Car culture in North America has led to massive subsidies for car drivers that go pretty much unnoticed. One of these subsidies is in the way of “free parking,” which is anything but free. Cars occupy space during the day that could be used for productive means or green space,
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Melissa Fong: Happy City Lecture with Charles Montgomery & Gordon Price- March 26 Review
I did a little live tweeting of the Happy City lecture by http://www.charlesmontgomery.ca/ (Sometimes MY live tweeting devolves/evolves into fun commentary…). I thought I would make my first attempt at […]
Continue readingThings Are Good: Portland Continues Support For Sustainable Transportation
Portland, Oregon is already known for its amazing support of bicycle riders and pedestrians. Now they have taken their commitment to making their city even better by building the largest bicycle parking in North America. Similar parking for bikes is available in other places like in Amsterdam and Tokyo so
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Scientific Approach to Better Urban Design
Urban design is not an easy activity because of the multitude of variables that impact the overall urban experience. There are buildings, traffic (foot and vehicular), landmarks, natural occurrences like rivers, and abstracted economic forces. Space Syntax is a company has set out to make better urban design by using
Continue readingThings Are Good: Infographic: Footloose and Car Free
Riding bicycles is not only fun, it’s also great for the environment. Readers of this site already know many benefits of switching from a car-fcoused transportation society to one focused on sustainability and humanity. Because the internet is what it is, some people put together this infographic about the benefits
Continue readingAlberta Diary: High-speed rail in Alberta: a terrible idea that just won’t go away
“Modern high-speed passenger trains are not pushed forward on billowing sails…” Although, when we’re done paying for a multi-billion-dollar high-speed rail link between Edmonton and Calgary, this may be how many of us have to get around if we fancy using public transit. Below: William Cornelius Van Horne and the
Continue readingThings Are Good: 4 Theories Why US Teenagers Are Driving Less
Cars are horrible for the environment and car infrastructure can have very negative impact on local economies so it’s nice to see enthusiasm for driving diminishing in younger generations. American teens are less likely to have a license and less likely to want to own a car than previous generations.
Continue readingThings Are Good: More Evidence That Streetcars and Light Rail Improve North American Cities
In Toronto there is a crack smoking mayor who believes that streetcars and light rail are an urban blight. The evidence that rail-based transit is an economic boom to cities in North America continues to grow and more cities on the continent are benefiting from political decision (not made while
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Thomas Walkom points out that many Canadians can expect to lose jobs without any social supports due to the Cons’ focus on political messages over real-life impacts. And Blake Zeff offers a reminder that while progressive economic policy may be receiving more attention
Continue readingThings Are Good: Beets for Road Ice Removal
The traditional approach to deicing roads is to cover the roads (and thus the ground around the road) in salt – which is absolutely awful for the environment. Because so many people drive cars the demand for road salt is high and has come to negatively impact local economies and
Continue readingThings Are Good: Nifty Looking Glow in the Dark Paths
Saving energy is always a good thing, and sometimes that means turning out the streetlights. As a result, pathways go unlit and this can be problematic for cyclists and pedestrians. Enter a new surface treatment that glows in the dark for free night time illumination known as Starpath. Seeing that
Continue readingThings Are Good: Urban Highways Should Be Torn Down; Replaced By Useful Space
Car-dominated infrastructure is clearly bad for local communities, transit, the environment (local and global), and the economy. So why do so many places refuse to tear down crumbling urban highways? The addiction to the car is a powerful one in many parts of the world and we need to curb
Continue readingThings Are Good: The Amazing Drayson Electric Racing Car
The electric car racing league Formula E launches next year, which means that the racers need to build their cars now. The Drayson LMP 1 has 800 bhp and 4000 (!!) lb feet of torque all without a drop of petrol. This is a really impressive car and I can’t
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Grounding the Toronto Island Airport’s $1.9-Billion Claim
As part of its push to expand to accommodate jet flights, the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport has been advertising that it contributes $1.9 billion to Toronto’s economy. This claim is based on a study that the airport commissioned from InterVISTAS, an airline industry consultancy. The study estimates the airport’s
Continue readingThings Are Good: The Types of Cyclist Change Thanks to Bike Sharing
Bixi is a bike sharing program that started in Montreal but the concept exists in cities around the world. In Montreal where there are more bicycle commuters every year,researchers at McGill University surveyed cyclists before and after Bixi began. They were able to identify the types of cyclists that ride
Continue readingPostArctica: L.A.’s Famous Four-Level Freeway Interchange, ‘The Stack,’ Turns 58
by Nathan Masters on September 22, 2011 3:00 PM Fifty-eight years ago today, the Four Level interchange first opened to traffic. This iconic concrete ribbon that binds the 101 and 110 freeways is an almost inescapable feature of many Southern Californians’ commute. Admired by some and feared by others, the
Continue readingThings Are Good: Toronto Condo Developers Want More Bike Sharing, Less Focus on Cars
Despite repeated efforts by Toronto’s mayor to make transportation in the city worse, things are improving. Local condo developers are finding ways to build condo towers that don’t require more parking than the building needs (an archaic law in the city wants room for two cars for every bedroom built).
Continue readingThings Are Good: New Solar Powered Vehicles Seemingly from the Future
Last month an airplane known as Solar Impulse completed a fully solar-powered flight across the USA as a demonstration of current solar solutions. In the video above you can see why they made the flight and how the Switezerland-based company wants to change air travel. At the Guardian there is
Continue readingThings Are Good: Bicycle Commuters Save Economy $21 on Each Commute
Australian research has led to the conclusion that bicycle commuters are great for the economy! Every time a commuter chooses to ride a bicycle instead of a car or public transportation the economy benefits. With the obviousness of health benefits from riding a bicycle and the ever-increasing amount of economic
Continue readingThings Are Good: Better Urban Design Can Increase Happiness and Sexiness
Obesity is a growing problem in North America and it looks like this health issue will continue to grow. There are many contributing factors to what’s referred to as an obesity epidemic, and some designers think that we can curb at least one contributing factor: poor urban planning. Not coincidentally,
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