…But are our cities, the places we live, being built for young people? Do kids really care about the way our city looks? The way it is designed, built and managed?

Two young Saskatoon urban planners are looking to answer those questions. They have created a summer camp designed to engage children as young as 10 in the world of urban design.

…

At the weekend camp, kids between 10 and 13 learn about everything from zoning bylaws and restrictions to how to design roads, build bridges and bike lanes. They take tours through parks and neighbourhoods and learn about different concepts of urban design.

thestarphoenix, 13.06.12.

(Source: lifeonfoot, via captainplanit)

Introduced by Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, this bill (H.R. 1581) would eliminate protection for wilderness study areas and Forest Service roadless areas — exactly the kind of healthy, undisturbed lands that provide and safeguard clean air and water resources, supply habitat for plants and animals, and offer Americans a place to get outdoors and kayak, camp, fish, or hike. That’s one reason why people in the outdoor recreation industry — which, by the way, supports nearly 6.5 million jobs and contributes $730 billion annually to the U.S. economy —are among the biggest opponents of this public lands giveaway. 

Send an email (through the Sierra Club) to your Representative to keep this land our land.

(Source: speakerforthetrees, via climateadaptation)

Pedestrians and trams are given priority treatment in Zurich. Tram operators can turn traffic lights in their favor as they approach, forcing cars to halt.

Mr. Fellmann calculated that a person using a car took up 115 cubic meters (roughly 4,000 cubic feet) of urban space in Zurich while a pedestrian took three. “So it’s not really fair to everyone else if you take the car,” he said.

“We would never synchronize green lights for cars with our philosophy,” said Pio Marzolini, a city official. “When I’m in other cities, I feel like I’m always waiting to cross a street. I can’t get used to the idea that I am worth less than a car.”

nytimes, 26.06.11.

^ What I miss most about Europe.
fuck this 3-second greenlight (and 3-minute greenlight—red for me—for the cars on the arterial road) at the ends of my street-block and drivers who are angry that I’m on a bike right next to their car.

This past January, the Federal Transit Administration signed an agreement with the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority for $45 million in federal economic stimulus funds to build a new, 1.5-mile streetcar line. It would link Canal Street with the Union Passenger Terminal, a 1954 structure that’s now home to the Amtrak and Greyhound stations.

Skeptical New Orleanians wondered why. Of course, connecting to a regional transportation center was a sensible thing. But the line passed block after block of bleak, asphalt-savanna surface parking that flanks partially filled office towers. Why not route the new streetcar through communities that already had a denser residential population?

The answer came pretty quickly. Routing the streetcar through an underused part of the city, it turned out, was like adding water to sea monkeys. The blocks came to life almost immediately.

…

“Once upon a time, traffic engineers told us how we should design a street,” Nordahl told me. So streets ended up being what one writer has referred to as “traffic sewers”—concrete sluices designed strictly for cars. That attitude has changed. “Now there’s this movement all across the country where we’re redesigning streets—they’re narrower, and travel is slower, but they’re very inviting and comfortable for pedestrians,” he said.

architectmagazine, 02.03.11.