If you make a habit of watching Stretefilms and you value the work we do to make the case for transforming our streets, please make a tax-deductible donation so we can keep on doing it.

We’ll send one donor who gives by midnight Friday this Elly Blue library, including Bikenomics, Taking the Lane, and the brand new Bikes in Space: A Feminist Science Fiction Anthology (sample story: “in Elizabeth Buchanan’s classic pulp tale of postapocalyptic Appalachia, a gripping bicycle-truck chase gives a young woman a surprising new hope”).

Sounds easy, right?  Well, we've learned the hard way over the years that picking the right frame leads to more views (heck way back when Youtube randomly assigned a still to your video it was so damn frustrating!) but nowdays most sites allow you to either choose from a number of still shots or upload your own. The viral competition is fierce, so make sure you got something spectacular spectacular!!

"The Porch" at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia

Let's start off with a simple representative screen shot from your post.  Here is a Streetfilm we shot on "The Porch" a new public space in Philadelphia. We simply chose a specific shot that showed the space, the amenities, and people using it in large numbers.  It's very important to show people using facilities in transportation and public space videos.  Imagine this same shot with no people in it on a dreary day?  Not so enticing to watch.

Green Lane Project in New York City

The next shot above is going one step further: not only using a representative shot from your video, but also putting in the text of the title.  That way if someone doesn't read any text that accompanies it, they will know that this is a Streetfilm from the Green Lane Project and they are in New York City using protected bike lanes.  It gives an additional note and way to promote.  And in this day and age of Facebook and Twitter where you only get a few lines of text to convince people to watch, but usually get that wonderful thumbnail preview, it's that much more important.

Streetfacts: Bike Lanes Not Just for Big Cities

Sometimes you'll feel your topic is a little too complicated or ambitious to be explained just with one snapshot.  In that case I usually choose multiple frames and make a poster frame that is dynamic and hopefully piques interest further.  Here's one from our current Streetfacts series. Yes, it takes a little more time, but really not so much in the long run as it will help you when promoting it and getting others to use it on their blog and advocacy.

Voices from the National Women's Bike Summit

Finally, well sometimes you have to just get really inventive or just try something different.  The above is from the Women's Bike Summit in D.C. this past March. Since this is just coverage of a gathering of people and speeches, which can sometimes be a difficult topic to get viewers to sample, I wanted to up the creative quotient and get dynamic.  It worked for us. But it also could have backfired since it is so busy.

I urge you to look thru Streetfilms and just see the thumbnails we have used over the years. We have a pretty good track record.  Not perfect, but we have had a lot of practice.  Good luck.

Christa Orth records voice overs with me!

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 ton of money, well, we just used our iPhones!

In actuality it started out as a test to do some rough drafts with some early-version scripts. But when I married the images to the recordings and played it with the soundtrack I realized they sounded pretty good. Now I'm not suggesting these videos feature award-winning, movie quality sound, but the ability to be able to record at a moment's notice ended up letting us do many revisions without worry.  Simple process: record in a voice notes program, email it to yourself, and then simply drag and drop onto your desktop and into your edit timeline.

I'd suggest a few things if you go this route.  1) Make sure you are in a quiet area (and as a bonus make sure the room isn't too "echo-y". 2) You'll need to get the smart phone fairly close to your subject. 3) Make sure your talent doesn't hold the paper as they read it (it makes noise).  And most important, 4) I'd only recommend this if you plan on having background music in your piece.

Here's our Streetfacts #4 which I think shows off the quality.  For those of you making your own transportation videos, you might want to try it out. And in the future look for more Streetfilms University tips!

While riding along the Canal Tow Path, Jamison and others spied a robin in distress.  It was tangled badly in a fishing line and the crew jumped into action to to try extricate the bird.  After calming the bird a bit - and a futile search to see if anyone had a tool sharp enough to cut the line - Jamison just did the superhero thing and used his teeth to give the baby robin its freedom.  See it as it happened here:

Jamison said later, "The Canal Tow Path is a great spot to take in a quiet ride in a natural habitat, so any time I can do my part to save a robin, I will do whatever I can. Sorry worms!"

As bicyclists all around the world know, almost every day you get on a bike something exciting and fun happens.  I just happened to have the camera rolling this time. What's the coolest/weirdest/funniest thing that has ever happened to you?

Dan Kaufman of PDXK Productions (and CrankMyChainCycle TV!)captured the entire speech and did a wonderful edit job putting this together for any of those who may have missed it.  See it below.  (There is also a shorter highlight version here.)

Dan also did a great guest editorial in The Oregonian which is a great read.

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 as the main barrier to walking and bicycling, many families still drive when schools are close to home. According to the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, driving accounts for about half of school trips between 1/4- and 1/2-mile long — which in most cases shouldn't take kids much more than 10 minutes to walk.

There are plenty of factors at work here: Lack of sidewalks and safe walking and biking routes. The fallacy of "stranger danger." School districts banning walking and biking outright. But all of these problems lead back to the original and biggest blunder: We continue to design our cities and towns for cars instead of for children, families, and human beings.

Look for more Streetfilms on this issue in the next year.

Today we’re launching our spring pledge drive, and if you value the work we do please make a contribution to Streetfilms so we can keep bringing you the latest in livable streets news and advocacy.

This spring we'll be covering the roll-out of the largest North American bike share system in New York City, new public space and bike trails in Indianapolis, and filming the fantastic BRT and light-rail in Salt Lake City. The videos that Streetfilms distributes continually make the case for safer walking and biking and more effective transit. And we need you to help us.

If you've ever enjoyed one of our films, shared them with your neighbors, or used them to build your own local livable streets movement, please make a donation today.  And remember all of our films are available now for FREE via Vimeo in case you want to show them to your politicians or community.

For some extra motivation, we also have a very fine folding bike to give away at the end of the pledge drive. Everyone who makes a gift of $50 or more (or a monthly gift of $5 or more) will be entered into the drawing to take home this beauty, courtesy of Dahon:

Thanks to all our donors for making Streetfilms possible. Please make a tax-deductible gift to help us raise $40,000 by June 1 and keep us going through 2013 and beyond.

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 national buys. But many of their cool adverts are on YouTube so I'll try to embed and link to as many as I can for the bike-curious.

With all the horrible bike ads out there, for years I've admired Regions Bank's marketing arm and their positive integration of the bicycle into their ad campaigns. Most of their settings have a real warm feeling of community and many of their commercials feature a very vibrant downtown vibe with a few slow-travelling cars, plenty of smiling pedestrians and bicyclists rolling around on their Regions classic cruisers. Sure it might be a little livable streets nirvana, but for 30 or 60 seconds you are there.

And sometimes they get artsy. They even did a series of ads featuring bicycle-riding acrobats!

Coincidentally, the bank's colors happen to match up with the MUTCD standards for painted green lanes which is fortuitous for them. In recent years they've also become a partner in the bike share world.  And Regions donated bikes to the BamaBikes program at the University of Alabama.  Here's a short clip on that program:

Regions has many more bike-themed commercials to watch via their website. I encourage you to watch those including the really well made "Brigade" spots.

Frankly, I'm hoping this post isn't the last you'll read here about Regions Bank. Prior to publishing, I attempted to contact someone at Regions over the last few weeks so I could ask them about their choice of bicycle marketing and just how they came to stick with it all these years. No dice. So I ask to the executives at Regions Bank if you are reading, I'd love to know more!

This Streetfacts chapter has a bit more math than usual, but we think we've made an entertaining and accessible profile of how government agencies routinely justify unnecessary road projects. The example we've chosen to illustrate the problem is a federally-funded "diamond-diverter" interchange in Colorado. The project as proposed may look like a pretty good deal for taxpayers at first, but after crunching the numbers, you'll see that's not the case at all.

Much of the inspiration for this piece comes from the outstanding work of Strong Towns, an organization that emphasizes obtaining a higher return on infrastructure investments. Strong Towns Executive Director Charles Marohn, Jr. has been getting his message out through what he calls curbside chats, and we'll soon be debuting a Streetfilm that features his work.

However, on New York City's 9th Avenue protected bike lane (which back in the day was NYC's first) three bike oasises have been installed between 36th and 40th streets. Having bike-parking replacing a car parking spot in the floating lane is definitely a first for New York City, and quite possibly the first in the United States.

And as we found small businesses seem to already love them.  We filed a short report.

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 thousands will watch.

First, in Chicago's Daley Plaza, I stumbled upon one of the coolest art installations I've ever seen in a public space: interactive, human-size letters that spelled out the name P-I-C-A-S-S-O (which were helping advertise the current exhibit at the nearby Art Institute Chicago.) The energy in the plaza was magic. People were having so much fun posing and climbing all over the letters. Later on a short trip to Milwaukee I stumbled upon these some great flip-books downtown bolted onto light posts  featuring residents of the city in amusing interactions. Very cool, would love to see those in many other cities.

When I got home I had to add in a few seconds of my current favorite NYC MTA art project - "Hive" which went live last year when the opening of a new entrance to the Broadway/Lafayette (Bleecker Station) that happened late last year.

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 a symbol of youth, the message is pretty clear: they're also attacking cycling.  The other side shows a version of the same ad we saw a few months ago in the New York Daily News where Major World proclaims that walking is a great exercise "and you'll never have to do it again".

I'd really love to know if anyone actually DID trade in their old shoes OR "three wheeler" towards a credit for a new car.

I first moved to NYC in 1991, and one thing that seems to have gotten much worse since then is the percentage of drivers who fail to signal their turns. I've lost count of the times I've been walking or bicycling and nearly been hit by drivers who didn't use their directionals. Anecdotally, I would estimate that about 25 or 30 percent of drivers don't signal.

So I set out to put my theory to the test where I live in Jackson Heights, Queens, taping the first 100 turning drivers I saw. I won't spoil the final count, but this video is more evidence of the poor quality of driving across the city. Failing to use blinkers makes it hard for walkers, bikers, and other motorists to anticipate a driver's behavior -- this is basic Driver's Ed, people -- but so many people just don't do it.

Every week we read horrible stories of drivers crashing into pedestrians or mounting sidewalks -- and yet hardly anyone is ever charged or even issued a ticket. NYPD could be issuing plenty of tickets for drivers failing to signal turns on just about any block at anytime. They could start a crackdown tomorrow, it doesn't require more legislation. It doesn't require an officer to be stationed in a car with a radar gun. Just stand on the corner and pull people over. Simple.

NYPD credits cracking down on small crimes with helping to dramatically lower the city's overall crime rate. If we started to show less tolerance for "smaller" infractions, might drivers in NYC eventually change their overall driving habits?

The reason? Neither the state of the economy nor changes in gas prices offer a satisfactory explanation. Social preferences and demographic shifts seem to be playing a role. Young people today are less likely to own a car or have a driver's license than young people several years ago. At the same time, America's growing population of seniors are no longer in their peak driving years.

Whatever the combination of factors, people are riding transit, walking, and bicycling more. Even magazines like Motor Trend are examining the shift away from cars.

The upshot is that we need to start making smart transportation investments that align with the new reality: Americans are driving less.

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 has been running for a few months. Del Monte is selling Green Beans and of course they want you to associate veggies with good health & fun.  So why not show a couple out on a jubilant bike ride?  Although it's obvious they're wearing contemporary clothing (and, yes, helmets), this commercial evokes a classic feel,  like a throwback to the 1950s or 60s.

The next spot just debuted from Lysol who have been doing a push for their "Mission for Health" campaign. It features copious youngsters riding their bikes thru their neighborhood leading a parade of floats to their school.  Despite how you may feel about cleaning products, the target here is obvious: since moms tend to make the decisions in the household on what cleaning products to buy, they are here front and center flocking along with their bike-riding, walking and scootering kids.

I'm not sure if this does much for bicycling, but it sure would be nice to have more suburban neighborhoods with this much activity on their streets. It reminds me a lot of Portland's Neighborhood Greenways.

JCPenney is on a critical mission to re-vamp their image after a disastrous 2012 sales year where they lost many of their core store customers. Thus they produced  this new heartwarming spot aimed at inviting us to shop there again. Despite the lavishly crafted spot, it's not gonna lure me in, but I really appreciated the three consecutive scenes featuring a snuggly couple on a bus followed by a bicyclist riding gracefully over the L.A. River and then a young lady happily walking down the streets of San Francisco. Screenshots are below or just watch the commercial linked to above.

Sure it's only ten seconds of "Yours Truly, JCP", but it's clear that advertisers want to appeal to the young people demo. And younger people are increasingly driving cars less and using alternatives. In fact in the entire 90 second appeal, not one person is shown in a car! Perhaps times are slowly changing.

]]> http://www.streetfilms.org/advertisers-look-to-bicycling-to-leverage-a-health-happiness-message/feed/ 3 http://www.streetfilms.org/streetfacts-1-bike-lanes-not-just-for-big-cities/ http://www.streetfilms.org/streetfacts-1-bike-lanes-not-just-for-big-cities/#comments Sun, 24 Mar 2013 04:36:04 +0000 Clarence Eckerson, Jr. http://www.streetfilms.org/?p=54697 Welcome to the first of five shorts we're calling Streetfacts. With Streetfacts, we'll be highlighting developing trends affecting transportation and planning policy, as well as addressing the cost of "bad practices" that prevent us from shifting to a more balanced transportation network that supports more livable places.

As Streetfilms viewers know, many of the big cities in the U.S. are in the midst of expanding their bicycle networks by installing protected bike lanes. We've shown these projects in New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., but some of the newest cities installing them are smaller cities you might not be aware of. Places like Missoula, Flagstaff, Indianapolis, Austin, and Memphis have either installed protected lanes or are breaking ground shortly.

Over the next five weeks, we'll be publishing the rest of the Streetfacts series, which we hope will come in handy in your advocacy. And if they're a big hit, we'll take nominations for other topics and make another batch of Streetfacts later in the year.

You'll also hear from one of the conference headliners, Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, who has overseen some dramatic changes in his city. When he took office, Indy had one mile of bike lane. It now boasts 75. Plans call for 200 by 2015. In addition, the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, a multi-use path which runs through the heart of downtown, officially opens in May. You can be sure Streetfilms will be there to check it out.

And if you haven't seen it, make sure to check out our video on the Women's Bike Summit which was held prior to the NBS.

First off, this is a very nice, hip and pretty ad.  It introduces us to Daniel Farahirad, a bicycle retailer in downtown L.A., who uses a Scion to (sometimes) transport his bike out of the city to ride and race. Compared to many of the ways car commercials demonize or make fun of cycling, it's a welcome addition.

But the intent is clear: with car ownership down among the younger demographics and Americans in general driving less, car companies need to up their game and market the car as groovy and more attractive, especially to twenty-somethings. The spot ends with a narrator question, "Making Cars Moves Us, What Moves You?"

According to iSpot.tv, since this commercial debuted in February, it has only aired about 100 times nationally.  I've noticed it mostly airing on networks like MTV, G4 and Comedy Central, younger watchers on those networks for sure.

One thing I noticed, in every shot the cyclists are wearing helmets - yes even inside the car - which we know is not a reality in the real world.  At one point the shop owners are shown fitting a younger rider before a group jaunt on city streets.

Although I am sure some cyclists may still take issue with the spot, there are quite a number of fun scenes of city riding, which is refreshing in any commercial featuring bikes.

As usual, as I keep an eye on the airwaves. I welcome your thoughts.

Here's a montage of what we heard (sorry to the many left on the cutting room floor), set to cycling scenes in a dozen cities throughout the U.S.

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 with some incredible alfresco scenes providing a reference of just how much NYC has changed in the past 30 years.

Sure there's "The French Connection", "Manhattan", and "The Warriors", but if you love transportation, I'm promising you there's more NYC livable streets nostalgia in this film then any I've seen. Let me take you thru just a few of my favorite scenes.

Very early on a very rich couple are murdered in Battery Park. It's there we meet our protagonist Dewey (right, Albert Finney) a retired detective who is assigned the case. As the police do their work in Battery Park just soak up the scenery of lower Manhattan with the WTC towers and Hudson River making numerous appearances (and yes, that's Gregory Hines, left.)

A few scenes later Finney meets his new partner along the Hudson River for hot dogs and conversation. What makes this scene so incredible? See that elevated highway in the background? That's the former West Side Elevated Highway which partially collapsed in 1973.  It's amazing how little footage of it exists anywhere; it's the only movie I know in which it appears. (Note: "Gridlock Sam" Schwartz speaks much about it in this Streetfilm.)

Now we get into some truly sobering imagery. Sure there are old photos and news stories showing the urban decay of the South Bronx of the 1970s and 80s, but none of it has ever appeared in a pristine 35mm motion picture quite like this.  In "Wolfen" our investigators make multiple visits to the area to look into similar murders that have occurred there.

If you have ever ridden Transportation Alternatives' Tour de Bronx, you'd never know it passes thru some of these areas. Especially this intersection above - which thanks to some careful still-framing & zooming - I believe to be Charlotte Street & East 170th - nowdays a thriving community filled with single family homes. (See an overhead side-by-side comparison at the bottom of this article.) Really, every New Yorker should see this. It's pretty mind-blowing this ever happened to our city.

A few scenes later, some of the Wolfen shape-shifters make their way to the Brooklyn Bridge. From their heat-seeking POV we experience their dash over the pedestrian path as they encounter one of the seven sets of tower steps cyclists and pedestrians used to negotiate. Imagine having to walk your bike up and down all those stairs! Good news: soon after the film's release the steps were replaced with the ramps we have today.

In a scene that needs to be seen to believed - since it was somehow shot with a full camera crew atop the windy Manhattan Bridge - an impatient Albert Finney does an uneasy climb to the top to interview some bridge workers who may know something about the murders. Here the lower Manhattan skyline is on beautiful display including the WTC towers.

As he quizzes one of the men (a very young Edward James Olmos) you can see a lot of the Brooklyn waterfront & East River behind them. In this amazing still, on the left  you can see hundreds of cars parked where now the beautiful Brooklyn Bridge Park resides!  I am not aware of any film ever shooting at the top of one NYC bridge and yet this film does it twice (earlier they shoot atop of the Brooklyn Bridge as well.)

I really could go on and on but I think if you're still reading I may have convinced you to rent or watch "Wolfen" on Netflix. There's plenty of Central Park in the movie as well as Riverside Drive, Coney Island, the Central Park Zoo, and this climatic "wolves vs cops" scene above on Wall Street. Sometimes it's hard to recall what some parts of NYC looked like without security fencing, concrete bollards, and twenty-four hour sentries.

And finally as I promised above, here's an overhead view of the area of the South Bronx "Wolfen" was mostly filmed in. I was able to match up close enough visuals of 1980 vs 2012 (that's the elevated 5-subway train two blocks behind the church!) Double-click on it. Pretty cool, huh? And if you do get to watch "Wolfen" you'll see the shapeshifters would have been quite happy with this end result.