Have you given to Streetfilms' spring pledge drive yet? If not, may I suggest that this is the week to do so. In addition to supporting livable streets journalism and putting yourself in the running to win a Dahon folding bike, you could take home a sweet collection of books and zines courtesy of eminent bike-ologist Elly Blue. [...]
Want one of the best pieces of advice on marketing your film? Here it is in a nutshell: you can make the best or worst film in the world, but the only way you'll ever get someone to press play is if the thumbnail (the "preview frame") you are using is representative, exciting, and thoughtful. [...]
It might sound a little unbelievable, but you can get pretty good quality voiceovers for your projects using a simple smart phone. For our latest series Streetfacts we decided to go a little bit more low-tech: rather than using a microphone to record directly into the computer or renting out a studio and spending a [...]
While on a shoot in Indianapolis to document the grand opening of the Cultural Rail Trail (look for a great Streetfilm on it shortly), Jaimson Hutchins, the Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator for the city was leading a group ride showing off its bike amenities to some of the group gathered there from National Association of [...]
Friends, as you may know our major funder for Streetfilms, Mark Gorton, has a wonderful touring presentation called "Rethinking the Automobile" which he's been delivering at many gatherings throughout the country. Recently he was in Portland, Oregon at the Active Transportation Summit a few weeks ago. Dan Kaufman of PDXK Productions (and CrankMyChainCycle TV!)captured the [...]
Think of this Streetfacts chapter as a PSA about how, in just a few generations, we have tightly restricted American kids' freedom to roam, play, and become self-sufficient. The percentage of children walking and bicycling to school has plummeted from almost 50 percent in 1969 to about 13 percent today. Although distance from school is often cited [...]
Spring has arrived! And along with it an explosion of livable streets activity. Every time I ride my bike, or relax in a public plaza, or walk down a nice wide street where I can stop and say hello to my neighbors, I think how lucky I am to live in a place with growing [...]
It's likely most of our readers haven't heard of Regions Bank or at least haven't seen some of their trademark television spots featuring their distinctive lime green bicycles (Regions refers to them as "life green"). That's probably because most of their branches are in the Southeast U.S, so they likely advertise locally instead of purchasing [...]
The majority of the roads and highways built in America are simply bad investments. Continuing this pattern will only ensure that wasteful projects consume larger chunks of our federal, state, and local budgets, without addressing the real need for transportation options. This Streetfacts chapter has a bit more math than usual, but we think we've [...]
A few years ago, it was pretty big news when on-street bike parking or a bike oasis was installed in any city. Today, though it is always welcome news, it hardly merits a report. However, on New York City's 9th Avenue protected bike lane (which back in the day was NYC's first) three bike oasises [...]
Streetfilms Shortie - Fantastic Art in the Public Realm (Chicago, Milwaukee, NYC) from Streetfilms on Vimeo. Here's a quick Streetfilms shortie I just thew together that I shot with a point & shoot on vacation in Chicago and Milwaukee. I hope you enjoy, with these shorts you never know whether a couple dozen people or [...]
Major World in Queens is at it again. This time they're using a portable billboard to broadcast the message that bicycling and walking aren't the best choice to get around. One side features a tricycle and asks potential clients if they are being treated "like a kid". Though one could argue the tricycle is just [...]
If you walk on New York City streets (or frankly anywhere in the U.S.), you're well aware of how much unlawful and dangerous driving happens on nearly every block: red light running, speeding, double-parking, you name it. I first moved to NYC in 1991, and one thing that seems to have gotten much worse since [...]
We continue our Streetfacts series by looking at the data on driving in the U.S. Beginning in 2005, per-capita driving has declined every year. That's not a blip, it's now an 8-year trend. The reason? Neither the state of the economy nor changes in gas prices offer a satisfactory explanation. Social preferences and demographic shifts seem [...]
There's been some fantastic bicycle momentum going on in the advertising world in the last year or so. Since I decided to start monitoring ads in the middle of 2012, there seem to be more commercials showing bicycles positively, and in many cases featuring them front and center to sell their product. This first one [...]
As some of you may know, many of the big cities in the U.S. are in the midst of expanding their bicycle network by installing protected bike lanes. You've heard much about New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., but some of the newest cities installing them are smaller cities you might not know about.
Places like Missoula, Flagstaff, Indianapolis, Austin and Memphis (just to name a few) have either installed protected lanes or are breaking ground shortly. It shows that even in many places and cities with populations under a million that the health benefits of cycling and the econmoic realities are proving that a successful transportation system demands the inclusion of the bicycle.
How would you make the case to Congress to fund bike infrastructure? That was the question Streetfilms posed to attendees at this year's National Bike Summit. Here's a look at what they told us. You'll also hear from one of the conference headliners, Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, who has overseen some dramatic changes in his [...]
Here's one you might file under Not Ad Nauseum: a new commercial with bikes being used in a positive way to have fun, recreate and see your city. The product being pitched? The new Toyota Scion. Watch below. First off, this is a very nice, hip and pretty ad. It introduces us to Daniel Farahirad, [...]
At this year's National Bike Summit, we decided to take the pulse of bicyclists as to why they think women riders are growing so fast in number and also get some suggestions as to ways to grow them.
The above apocalyptic-looking still is one of many shots of the South Bronx (circa 1980) from the opening montage to my favorite, New York City-set movie "Wolfen", an often forgotten film (even among horror buffs) about shape-shifters defending their land from greedy fat-cat developers. Though not a 5 star movie, it's a very solid tale [...]
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