In the UK, some 3 million people live in areas with 20 mph speed limits. The experience there shows that not only do slower speeds save lives, but lowering the limit to 20 mph improves the way local streets function in more ways than one. According to the 20's Plenty for Us campaign, the change has produced wide-ranging benefits, including less traffic, increased walking and biking, greater independence for children, the elderly and infirm, better health, and calmer driving conditions for motorists.

The mission of 20's Plenty For Us is to establish 20 mph as the default speed limit on all residential roads in the UK. I recently met up with the campaign's founder, Rod King, as well as other advocates in the towns of Warrington and York, to understand how the idea of slowing down traffic has spread so fast throughout the country.

Called "DIY Streets," the program brings neighbors together to help them redesign their streets in a way that puts people, safety, and streetlife first. So far, individual streets have benefited from DIY redesigns in 11 communities in England and Wales. Recently Streetfilms got a walk through of one successful DIY project -- on Clapton Terrace in London. With the people who made it happen as our guides, we saw how planners and neighbors collaborated to transform a place where speeding used to rule into a local street with calm traffic and safe space to socialize.

Can the DIY model work on a bigger scale than an individual street? We're about to find out: Residents of the London Borough of Haringey will soon be working with Sustrans on the first neighborhood-wide DIY project.

One of the most amazing aspects of Summer Streets is how many folks you will run into while traipsing the nearly 7 miles of streets open for pedestrians, cyclists, bladers, runners, stroller parents, dog walkers, families, and so much more. And as usual, Streetsblog readers, Streetfilms, and a myriad of activists were out and about.

I left the video camera at home (let's face it, with the media feeding frenzy around this event it no longer needs our promotion) but I got a few photos worthy of posting.  Here are some highlights.  Enjoy.

The day started with a swim in the now-famous Dumpster Pools. Here's the "Streetsblog Commenter" bin with Ian Dutton from CB 2, Upper Green Side's Glen McAnamana (sorry, for hand over face!), Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson Jr., and Fatima Colman.

NYC DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan stopped by the pool for a live interview with NBC and was pleasantly surprised to see us splashing about.

Summer Streets is all about families. Streetsblog founder Aaron Naparstek, pulled over to take a phone call with his family: Joanne, Arlo and Saul.

Cyclists were out in large gaggles on Park Avenue.

Streetfilms' intern Dahlia Ramsay joined Velo-City's Samelys Lopez and Karyn Williams for a ride with the kids from their Saturday program.

Ryan Nuckel of Transportation Alternatives spreads the positive of message of safe bicycling and walking in New York City.

Sporting beach attire, Noah Budnick of Transportation Alternatives and his wife Amanda made their way to the pool.

Double dutch!

While running, I stopped just long enough for a quick shot of Aaron Friedman who has turned Make Music NY into an awesome yearly NYC staple.

Lots of picnic spots to be had up and down 25th Street.

Only on Summer Streets days can you get this close to some of the grand statues that line the viaduct over Grand Central.

Matt Nealon and newborn son Luke experience their first Summer Streets together!

]]> http://www.streetfilms.org/summer-streets-2010-dumpster-pool-party-and-more/feed/ 4 http://www.streetfilms.org/copenhagens-car-free-streets-and-slow-speed-zones/ http://www.streetfilms.org/copenhagens-car-free-streets-and-slow-speed-zones/#comments Wed, 04 Aug 2010 14:47:51 +0000 Clarence Eckerson, Jr. http://www.streetfilms.org/?p=47547 In Copenhagen, you never have to travel very far to see a beautiful public space or car-free street packed with people soaking up the day.  In fact, since the early 1960s, 18 parking lots in the downtown area have been converted into public spaces for playing, meeting, and generally just doing things that human beings enjoy doing. If you're hungry, there are over 7,500 cafe seats in the city.

But as you walk and bike the city, you also quickly become aware of something else: Most Copenhagen's city streets have a speed limit of 30 to 40 km/h (19 to 25 mph).  Even more impressive, there are blocks in some neighborhoods with limits as low as 15 km/h (9 mph) where cars must yield to residents.  Still other areas are "shared spaces" where cars, bikes and pedestrians mix freely with no stress, usually thanks to traffic calming measures (speed bumps are popular), textured road surfaces and common sense.

We charmed you last month with our look at bicycling in Copenhagen, now sit back and watch livable streets experts Jan Gehl and Gil Penalosa share their observations about pedestrian life. You'll also hear Ida Auken, a member of Denmark's Parliament, and Niels Tørsløv, traffic director for the City of Copenhagen, talk about their enthusiasm for street reclamation and its effect on their city.

Ever find yourself waiting for the next bus, not knowing when it will arrive? Think it would be great if you could check a subway countdown clock from the sidewalk? Or get arrival times on your phone? Giving transit riders better information can make ridng the bus or the train more convenient and appealing. And transit agencies are finding that the easiest and least expensive way to do it is by opening data about routes, schedules, and real-time locations to software developers, instead of guarding it like a proprietary secret.

I recently got the chance to dive into the topic of open data in transit with my colleagues at OpenPlans. We went up to Boston to see what transit riders got out of the transportation department's decision to open up its data. We also talked to New York MTA Chair Jay Walder, City Council Member Gale Brewer, Zipcar co-founder Robin Chase, and Transportation Alternatives director Paul Steely White to paint a full picture of what it would mean if cities shared their transit and transportation data. The information is there, waiting to be put to use to help people plan transit trips, waste less gas driving, or make their streets safer.

Streetfilms has been working for the past few months to make videos even easier to access and at a higher quality. We've done this by migrating Streetfilms' entire video library to host on Vimeo, the user generated video sharing website.

Streetfilms.org will still work and look the same, but by hosting vidoes on Vimeo, we'll enjoy some new perks:

• Videos are now viral.  Embedded Vimeo videos can be re-embedded by clicking on the embed button built into the player.
• Videos show up in Google Reader views.
• Many videos are now available in HD.

In addition to these features, Streetfilms is also looking forward to Vimeo's upcoming HTML5 launch for embedded videos.  This means that videos will soon be accessible on most mobile devices.  Vimeo is working hard to lauch HTML5 capabilities, but until then, mobile users can view videos here: http://vimeo.com/user2352061.

Another exciting advantage is that videos now look fantastic when taken full screen.  So teachers, planners, policy makers and advocacy groups: warm up your projectors, and let Streetfilms help inspire and motivate your community.

We want to extend a great big Thank You, heck even a hug, to the good folks at Vimeo who've helped to make the Streetfilms experience even better.

If you encounter any problems with these new features, please drop us a line at info@streetfilms.org.  As always, we love to hear from you.

Fun Vimeo Fact via Wikipedia.org:

The name "Vimeo" was created by co-founder Jakob Lodwick. It is a play on the word "video", inserting the word "me" as a reference to the site's dedication to user-made films exclusively. It is also an anagram of "movie." The word is pronounced Vi-me-o.

If you've never seen footage of the Copenhagen people riding bikes during rush hour - get ready - it's quite a site, as nearly 38% of all transportation trips in Copenhagen are done by bike.  With plenty of safe, bicycle infrastructure (including hundreds of miles of physically separated cycletracks) its no wonder that you see all kinds of people on bikes everywhere.  55% of all riders are female, and you see kids as young as 3 or 4 riding with packs of adults.

Much thanks to the nearly two dozen folks who talked to us for this piece.  You'll hear astute reflections from folks like Jeff Mapes (author of "Pedaling Revolution"), Martha Roskowski (Program Manager, GO Boulder), Andy Clarke (President, League of American Bicyclists), Andy Thornley (Program Director, San Francisco Bike Coalition) and Tim Blumenthal (President, Bikes Belong) and Yvonne Bambrick (Executive Director, Toronto's Cyclists Union) just to name drop a few of the megastars.

In this Streetfilm you'll see how a typical visit can inspire, enlighten and energize city leaders & advocates.  During bike month, experts from the transportation departments of NYC (Jon Orcutt), Portland (Roger Geller) and San Francisco (Timothy Papandreou) came to Boston to talk about bike infrastructure in their cities and how they accomplished innovative change to their streetscapes.  Thru public presentations, private meetings with city officials, and bike ride audits, the "Cities for Cycling" road show is poised to be an informative, powerful tool for governments.

In addition, NACTO is in the process of developing a dynamic on-line Urban Bikeway Design Guide which will showcase the engineering techniques being deployed by NACTO members to make bicycling safer, more comfortable and more convenient. This guide is due to be released later this year, but they already are hosting many useful resources for bike planners.

On the third night of the conference, Copenhagen did something it doesn't do often: holding a spectacular bike parade!  This critical mass-style celebration featured the young and old on all sorts of bikes and filled the streets with laughter and music. In fact, some participants told us they thought it was the first of its kind in 24 years.  I guess when every day is a massive critical mass of cyclists (38% of all trips are bike) then what is the need for ever needing to declare your right to the road?

The optimistic mood of the conference and the gaining momentum for bicycling facilities worldwide was as inspiring as the people of this great, livable city.  Don't miss the next one in March 2011 in  Sevilla, Spain which we were told is seeing skyrocketing numbers of those taking to the velocipede!

In this funky montage wrap-up you'll see many special guest stars including Hal Ruzal, Randy "The Ethicist" Cohen, Mary Beth Kelly, and Eben "Bike Snob" Weiss, just to pick out some of the dozens of faces.  But none so special as an appearance by our very good purple friend - Zozo, who you'll get to see out scooting on his bike!

And for heaven's sake, don't miss the "bike rockstar montage" near the end.  We certainly have a lot of hip cyclists in NYC.

Photos Below by Robin Urban Smith :

]]> http://www.streetfilms.org/brooklyns-first-bike-to-school-day-celebration/feed/ 23 StreetFilms http://www.streetfilms.org/boston-rising-boston-bikes-nicole-freedman/ http://www.streetfilms.org/boston-rising-boston-bikes-nicole-freedman/#comments Thu, 27 May 2010 07:41:14 +0000 Clarence Eckerson, Jr. http://www.streetfilms.org/?p=36551 The Boston metro area has always had plenty of cyclists.  But other than some fantastic greenways like the Minuteman Trail, riding along the Charles, and some ahead-of-its-time traffic calming & bike lanes in Cambridge, cyclists have had very little to crow about.  In fact, it wasn't uncommon to hear murmurs that Boston was the worst cycling city in the U.S.

But that's all slowly changing. Boston's Mayor Thomas Menino hired Nicole Freedman - a former U.S. National Champion and 2000 Olympian - as his "bike czar" to head up Boston Bikes in late 2007. Though there is still quite a ways to go, Boston is rising from decades of bike rust and planning to make its city more bike-friendly. Recently, the Mayor told a gathering of cyclists at Boston's first "Bicycling Safety Summit" in April, "The car is no longer king in Boston."

While Streetfilms was in town with NACTO (National Association of City Transportation Officials) we got to spend a few minutes with Nicole in between her busy schedule to file this report.

Antonio Mendoza has been living in Oakland and sending money home to Mexico for 13 years, but these are especially hard times. For him, riding his bike is a way to relieve stress, get around, and stay fit at the same time. Bicycles are also one way he can stay connected to his son in Mexico: They haven’t seen each other in over a decade, but whenever he can, Antonio fixes up a bike and sends it home so that his son can have something that his father’s hands have touched and loved.

Taking the PARK(ing) Day concept to a more permanent, logical level, the Parklets Program has begun experimenting with trial spaces allowing businesses to convert parking spaces into outdoor public spaces and cafes.  The first was installed in March outside the Mojo Bicycle Café on Divisdero Street where two parking spaces were reallocated to people-space; now cafe tables & chairs, benches, bike parking, and plants sit over a raised platform over the asphalt.  If all goes well thru the evaluation period, the idea is to eventually turn the process into a regular permitting process that business groups and communities can apply for.  It looks good: owners of Mojo say business is up 30% and they have had to hire more staff.

The Pavement to Parks program has already transformed a number of community spaces in the Castro, Showplace Triangle and Guerrero Park. We briefly look at those at well in this video.

Throw in sunny skies, some new shiny green bike lanes, just-installed bike corrals, door zone warnings, and other infrastructure, and you realize there was quite a bit to celebrate. Hear from the Mayor, members of the Board of Supervisors, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, and bike commuters about why this year's Bike to Work Day was so great.

As you'll see during our ten mile journey, Mr. Cohen offered up some very decisive opinions about car-free Central Park, weighed in on the ethics of  "bike salmoning" (riding wrong way in bike lanes), whether he stops for red lights (you might be surprised by his answer), and comments on how transformative our streets have become for pedestrians and cyclists.

He also doesn't hide the fact he has a massive "policy crush" on NYC DOT chief Janette Sadik-Khan.

Photos: Elizabeth Press

Zozo enjoys safely crossing the street with all of his friends.

Zozo rides the rails because it gets him where he needs to go in a flash and is good for the environment.

Zozo high fives Kim riding in the bike lane.

Zozo prepares for a close up with Clarence.

Zozo loves to ride his ZoGo with his friends Nora and Isaac.