Celebrating urbanism
In New Zealand we struggle to celebrate urbanism – perhaps central Wellington aside. For some reason our national psyche is very rural, even though we’re a highly urbanised country, and there’s something almost apologetic about our cities – so we try to make them as quasi-rural as possible.…
8 Comments New York’s pedestrian improvements
Here’s a great video I came across explaining the improvements for pedestrians that have been made in Midtown Manhattan over the past few years. A few things really stood out for me: That reducing the roadspace didn’t lead to more congestion – in fact the simplified intersections meant less congestion and better flowing streets.…
Audio announcements on trains
A great announcement by Auckland Transport today, that we’re going to join the realms of having a “proper” rail system by having automatic station announcements on board the train:
A new audio information system Auckland Transport is introducing on trains next week is expected to make a big difference for blind and vision impaired people.…
Complete streets
This is a fantastic video from Streetfilms on New York City and their approach to remaking streets as “complete streets” over the past few years. The key with complete streets is providing mobility and accessibility for all types of transport: pedestrians, cyclists, public transport and cars – instead of cars and pretty much nothing else.…
Fine dining on the NYC subway
This video is so cool I simply must share it: NYC DiningCar: A 6-Course Dinner Party on the NYC Subway from Ronen V on Vimeo.
It’s amazing what you can do on a train.…
NYC Subway in 1949
I found a really interesting video on the New York Subway system, filmed in 1949: One thing that’s particularly interesting is mention of the “Second Avenue Subway” as a project that was about to get underway. 62 years later and New York is finally starting to get around to completing this massive (and essential) project.…
Stop blaming pedestrians for getting killed
There was a rather weird initiative yesterday morning as I wandered from my bus to work around the corner of Queen Street and Victoria Street – a mariachi band playing in time with pedestrians crossing the road and encouraging people to “check before they step”.…
Building the East River Tunnel in NYC
Courtesy of the excellent Second Avenue Sagas blog, here’s a fascinating video on the construction of the East River Tunnel (the 63rd Street one) in New York City during the 1970s. There are two interesting aspects to this tunnel. The first is its construction method – via an immersed tube rather than via the typical method of a bored tunnel.…
Congestion Pricing
Since I wrote a post about congestion pricing/charging a week or so ago, a post has emerged on the excellent Human Transit blog, and Streetfilms have also put together a video on the issue: As I noted in my previous post, I’m somewhat agnostic about congestion pricing.…
Transit-Oriented Developments
A great video from Streetfilms on transit-oriented developments (TODs) – with a particular focus on the effect New Jersey’s light-rail system has had on encouraging development around it: I think a fundamental principle of Auckland’s upcoming spatial plan should be to find out ways to encourage and incentivise – through appropriate transport improvements, zoning changes and clever financial tools, a greater focus on TODs.…
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