Momentum Mag on cycling in cities:
A nice video in Momentum Mag highlighting the pleasure and benefits of cycling in cities!
Posts tagged "city vibrancy"
Photo:Lars Gemzøe, Gehl Architects
A cool outdoor exercise area and cycle paths in the Haraldsgade area of Copenhagen.
Mary Portas reviews the future of UK high streets! Some interesting reading. You can read the report here.
Below are her 28 recommendations.
1. Put in place a “Town Team”: a visionary, strategic and strong operational management team for high streets
2. Empower successful Business Improvement Districts to take on more responsibilities and powers and become “Super-BIDs”
3. Legislate to allow landlords to become high street investors by contributing to their Business Improvement District
4. Establish a new “National Market Day” where budding shopkeepers can try their hand at operating a low-cost retail business
5. Make it easier for people to become market traders by removing unnecessary regulations so that anyone can trade on the high street unless there is a valid reason why not
6. Government should consider whether business rates can better support small businesses and independent retailers
7. Local authorities should use their new discretionary powers to give business rate concessions to new local businesses
8. Make business rates work for business by reviewing the use of the RPI with a view to changing the calculation to CPI
9. Local areas should implement free controlled parking schemes that work for their town centres and we should have a new parking league table
10. Town Teams should focus on making high streets accessible, attractive and safe
11. Government should include high street deregulation as part of their ongoing work on freeing up red tape
12. Address the restrictive aspects of the ‘Use Class’ system to make it easier to change the uses of key properties on the high street
13. Put betting shops into a separate ‘Use Class’ of their own
14. Make explicit a presumption in favour of town centre development in the wording of the National Planning Policy Framework
15. Introduce Secretary of State “exceptional sign off ” for all new out-of-town developments and require all large new developments to have an “affordable shops” quota
16. Large retailers should support and mentor local businesses and independent retailers
17. Retailers should report on their support of local high streets in their annual report
18. Encourage a contract of care between landlords and their commercial tenants by promoting the leasing code and supporting the use of lease structures other than upward only rent reviews, especially for small businesses
19. Explore further disincentives to prevent landlords from leaving units vacant
20. Banks who own empty property on the high street should either administer these assets well or be required to sell them
21. Local authorities should make more proactive use of Compulsory Purchase Order powers to encourage the redevelopment of key high street retail space
22. Empower local authorities to step in when landlords are negligent with new “Empty Shop Management Orders”
23. Introduce a public register of high street landlords
24. Run a high profile campaign to get people involved in Neighbourhood Plans
25. Promote the inclusion of the High Street in Neighbourhood Plans
26. Developers should make a financial contribution to ensure that the local community has a strong voice in the planning system
27. Support imaginative community use of empty properties through Community Right to Buy, Meanwhile Use and a new “Community Right to Try”
28. Run a number of High Street Pilots to test proof of concept
Cycling: You just can’t get enough!
Cool new video film on cycling from bikeminded! Filmed in the neighbourhood where I work!!
To celebrate the 1951 Festival of Britain, the Southbank Centre have created a lively urban environment on the London Southbank, centred around four different ‘lands’ - Land, Seaside, Power and Production and People of Britain.
Far from feeling contrived, the whole space feels natural and vibrant. The massive mix of spaces, structures and activities, combined with a clever use of texture and sounds, stimulates the senses! It is thronged in the evenings with both locals and tourists - visible evidence of its success. It is a must visit for anyone in London and the roof top bar is THE place to watch the sun set over London!! More pictures to follow!
Monocle Video: Best Urban Farm Projects
Photo: Monocle
Cool short documentary by Monocle on 4 different urban farms.
Monocle’s favourite cities combine small-scale neighbourhoods with green spaces, but not all cities were built with the right foundations for future growth and sustainability. We champion four urban innovators who see potential in derelict spaces and find creative approaches to make some of the world’s more challenging neighbourhoods bloom into richer and more pleasant places to stay
New York Times Reports: Presto, Instant Playground
Photo: Adam Nadel for The New York Times
Love this! New York Times reports on New Yorks new pop up playgrounds!
…During a two-month period last year, seven civic coalitions in New York neighborhoods like East Harlem and the South Bronx got permits from the city to close certain local streets to traffic for designated periods of time — say, between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on a summer weekday. Working with the police and other city agencies, they re-designated the areas as temporary “play streets,” encouraging neighborhood children to use them for exercise and offering a range of free games, athletic activities and coaching.
Call them pop-up playgrounds.
The experiment was successful. According to Karen Lee of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which helped oversee the project, data collected from the sites indicates that families visited local play streets for one to two and a half hours on average — time that many would have otherwise spent inside, according to a majority of the parents surveyed….
One of the challenges when combating obesity in low-income neighborhoods is that the urban environment can discourage children from being active. According to the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, which has long been concerned with the character of New York’s streets, high crime rates and heavy truck traffic often make such streets unsuitable for play. Local parks too often lack simple amenities like spray showers.
More generally, the habits born of living in these environments can create a vicious cycle in which children become more and more accustomed to staying inside and watching TV or playing video games. As Dr. Lee observes, “it will take joint efforts across different sectors” to address the environmental causes of obesity.
Unfortunately, such efforts face many hurdles. Mobilizing political will, changing public budgets, scheduling bureaucratic procurement, waiting out local design reviews, altering the behavioral habits of large numbers of people — all these things take considerable effort and time.
That’s where the pop-up playground comes in. Functioning as a kind of impromptu public laboratory, play streets can demonstrate just how effective such spaces can be, and provide an argument for making such outlets — or something like them — permanent. The flexibility of the spaces allows local organizers to test different streets, activities, schedules and promotions in different neighborhoods, to see what works best. At the same time, the novelty of the spaces can excite and attract local residents, reminding them of the options for public exercise, however in need of improvement, that are already at their disposal.
An opportunity to reread Jane Jacobs Death and Life!
OK, I admit it…i am a plannerac….I think this is a cool idea! Toronto’s Centre for City Ecology are setting up an online bookclub to reread Jane Jacobs amazing book The Death and Life of Great American Cities!
Jane Jacobs paradigm-shifting book on urban planning: The Death and Life of Great American Cities is turning 50 this year, and a 50th anniversary edition will be available in the bookshops soon. What better way to celebrate it than to read it together? Our friends at Toronto’s Centre for City Ecology are launching an online book group to read Death and Life, chapter by chapter, from September to November.
If you work in the built environment or are studying for a career in planning, architecture, landscape architecture, urban design or transport planning you need to read this book.
Keep checking the MADE website for details of how to join the online book group.
A cool new short film from Streetfilms about a street ambassador for cycling in New York! I love the idea! It raises the profile of city cycling whilst providing a friendly point of contact for new cyclists and promoting safe and conscientious cycling. London should do it!
Copenhagen City of Cyclists - Bicycle Account 2010 by Cycling Embassy of Denmark
A great short read for a Monday afternoon lunchbreak! Its got great facts and stats on safety, numbers cycling etc!
People are safer and feel safer in traffic
There has been a marked increase in the perceived safety from 51 % in 2008 to 67 % in 2010, thereby reversing an otherwise clear downward trend in cyclists’ sense of safety since 1996. Today only 5 % of city cyclists respond that they feel very unsafe. At the same time the level of cyclist safety is historically high: 92 seriously injured cyclists in 2010 as against 252 in 1996. This positive trend is due to an organized effort to improve safety and security in traffic. Advanced stop lines and more and wider cycle tracks have made cycling in traffic safer and more secure. However, a continued, intensified effort is necessary if we are to achieve our goal that 80 % of city cyclists shall feel safe in traffic by 2015.
Almost everybody cycles
84 % of Copenhagen residents have access to a bicycle and 68 % cycle at least once a week. Even among those who cite the car or public transport as their primary transport mode, 15 % cycle at least once a week.
As many as 50 % of Copenhagen residents who work or study in Copenhagen cycle to their workplace or educational institution.
The Architecture Centre as a ‘Critical Friend’: how to engage communities effectively in neighbourhood planning
Heading to the Architecture Centre tonight for this! Anyone else going?
The Localism Bill aims to provide communities with a greater influence on local planning matters by allowing them to prepare Neighbourhood Development Plans. Architecture centres such as Open-City can act as independent advisors steering negotiations toward a productive conversation that result in effective local design policy and high quality local development proposals.
Open-City will highlight its experience of formulating an effective and highly successful model of engagement around planning and development with residents and planning councillors in London, and how this can be replicated elsewhere.
Venue: The Gallery, 77 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ from 6.30pm, talk from 7 to 8pm Tickets £5
Another brilliant infographic illustrating the amount of street space required by bicycles, cars and buses to transport the same number of people. (Photo credit: Press office, City of Münster, Germany)
Muenster bike vs. car vs. bus vs. walking poster (by rllayman)
When a negative event leads to a positive outcome!
A disenchanted architect called Anthony Lau invented Cyclehoop after his bike was nicked in London! I think they are amazing! A quick, easy and cheap way to retrofit London with bicycle spaces! Many London and other county boroughs are now installing them (I spotted one around the corner from me)!
On your bike for commuter tax benefits in Europe
Picture courtesy of Guardian Newspapers
Cool! Come on UK…we could so do this! A tax break/ income supplement for cycling!
Reuters reports -
Getting paid for going to work may sound too good to be true, but it’s part of an increasingly popular scheme for commuters across Europe.
Employers in Belgium, the Netherlands and other European countries are rewarding staff if they come to work on a bicycle, paying them for every kilometer they cycle, all in an effort to promote environmentalism, not to mention a healthier lifestyle.
Save our cities: build for bicycles, not cars
Photo: Carlton Reid
An interesting, passionate and honest piece from Dave Horton, a sociologist working at Lancaster University’s Environment Centre and currently working on the Understanding Walking and Cycling project (which I have posted on recently).
Initially the article starts out with a pretty glum but unsurprising update on the current state of cycling in the UK. Horton comments that after significant research the main findings of his research indicate that….
the vast majority of people never willingly cycle journeys which they could otherwise make by car. Richer people tend to ‘get’ cycling, but do it mainly for pleasure and mainly off the road. Poorer people tend not to get cycling, though some still ride out of necessity, on the footway. Nowhere across our research exercise did we find a culture of normalised, everyday urban cycling.
Horton goes on to argue that in order to make mass cycling in the UK a reality and reach a level of cycling comparable to say, Copenhagen, cycle advocates need to listen to what people say is dissuading them from cycling, accept those points and develop one confident and united way forward. Without having ‘our own house in order’ as Horton states, we can’t hope to influence politicians or transport policy.
Unsurprisingly, his research has identified that the main thing preventing cycling in the UK is a fear of traffic! He argues that we need to create separated cycle infrastructure to protect cyclists and encourage and facilitate cycling.
I have to say that I agree completely with him. Having been to Copenhagen and observed their cycle infrastructure and experienced first hand the kind of mass cycling that we here in the UK only dream of, I am convinced that highly visible and protected cycle routes on main roads and at junctions are a must!
I simply have too much experience of spending time with too many people, of too many different kinds, all of whom clearly won’t be moved onto a bike under currently prevailing cycling conditions. The sheer weight of evidence that most people will not ride a bike on busy roads is unambiguous and uncompromising.
We need radically to restructure our urban mobility systems in ways which will get people out of their cars and make them cycle. Half of the infrastructural change required is underway – the push for a maximum speed limit of 20 mph on residential streets is gaining momentum. But the other half of the key infrastructural change required needs a similar push, and this push should be for very high quality and continuous segregated cycling infrastructure on our biggest and busiest urban roads, the kind of roads on which almost everyone today refuses to cycle.
The task might seem enormous, even impossible. But it’s not. Think about how things change. Our research has made very clear the normality among a large proportion of the population of using a car for short journeys. But this normality has been produced over only the last fifty or sixty years. We used to travel differently, and we will do so again.
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