citymaus
i hella love bikesnobnyc.Brighter Planet's 350 Challenge

Urbanized, a feature-length documentary by Gary Hustwit about the design of cities, which looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design and features some of the world’s foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers.

will finally get around to watching this sometime this week.watch trailer here. 
by the same guy who did the documentary Helvetica.
irishboyinlondon:

RUDI: Place Making 2012:  Sharing innovation in urban life
Great read with some good examples!

In creating PLACEmaking, we aimed to put together a publication offering food for future thought: the creation of social cities, the use of Big Data for civic benefit, the articulation of economic and social value, and the development of tools and processes that enable everyone to participate in the design and shaping of place.
There is a whole 380pg PDF Model Design Manual for Living Streets, by Los Angeles County 2011.
What is Urban Design?

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)

» The truth about Cambridge

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:

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. 

» Cities urged to design streets for all users, not just cars


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.

humanscalecities:

By the City / For the City: An Atlas of Possibility for the Future of New York is a 352-page compendium of the schemes & dreams that hundreds of  New Yorkers and designers around the world shared in the lead-up to the  first-ever Urban Design Week (September 15-20, 2011). The Atlas is the inaugural title of a new imprint, Multi-Story Books.

1900’s Los Angeles Freeway (for bicycles).
read full blog post at highlandpark.

Kevin Lynch: The Image of the City, 1960, MIT–Harvard.

Currently reading.pretty short paperback. light reading. relevant.
about how people mentally map cities, streets, areas. 
I don’t have a smart phone and thus don’t rely on GPS, and find this to be very interesting, as I explore cities and try to piece together where goes to where and ask why some people don’t venture out of what boundaries/edges.
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