citymaus

fastcompany: This morning I stumbled upon a brand-spanking-new...

Fri, 24 May 2013 20:23:15 -0700

This morning I stumbled upon a brand-spanking-new bank of Citibikes right around the corner from our office in downtown Manhattan.

Last year we asked if 10,000 bikes could change the way New Yorkers travel. I guess we’re about to find out!

-M. Cecelia Bittner

just showed this to my mom. she said it’s bad design that they did not put in a front basket, only a “protective rack” instead that can fit a briefcase or purse. not enough room to put in a bag of groceries. need a basket with four sides so things won’t fall out. the bcycle bikes we used in denver are better because of the basket.

moms know best! grocery shopping is #1 concern!!

delightfulcycles: (by Sergey)

Fri, 24 May 2013 18:28:24 -0700

delightfulcycles:

(by Sergey)

delightfulcycles: (by vutheara) happy friday!

Fri, 24 May 2013 15:03:45 -0700

delightfulcycles:

(by vutheara)

happy friday!

post a string of fixie portraits pick up a few new followers post urban planning stuff (not totally...

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:56:26 -0700

post a string of fixie portraits
pick up a few new followers
post urban planning stuff (not totally bike-related)
hah—tricked you!

jk :P :D

welcome, my few new followers. and hi to all the older peepz. :)

I will try to keep the content here pretty mixed/balanced. (but yeah, like i’ve mentioned before, if i post a slew of bike pics, it’s probably cuz i’m being lazy / i just spent an hour looking at this one blog. or urban planning news is slow.)

and for those who really did click “follow” because of the fixie pics, I hope some of this urban planning stuff looks interesting. better urban design, public spaces, bike- and ped-friendly infrastructure, etc. will make cities all better and safer places to live and cycle.

copenfuckinghagen: Supermarket chain gave away 40,000 bananas...

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:08:29 -0700

copenfuckinghagen:

Supermarket chain gave away 40,000 bananas that they normally throw out … To put focus on food waste. Cool.

Clitoral Mass OaklandSaturday, May 25, 2013. 12:00pm -...

Fri, 24 May 2013 12:51:08 -0700

Clitoral Mass Oakland
Saturday, May 25, 2013. 12:00pm - 7:00pm
Lake Merritt, Oakland

12:00pm PRE-RIDE ACTIVITIES (@Pillars)
- Safety checks and minor repairs
- Yoga for cyclists

2:00pm RIDE OUT (@Pillars)
- RIDE

4:00pm - 7:00pm AFTER PARTY (@ Bandshell)
- ALL FEMALE DJs (bike powered sound system)
- FOOD VENDORS (bike powered, woman owned)
- KIDZ ZONE brought to you by the fabulous Young Oakland and Big Tadoo Puppet Crew with face painting by Marinette Tovar
- MASSAGE 10 min./$15 by Kamau B. Love and Yavette Holts from One Presence Massage
- FREE VALET BIKE PARKING by Binx Garage

Demolition makes way for "world class, open, public space"

Fri, 24 May 2013 11:46:33 -0700

Demolition makes way for "world class, open, public space":

photo by vicki estrada

Work crews today began demolishing the old Robinsons- May/Planet Hollywood building at Westfield Horton Plaza in downtown San Diego to make room for a new public park.

Officials behind the $14 million project hope to create a 37,000-square-foot civic gathering space that will hold more than 200 events per year…

“This is going to be for our citizens, this is going to be for our tourists, this is going to be for all of us,” Mayor-elect Bob Filner told several hundred people on hand for a special event to mark the beginning of demolition.

Gary Smith, an advocate for downtown residents, said the area’s population has ballooned from 7,000 a couple of decades ago to around 40,000 now, and they need activities.

According to Westfield, which will manage the park and book the events, potential events include concerts, summer movie series, block parties, cultural festivals and holiday celebrations.

The area had been looked upon as a kind of dead zone in the downtown area, used more by the homeless than shoppers. One downtown resident told the City Council last year that the area was an embarrassment.

interview with san diego district 2 councilmember kevin faulconer on kbps, 29.11.12.

artist rendering.

sorely needed public space in downtown san diego. balboa park is more like running or cycling distance, the water is a few blocks away.. where you gonna sit and chill and eat your take-out lunch while it’s still hot??

also, my thoughts on why the lack of such a public space was a strong deterrent for the occupy movement in san diego

thisbigcity: poptech: thegreenurbanist: davewellbeloved: Now...

Fri, 24 May 2013 10:15:51 -0700

thisbigcity:

poptech:

thegreenurbanist:

davewellbeloved:

Now this is a good idea. Love one of these near my house

(via London Cycling Campaign)

Would love one of these for my office.

As we say in Maine, that’s wicked smaht.

Some London streets are getting these. They should be standard!

what if the lid falls and hits you

what if kids play hide-and-seek and the kid hiding there gets locked inside

what if homeless people become no longer homeless by making that their new home

NEVER MIND

“For just £42 per year, plus a key deposit, individuals receive 24-hour access to secure cycle storage near their home.”

london homes can’t be that cramped, can they??! if nyc residents can somehow fit their bikes in their homes..

jamisonwieser: Returning home from a weekend in Seattle the...

Fri, 24 May 2013 00:40:00 -0700

jamisonwieser:

Returning home from a weekend in Seattle the approach to SFO offered an aerial tour of San Francisco.

hella <3 that, too. when the pilot does a big u-turn (probably because of a queue at the runway) to get to OAK. but i see the bay bridge more than the gg bridge.

people need to understand the physics of sound and space

Thu, 23 May 2013 22:48:55 -0700

like the doppler effect stuff, you know?

on the way home today, i was stopped at a red light at telegraph/40th. i thought i had stopped in the middle front of the lane, but as the lane was wide, it turned out i was stopped slightly to the right.

so then a car pulled up to my left.

nothing happens.

then on the green and we both started moving, and of course the car accelerates faster,

and a white guy in the passenger side shouts at me, “i like your booz!”

me: ???!????

dude, you gotta understand i can’t hear what you’re saying when you’re moving away from me. if you want to say something to me, say it when we’re going the same speed right alongside each other. if you say something and you’re driving away, don’t expect me to catch what you’re saying.

if you want to say something to anyone on the road and you’re not stopped, limit your message to one or two words. two syllables max is the best.

this has happened quite a few times, and the next five minutes afterwards, all i do is wonder what the person could have said.

did he said boobs? but he couldn’t have really seen them from his point of view. and i’m wearing a sports bra and they are kinda squished because of the way i wear my messenger bag. or did he say shoes? my brown and pink etnies are old. or did he say booze? but that doesn’t make any sense. what about my bag? he likes my messenger bag with reflective binding?

no idea.

??!! on college ave. at ashby, berkeley.

Thu, 23 May 2013 17:33:32 -0700

??!! on college ave. at ashby, berkeley.

sat in on the ACTC (alameda county transportation commission)...

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:27:57 -0700

sat in on the ACTC (alameda county transportation commission) board meeting today. because.. why not

some stuff on the under construction I880 HOV (high-occupancy vehicle aka carpool) lanes, and the WETA (water emergency transportation) about how cities with ferries should have a seat on that board.

Rules for people walking and people cycling to avoid conflict and collisions

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:16:00 -0700

Rules for people walking and people cycling to avoid conflict and collisions:

in NYC and beyond:

New York is set to launch its bike-share program, Citi Bike, on Memorial Day. New Yorkers have met the impending influx of bikes with both excitement and dread. The mixed reactions are unsurprising: Antagonism has long simmered between pedestrians and cyclists in New York. As bicycle commuting has increased, so have eruptions of hostility between the two factions: These days, no intersection is immune to shouted insults and raised middle fingers. Then there are the daily incursions onto enemy turf: Loiterers defiantly lolling in bike lanes; bike-mounted scoundrels barreling down sidewalks. With 5,500 new bicycles about to hit the streets of New York, the situation is liable to escalate to all-out warfare…

Five Rules for People Walking

1. Don’t stand in the bike lane when you’re waiting to cross the street. This is huge. New Yorkers hate standing on the sidewalk; it sometimes feels like everyone is playing a version of hot lava in which the street is the only refuge. But as you position yourself to get a head start before the light changes, take care not to plant yourself in the middle of a bike lane (or, if there’s no bike lane, on the edge of the lane where cyclists often ride). This goes double if you wear music-blaring headphones that make it impossible for cyclists to alert you to their approach.

2. Look before you open your cab door, and get out of the way quickly after exiting your cab. Would you open a cab door into a traffic lane without checking first to see if a car was coming? Then don’t open a cab door into a bike lane without checking first to see if a bike is coming. Would you take your sweet time lingering in the middle of a heavily trafficked street after exiting a cab? Then get out of the way as soon as possible after stepping into a bike lane.

3. Don’t walk or run in the bike lane. If you absolutely must walk or run in the bike lane because, oh, a flash mob has broken into dance and taken over the entire sidewalk, be sure to walk against traffic so you can get out of the way when a cyclist approaches.

4. Jaywalk with caution. Jaywalking is a long, proud New York tradition, one that we would never dream of asking anyone to give up. On the whole, New York pedestrians are very good at looking into traffic, gauging how fast those distant cars are going, and timing their illicit walking to avoid getting hit by a car. Now you need to do the same to avoid getting hit by bicycles. Every time you think of crossing even though the orange hand is illuminated—or when you think of crossing outside the bounds of a crosswalk—make a point of looking for approaching cyclists. If your visibility is limited, don’t cross.

5. Don’t get offended or angry when cyclists ring their bells at you or yell at you. Most cyclists aren’t being smug sadists; they’re just trying to keep you safe by preventing a collision. (And if you follow the above rules, cyclists probably won’t ring their bells at you very often.)

Five Rules for People Cycling

1. Make yourself visible when riding at night. Pedestrians know to look for car headlights, but far too many bike riders forgo being clearly visible after sundown. For pedestrians’ safety, and yours, please don’t camouflage yourself. At the very least, you should wear brightly colored or reflective clothing. An even better idea: Equip your bike with a light. It’s the law, after all. (Thankfully, Citi Bikes come equipped with reflectors and self-powered lights.)

2. Don’t ride against traffic. There are lots of one-way streets in New York, and pedestrians are used to looking toward the oncoming traffic to figure out whether it’s safe to cross. If you’re riding against traffic, they won’t be able to see you, which makes a collision much more likely. (It’s also incredibly annoying to other cyclists.)

3. Don’t ride on the sidewalk. Just don’t. There are already hordes of slow-moving tourists and distracted walkers bumping into one another while playing with their phones. No need to add to the chaos by forcing people to dodge bikes as well.

4. Run red lights with caution. Just as New York pedestrians love to jaywalk, so do some New York cyclists hurry through red lights when there aren’t any cars coming. That’s fine—so long as you do so carefully. If you’re going to “jayride,” slow down and check for people in the crosswalk first, so as not to hit any pedestrians who may not anticipate you coming while cars are stopped at a light. This is especially important if you’re riding on the dotted line in between cars in the car lane—pedestrians hate being the subject of sneak attacks from in between cars. And while you’re waiting to slip past the red light, don’t just park your bike right in the middle of the crosswalk—pedestrians should not have to walk all the way around you when they have the right of way.

5. Don’t bring your bike on the subway during rush hour. Bikes are the biggest waste of train space during a packed commute—and unlike strollers, there’s no good reason for them to be on a subway. There are few things more frustrating than being forced to rub up against a stranger just because a bike is taking up room meant for five additional bodies—except for finding oneself unable to exit the train because a bike is blocking the doors.

slate, 22.05.13.

Intersection design

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:24:19 -0700

another excellent post! I highly recommend you follow stroadtoboulevard if you’re at all interested in redesigning streets to make them more livable and safer.

I wish i had taken pics (for my own reference) of the sidewalk/cycle track islands i like so much, but when i was in the NL two years ago i wasn’t that deep into urban planning yet.

stroadtoboulevard:

Intersections are where collisions happen. How can we design them to be safe for children?

This is a normal Vancouver intersection. I’ve highlighted the “Dutch Island” for pedestrians.

The same protective corner principle can just as easily apply to bikelanes.

This is Hamburg:

This is Rotterdam:

I think this ‘islands’ design is safer than Vancouver’s preferred bike boxes design for intersections. In the islands design, left-turning cyclists are guided to behave like pedestrians: cross twice. Adding the cyclists to the pedestrian numbers makes everyone protected, predictable and more visible.

In the bike-box design, left-turning small children on bicycles are guided to behave like cars: move forward to the middle of the intersection, vulnerable and alone, and wait for a gap in oncoming traffic. Far more people, especially small children and older people, are happier behaving like pedestrians: therefore public infrastructure investments must reflect this. Those who wish to run with the bulls still may, of course.

The red dots are supposed to represent large terracotta planters, while the blue bars represent Vancouver’s favoured concrete brutalist highway divider. All you need for safe streets are some paint, and bunch of these planters.

Another way to make intersections safer for children, is to bulge out the sidewalk, narrowing the entrance/exit so that pedestrians have less far to cross. Bulging and narrowing slows cars, so that cyclists also might be happy to share the lane. Again, you can achieve this with some paint and planters, if you’re short on cash.

You can see here that the bulging simply takes up the space before the intersection where parking is disallowed.

This intersection just has a bulge on one side, but note that the whole intersection is raised to pedestrian level.

Better yet, you could redistribute the bulging and design a Blackson Twist. This has the advantage of forcing cars to wiggle, slowing them, and providing something to block their view: a terminating vista, as they say in the business. It also provides a larger pedestrian space on one corner, which you can use as a patio or ultimately build on.

This example in London wasn’t retrofitted, but approximates the Blackson Twist design.

These two ‘fused grid’ designs aren’t true Blackson Twists, having symmetrical treatment only on two corners. This intersection in London has space for just one car at a time to pass through the between the bulges. It’s also raised.

This intersection in Vancouver has space for just bikes to pass through.

The more common ‘wiggle’-forcing design is the roundabout. Like streets, space on a roundabout can be shared if it’s made narrow enough; if wide, roundabouts must be ‘complete’ with separated spaces for pedestrians, cyclists and motor vehicles.

It’s worth noting that safety is improved by using intersection (and street) designs that slow, wiggle and separate traffic, as opposed to traffic signals that explicitly direct stop-start flow. Traffic will slow by being forced to wiggle, or squeeze through a narrow gap between bulges.

When traffic signals are green, intersections can all but disappear: approaching traffic doesn’t change speed at all through the intersection. This is clearly dangerous by design.

After age (cancer, heart disease) motor vehicles are the most common cause of death in the developed world. When deadly collisions happen, they happen at speed and they happen at intersections: broadside t-boning is not only immediately deadly for pedestrians and cyclists, it tends to take out drivers too. The designs above offer examples of safer alternatives.

If your city, like my “greenest” one, doesn’t design intersections like this as a matter of course, then they are dangerously and undemocratically serving a subset of citizens only, while failing to uphold the transport hierarchy.

Driver 'Emma Way' Tweets How She 'Knocked A Cyclist' Down, Norwich Police Investigate

Thu, 23 May 2013 11:02:20 -0700

Driver 'Emma Way' Tweets How She 'Knocked A Cyclist' Down, Norwich Police Investigate:

A spectacularly ill-advised tweet from a young driver, describing knocking a cyclist off his bike, has led to a police investigation and widespread social media outrage.

A Norwich woman, whose name is ‘Emma Way’ on Twitter, tweeted: “Definitely knocked a cyclist off his bike earlier – I have right of way he doesn’t even pay road tax #bloodycyclists”.

But the driver received a nasty shock after receiving a tweet from Norwich Police, advising her to hand herself in.

Her message was retweeted hundreds of times, with many pointing out that, in fact, road tax does not exist.

and get to the last sentence of the article: huffpo, 21.05.13.

other captures by posting on social media: yahoo, 22.05.13.

The final plan for wider sidewalks and other pedestrian...

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:40:21 -0700

The final plan for wider sidewalks and other pedestrian improvements on Castro Street between Market and 19th Streets was presented at an open house by the Planning Department this week. Overall, the pedestrian environment on Castro will be vastly improved after the skinny sidewalks are widened to as much as 22 feet, and the narrowed traffic lanes should also calm motor traffic.

more: sf.streetsblog, 17.05.13.

so flickr "pro" means nothing anymore

Wed, 22 May 2013 23:34:17 -0700

can i have my $15 or $20 back??
(i bought my flickr pro account in late august of last year.)

dyahh i kinda like expanded “thumbnails” on the main “photostream” page, but I’d much rather go back to the smaller thumbnails on the “details” page just so i can easily edit photo titles and captions right there.

I don’t like the unnecessary ”cover photo”. and endless scrolling!!! the thing I most hate!!!!

they’re making it more like facebook’s news feed, a “flow” of information… something I think is unnecessary as well. i don’t want to look at my contacts’ most recent uploads! i just got on flickr to upload my own pics! if i wanted to look at other people’s stuff, i would just click on their names!

the black background is also totally unnecessary—although i like the larger view of the photo—because there is still flickr “lightbox”, where you can view the photo full-browser window size. and back on the normal photo viewing page, the bottom part is old with white background for the comments and photo info. wtf?? why would you clash a black background on one part of the page, and white on the bottom part??

New GREEN BIKE LANE in downtown San Diego!

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:08:46 -0700

New GREEN BIKE LANE in downtown San Diego!

The Revolution Will Be Rideshared

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:12:16 -0700

The Revolution Will Be Rideshared:

Similar battles are being waged all across the sharing economy as municipal and state governments wrestle with questions about what kinds of licensing, taxes, and oversight make sense for businesses that operate virtually and “employ” a rotating group of regular citizens.

Last year, Airbnb found itself in hot water in a dispute over whether the company should be subject to the city’s 14 percent hotel tax, a battle it fought—and lost. After being hit with the CPUC fines, both Lyft and SideCar refused to comply and adopted the Airbnb argument: that the old rules need to be updated instead of reining in the new companies. “Asserting that we are operating a transportation carrier,” SideCar founder Sunil Paul posted on the company’s blog, “is like saying that Airbnb is a hotel chain, that Travelocity is an airline, or that eBay is a store.”

sfmag, 29.04.13.

i believe that ridesharing is an integral part of a working transportation system—one that increases people’s mobility options.

i hate taxis (esp. when cycling around in SF; and they’re expensive), the bus may never come, BART closes after midnight, outside of walking distance, i may not have my bike with me or am not going somewhere with a bikable route… immensely thankful for rideshare. LYFT! in particular.

i have, three times, hitchhiked for rides to get home after music shows because those cities i was in didn’t have rideshare.

also, i still believe it’s “The revolution will not be motorised.” but yeah, rideshare’s pretty awesome.

Household plastic is hardly the ideal material to wrap a wire...

Wed, 22 May 2013 13:06:28 -0700

Household plastic is hardly the ideal material to wrap a wire through which enough electricity is flowing to power a 41,000-pound bus.

That drivers and passengers could be subjected to such a situation, for well over a year, is a stark indicator of a transit system that has long made ends meet — and boosted its performance measures — by neglecting maintenance.

sfweekly, 13.06.12.

pretty jarring how MUNI has been allowed to run so horribly..

my own legs and bike — more reliable than MUNI? yes