from 125th Street south to Houston and cost $86 million. Then came the Great Depression. Then World War II. Then existing subways needed repairs. In the early ’70s, short sections of the Second Avenue tunnel were burrowed at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge, between 99th Street and 105th and between 110th and 120th, before the city’s looming bankruptcy in 1975 halted all digging. The dream of a Second Avenue subway lay dormant until April 12, 2007, when contractors for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority again broke ground — to extend the Q line from 63rd and Lexington over to Second Avenue and up to 96th Street. That alone costs $4.5 billion. Eventually they will lengthen the Q to 125th and dig a new line, the T, from the Financial District straight up Second Avenue to 125th Street. At least that’s the plan.

One evening in March, Amitabha Mukherjee, an engineering manager at Parsons Brinckerhoff, the firm supervising construction at Second Avenue, led a small group through a tunnel headed from 69th Street toward 63rd. The tunnel was dark, but there was, in fact, a light burning at the end. Where the rock was naturally fractured, groundwater squeezed in, darkening the walls with Rorschach figures: here a stegosaurus, there a lady in a gown.

“Geology defines the way you drive the tunnel,” Mukherjee said. The bedrock below Second Avenue and for much of the rest of Manhattan is schist — a hard, gray black rock shot through with sheets of glittery mica. Some 500 million years ago, Manhattan was a continental coastline that collided with a group of volcanic islands known as the Taconic arc. That crash crumpled layers of mud, sand and lava into schist, lending it an inconsistent structure and complicating tunneling: in some places, the schist holds firmly together, creating self-supporting arches; in others, it’s broken and prone to shattering, forcing workers to reinforce the tunnel as they go to keep it from falling.”

Via: The NY Times

Photo: Richard Barnes for The New York Times

“Commuters Pedal to Work on Their Very Own Superhighway

COPENHAGEN — Picture 11 miles of smoothly paved bike path meandering through the countryside. Largely uninterrupted by roads or intersections, it passes fields, backyards, chirping birds, a lake, some ducks and, at every mile, an air pumpFor some Danes, this is the morning commute.

Susan Nielsen, a 59-year-old schoolteacher, was one of a handful of people taking advantage of Denmark’s first “superhighway” for bicycles on a recent morning, about halfway between Copenhagen and Albertslund, a suburb, which is the highway’s endpoint. “I’m very glad because of the better pavement,” said Ms. Nielsen, who wore a rain jacket and carried a pair of pants in a backpack to put on after her 40-minute commute.

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.

“We are very good, but we want to be better,” said Brian Hansen, the head of Copenhagen’s traffic planning section.

He and his team saw potential in suburban commuters, most of whom use cars or public transportation to reach the city. “A typical cyclist uses the bicycle within five kilometers,” or about three miles, said Mr. Hansen, whose office keeps a coat rack of ponchos that bicycling employees can borrow in case of rain. “We thought: How do we get people to take longer bicycle rides?”

They decided to make cycle paths look more like automobile freeways. While there is a good existing network of bicycle pathways around Copenhagen, standards across municipalities can be inconsistent, with some stretches having inadequate pavement, lighting or winter maintenance, as well as unsafe intersections and gaps.

“It doesn’t work if you have a good route, then a section in the middle is covered in snow,” said Lise Borgstrom Henriksen, spokeswoman for the cycle superhighway secretariat. “People won’t ride to work then.”

For the superhighway project, Copenhagen and 21 local governments teamed up to ensure that there were contiguous, standardized bike routes into the capital across distances of up to 14 miles. “We want people to perceive these routes as a serious alternative,” Mr. Hansen said, “like taking the bus, car or train.”

The plan has received widespread support in a country whose left- and right-leaning lawmakers both regularly bike to work (albeit on slightly different models of bicycle).”

Via: NYTimes

Photos: Jan Grarup for The New York Times