Category: Urban Planning

Heard of the Great American Streetcar Conspiracy?

September 23, 2010 / / 0 Comments

General Motors and Standard Oil bought up the country’s streetcar systems, replaced the routes with buses, and thus began America’s automobile love affair and distaste for mass transit.

Streetcars are being now being rebuilt all across America, including in Portland, Oregon.

Heard that before?

Before you perpetuate it further, read this essay for some perspective on the story. Apparently, it’s a problem only liberals suffer from.

Even today it resonates with liberals – The Atlantic casually mentions it as the reason America abandoned mass transit, The Nation wrote a whole article about it a few years ago, Fast Food Nation discusses it, and in the last week I’ve seen two references to the theory in the planning blogosphere.

Now, this essay still isn’t the “end all, be all” chronology of transportation evolution history in the United States.

The new(ish) streetcar in Portland, Oregon.

Do you know of a book or article where the writer summarily presents concrete evidence? The essay does cite four academic sources, so it’s the best explanation of the so-called conspiracy I’ve ever read.

I’m bringing this up thanks to Edward Russell, who posted it, and my sister, who mentioned it to me after a friend told her about the story.

New York City, a dreamland

September 20, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Rather than write a lengthy post here describing my recent trip to New York City (I went in the last weekend of August), I will invite you to peruse my 50 photo gallery. They are in order by date and time taken and fully mapped and described.

I was last in New York City in August 2001, for the MacWorld Conference where I saw Steve Jobs announce the iPod – I got that iPod for Christmas that year. I stayed in Connecticut. The first day, my dad and I drove into the city. The next day we took Metro North from Bridgeport. The only thing I remember doing on that trip is taking the subway from the Javits Center to the Hard Rock Cafe and over to Grand Central Station.

I’ll describe my 2010 trip as a “whirlwind tour.” In three days I rode over 100 miles on a too-small borrowed bike. I met fourteen people. I went up and down the island four times. I wouldn’t shut up at work about it for a week.

The first photo in the set, about the typography of the New York City yellow cab system.

The last photo in the set, about pedestrian craziness in the segregated bike lanes.

Full photo set. The set is sure to grow, so stay tuned to my Flickr photostream or Twitter feed for updates.

Closed for a good cause

September 16, 2010 / / 0 Comments

At least two times per year, parts of Lake Shore Drive, an ugly but seemingly necessary highway on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago, close down to auto traffic for athletic and recreational events.

Last Sunday, 20,000 people pounded their feet on the south part of LSD in the Chicago Half Marathon.

Any event where you can see the greatest skyline in the world is bound to be a good one 😉

The last time I know the Drive was closed this year (and since 2002) for Bike The Drive. The whole road is closed for the fundraising event that benefits the Active Transportation Alliance (formerly Chicagoland Bicycle Federation).

Screenshot from a video I took from my bike’s handlebars when I entered the ride from 31st Street and rode to Grant Park for my volunteer shift at the Active Transportation Alliance booth.

What I do for a living

August 26, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Everyone asks, and I always tell. But I’ve never blogged about it.

I’m the Bicycle Parking Program Assistant at the Chicago Bicycle Program, in the Chicago Department of Transportation’s (CDOT) Division of Project Development.

According to the Chicago Municipal Code, I tag abandoned bikes. After 7 days, a CDOT crew removes them to Working Bikes Cooperative.

I arrange for…

  • The installation of bike racks, including at Chicago Transit Authority train stations
  • The maintenance and removal of bike racks
  • The removal of abandoned bikes

I also manage the Chicago Bicycle Program website, Facebook Page, Flickr account & group, and Twitter.

Bump out opportunity

August 26, 2010 / / 0 Comments

I was reading a plan for a streetscape design (doesn’t matter for where) and I saw a street map with orange dots showing “bumpout opportunities.” The plan was mostly images and didn’t describe this feature.

Were these opportunities because the community had indicated their desire for slower turns, shorter crosswalks, additional landscaping, or they needed space for bike parking?

Or did someone think, “A bumpout would fit here, let’s install one.” (In other words, “because we can.”)

This post is less about questioning the rationale behind constructing bumpouts (also called curb extensions), but about questioning why and how we decide to build stuff.

Do we build things because there’s a need for that thing, or because someone thinks that thing is needed? This discussion leads us to talking about the role of public participation in planning. Often I see public participation used as a way to measure support for an idea that seems like it will become real regardless of which way the vocal public feels. Organizations should measure, instead, the demand for a solution of a problem, from which they can attempt to discover, understand, and propose fixes or improvements to the problem.