an assignment for my urban design practicum course.

Urban design is not a single specific specialized field like nano engineering, but rather it encompasses many disciplines and requires the ability to synthesize all of them together. The ‘urban’ part tells of the setting—cities and areas of relative high concentration of human population. ‘Design’ is the action to be made upon urban environments. The goal of urban design is to create better places that enrich human experiences.

the serpentine pedestrian bridge that also serves as a noise barrier, designed by frank gehry. millenium park, chicago. 25.03.12.

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(Source: citymaus)

I’m not the only one to note that cycling happens in Cambridge not because of the infrastructure but despite it.

same can be said of cycling in many other British and American cities.

The local newspaper in Cambridge often includes the same kind of articles and letters from outraged non-cyclists (red lights, one way streets, pavement cycling) which you see in other areas in Britain. These letters, and the attitudes which go with them, are unknown in the Netherlands. The conditions which cause cyclists to ignore red lights, ride the wrong way down one-way streets and ride on the pavement are to a large extent eliminated in the Netherlands by infrastructure designed to benefit cyclists, so they are not an enforcement issue. The occurrence of these problems are symptoms of a greater planning and design problem.

…what makes cycling attractive in Dutch cities could be replicated in British cities if only the will existed to ask for it. What has been done is very simple. Long term planning is key — the same policies have been followed for many years. They’ve followed the principles of sustainable safety and have created conditions which:

• Keep cyclists away from cars absolutely as much as possible.
• Make all residential streets no-go areas for through traffic (preserving segregation of modes without cyclepaths).
• Provide bikes with more direct routes than cars.
• Remove cars from minor rural roads.
• Produce a high degree of subjective and social safety everywhere.

This is what is needed to make infrastructure a draw for cycling rather than a hindrance.

a view from the cycle path, 28.11.11.
and check this out! It’s so thorough! Photos of conditions in Cambridge with comments by Hembrow. 

A complete street in Amsterdam.

The more complete your streets, the healthier your population.

“Health may not be your shtick,” said Dr. Wilma Wooten, public health officer for the county, “but what you do today helps people stay healthy.”

The county Health and Human Services Agency was the key sponsor behind the conference. Good health promoted by good street design being the connective tissue between engineers and health officials.

According to Wooten, if Californians could improve their health by 5 percent, they could save $1.3 billion a year in medical and other health-related costs.

Well designed and maintained streets also make sense from a political standpoint. “The average person is extremely passionate about streets,” said council member Todd Gloria. “They may not know it, but they are very happy when streets are maintained.”

sandiego u-t, 07.09.11.