Lawn chairs, strip clubs, blackmail, and bikes. Just your average day in urban improvement.
Most American streets are stuck in the poor planning of mid-century. They're arrested amongst outdated and unsafe thinking. Thankfully our collective ideas to improve them, and our ability to share those ideas, are here in the 21st century.
Here are our 5 favorite TED talks on building more livable, more rideable streets. Enjoy.
The Not So Mean Streets of New York
You know how some people are "Internet famous"? Janette Sadik-Khan is city planning famous. For 6 years she was the Commissioner of the NYC Department of Transportation and led one of the most dramatic and successful street revitalizations in contemporary history. In her talk she makes a Star Trek joke and explains why the city of NY bought hundreds of lawn chairs, and maybe why your city should too.
Bicycle Culture By Design
Mikael Colville-Andersen is an unabashed critic of our historical efforts to engineer human behavior by engineering city streets rather than designing them. He argues instead for designing our environments around human "desire lines." If you only know one name in cycling advocacy via urban design, it should be his.
How To Build A Better Block
Jason Roberts lives in Dallas, a temple to asphalt, gasoline, and vehicular throughput. But that didn't stop him from completely remaking his community. He got some friends, some goats, some paint and broke a lot of laws. The results were overwhelming and positive. His advice to others? Start by just showing up, then blackmail yourself into getting it done. See if you can keep up with him. His energy and speech are off the charts.
The Walkable City
Jeff Speck shares his thoughts (and they're good ones) on "the worst idea we've ever (America) had: suburban sprawl," and the required "prosthesis" that is the automobile. He shares which America city has invested most wisely in walkable streets, and how that investment cuts drive times, saves money, increases quality of life, and supports the most strip clubs per capita. Kinda.
Why Buses Represent Democracy In Action
Enrique Peñalosa is the former mayor of Bogota, Columbia and a personal favorite of ours around the shop. He was part of a city leadership that dramatically improved the quality of public life there. Ciclovia, often called Open Streets or Sunday Streets, was born in Bogota in the 1970's. While long before Peñalosa's time, it was his administration that created over 43 miles (70km) of bicycle highways in just three years. He also oversaw the creation of the world's largest Bus Rapid Transit System, TransMilenio. He fought and won to democratize space, so that someone on a $30 bicycle was given the same consideration as someone in a $30,000 car.