Multi-Modal Success Story

"Perhaps one of the best transportation stories of 2016 comes from Vancouver, B.C. where they have achieved a 50% sustainable mode share (bike, walk, transit) a full four years earlier than goal (2020). 10% of all work commuters now rider bikes to work."

"Long traditionally a region that prides itself on transportation options and rejecting the freeway movement in the 1960's and 70's (still the only major city in North America that boasts no freeways within its core) what Vancouver has done is set an impressive goal to have at least two-thirds of all trips by sustainable ways by 2040."

Vancouver's Multi-Modal Success Story from STREETFILMS on Vimeo.

My city

Clean green jobs

“The basic facts are simple. When we invest, say, $1 million in building the green economy, this creates about 17 jobs within the United States. By comparison, if we continue to spend as we do on fossil fuels and nuclear energy, you create only about 5 jobs per $1 million in spending. That is, we create about 12 more jobs for every $1 million in spending — 300 percent more jobs — every time we spend on building the green economy as opposed to maintaining our dependence on dirty and dangerous oil, coal, natural gas, and nuclear power.”

from: https://cleantechnica.com/2013/03/20/over-3-times-more-green-jobs-per-million-than-fossil-fuel-or-nuclear-jobs/

Living walls vs polluted cities

"A new report says that green building envelopes, often dismissed as architectural window dressing, are slashing by 20 percent street level air pollution and muffling traffic noise by up to 10 decibels in certain situations."

"In Cities Alive: Green Building Envelope, research firm Arup calls on developers and planners to implement strategic approaches toward “greening” and to harness the benefits of living walls and green roofs to help create a cleaner and healthier environment for all, reports Construction Inquirer."

from: http://www.childrenandnature.org/2016/11/25/study-backs-spread-of-living-walls-for-polluted-cities/

Privately Owned Public Spaces

"The Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) has wrapped up review of the city’s extensive network of privately-owned public spaces (POPS). The current tally of POPS stands at 40 stretching from the University District to West Seattle."

"Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS) are open to the public, and include plazas, arcades, atriums, hillclimbs, and green streets. These spaces are allowed or required by rules in the Seattle Land Use Code that have been in place for several decades, and are generally located in Seattle's Center City. Other POPS may be open to the public as a result of a street vacation (permanent closure of a street). These spaces can be located in neighborhoods throughout Seattle, wherever a public space is created as a public benefit ."

from: http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/toolsresources/pops/default.htm

"POPS come in many shapes and sizes from plaza, hillside terraces, and pocket parks to hill climb assists, atriums, and mid-block connections. The City has had incentives and requirements on the books for more than a few decades now to develop POPS in exchange for additional development capacity and street vacations, the latter of which is typically the result of a public benefits package. In either case, development proponents voluntarily choose to offer POPS as part of development proposal."

from: https://www.theurbanist.org/2016/11/04/seattles-update-on-privately-owned-public-spaces/

This process requires oversight and proper planning since its ultimate goal is to apease both developer and everyday user. "In New York, planning officials in the late 1950s began offering private developers additional height and density in exchange for light and public open space. This “incentive zoning” generated hundreds of plazas, arcades, walkways and pocket parks owned and maintained by property managers. New York journalist Adee Braun has described the Big Apple’s POPS as “urban nesting dolls [that] were built to provide the public with shortcuts, shelter and gathering spaces.”

from: http://spacing.ca/toronto/2015/04/21/parks-crisis-part-6-privately-owned-public-spaces-answer-parks-deficit/

More info here from a past blog post:
http://civilizedurbanplanning.blogspot.ca/2016/05/privatization-of-urban-planning.html

Built environment alterations

One example of tactical urbanism:

Stop Gap is a "volunteer-run campaign that creates awareness about barriers in the built environment."






from: http://stopgap.ca/about-us/

Previous post on similar topic:

http://civilizedurbanplanning.blogspot.ca/2015/08/do-it-yourself-urbanism.html

Better intersections

"If you think the only purpose of intersections is to move cars past each other, you solve problems like a plumber: with bigger pipes. But wide, barren streets full of traffic don’t make a livable city. One solution would be nothing. No lights, no curbs, no sidewalks—just colored pavers. It works. Accidents decline, traffic slows, and property values rise. “You’ll never do as good a job as two ­people using body language and eye contact,” says Sam Goater, a senior associate at the Project for Public Spaces. But don’t rip out the infrastructure just yet. Urban designers have a good set of tricks to turn a city intersection into something more like a plaza and less like a freeway interchange. Cars pass, people walk, bikers bike, and everyone’s lives flow more smoothly."



from: https://www.wired.com/2016/10/how-to-design-better-cities/

Cyclists creating change?

"Does cycling really contribute to gentrification? John Stehlin, a geographer at the University of California, Berkeley who has studied San Francisco’s cycling politics, says the relationship is complex. “Cycling feeds into wider urban changes, including gentrification, but it does not cause gentrification. A bicycle lane gets put on a street that is already undergoing change.”



"Among what urban theorist Richard Florida calls “the creative class”, the bicycle is a potent symbol of identity and status. And more bikes, it seems, means more well-paid knowledge economy jobs. “Cycling to work is positively associated with the share of creative class jobs and negatively associated with working-class jobs,” Florida wrote in 2011."

"City planners often “use cycling infrastructure as a way to facilitate development. So where gentrification goes cycling infrastructure follows, but that is a problem of planning, not cycling.”

from: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/oct/05/blame-bike-cycling-contribute-city-gentrification




Many cyclists are white and wealthy. But not all of them are. More info here:
https://urbanful.org/2014/11/17/do-bike-lanes-gentrify-neighborhoods/

Making cycling safer

Interesting idea:

"Cars barreling by him. SUVs passing within inches of his bike’s handlebars. Drivers jamming on the brakes and leaping from their vehicles to confront him. Daily commutes used to be tough for Warren Huska, who cycles 18 kilometres from his home near the Beaches to his office in North York almost every day. “People get really insulated inside a vehicle,” Huska said. “They don’t really know where the edges of their vehicle are.” 

"But, for the past year, drivers have given Huska a wider berth. Now, when he mounts his trusty two-wheeled steed, Huska is protected by a pool noodle. Strapped to his bike’s frame with bungee cords, the floppy foam cylinder is a reminder to drivers not to get too close."

from: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/10/18/cyclist-says-his-pool-noodle-makes-toronto-streets-safer-for-him.html

The farm of the future?

"We need a new way to feed our planet."



"As urban populations continue to rise, innovators are looking beyond traditional farming as a way to feed everyone while having less impact on our land and water resources. Vertical farming is one solution that's been implemented around the world. Vertical farms produce crops in stacked layers, often in controlled environments such as those built by AeroFarms in Newark, New Jersey. AeroFarms grows a variety of leafy salad greens using a process called "aeroponics," which relies on air and mist. AeroFarms' crops are grown entirely indoors using a reusable cloth medium made from recycled plastics. In the absence of sun exposure, the company uses LED lights that expose plants to only certain types of spectrum. AeroFarms claims it uses 95% less water than a traditional farm thanks to its specially designed root misting system. And it is now building out a new 70,000 square foot facility in a former steel mill. Once completed, it's expected to grow 2 million pounds of greens per year, making it the largest indoor vertical farm in the world."

Aerial imagery

"All of the images in Overview were created by stitching together numerous satellite photographs from DigitalGlobe’s 15-year time-lapse image library, which contains some of the world’s highest quality satellite imagery."

"Grant named the project after the “Overview Effect,” a sensation of profound shift in perspective that astronauts experience when given the opportunity to look down and view the Earth as a whole. His hope is that by giving viewers a chance to engage with these far-flung perspectives, we can not only share in that unique, rare sensation, but also gain a new understanding of our place on the planet."

from: http://twistedsifter.com/2016/10/photos-that-will-give-you-a-new-perspective-on-earth

Books for City Lovers!

How many have you read?

"The range of city living books we found is wide, consisting of both fiction and non-fiction. The books focus on individual stories within a city, specific cities around the world, economies that sprout from and sustain cities, and so much more. Several of the books focus on a specific aspect of city living like green or sustainable design, while other books give the history of how cities came about and why so many people gravitate towards them."



"Updated with a new Introduction by the authors and a foreword by Richard Florida, this book is a comprehensive guide book for urban designers, planners, architects, developers, environmentalists, and community leaders that illustrates how existing suburban developments can be redesigned into more urban and more sustainable places. While there has been considerable attention by practitioners and academics to development in urban cores and new neighborhoods on the periphery of cities, there has been little attention to the redesign and redevelopment of existing suburbs. The authors, both architects and noted experts on the subject, show how development in existing suburbs can absorb new growth and evolve in relation to changed demographic, technological, and economic conditions."

"The American Dream of a single-family home on its own expanse of yard still captures the imagination. But with a growing population —100 million more people expected in the United States by 2050—rising energy and transportation costs, disappearing farmland and open space, and the clear need for greater energy efficiency and a reduction in global warming emissions, the future built environment must include more density. Landscape architect and land planner Julie Campoli and aerial photographer Alex S. MacLean have joined forces to create a full-color, richly illustrated book to help planners, designers, public officials, and citizens better understand, and better communicate to others, the concept of density as it applies to the residential environment."

from: http://www.bookscrolling.com/best-books-living-city/

Friday link

Sometimes the goal of architecture is to blend into the landscape.

"The Woodman’s Treehouse is a luxurious two-story suite arranged between and beneath the canopy of aged oaks. Far from being a woodland folly it is the sleepover den every grown-up dreamed of as a child; a self-contained tree-top world of tricks and toys, part castle, part hovel, part lair."

from: http://www.architectmagazine.com/project-gallery/the-woodmans-treehouse_o

Best Google Doodles Celebrating Architects and Architecture

"Since 1998, Google has been manipulating their iconic logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries and the lives of famous artists, pioneers, and scientists, creating what they call Google Doodles. Since the very first doodle (used to indicate founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s attendance at Burning Man that year), Google has produced over 2000 fun, colorful drawings to inform their users about the important milestones that fell on that date. Of these doodles, numerous have featured the works or lives of some of history’s most prominent architects. Check out a sampling of some of our favorites."

from: http://www.archdaily.com/797885/27-of-the-best-google-doodles-celebrating-architects-and-architecture

"Sustainable Infrastructure for Better Growth, Better Climate and Better Lives"

"All countries - developed and developing countries alike - need to act now on climate change if we are to reduce emissions to relatively safe levels, of 2 degrees Celsius with an aspiration of 1.5 degrees Celsius."

from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-rijsberman/sustainable-infrastructur_b_12579906.html

Cool animation video!

"The vision for the Port Lands is the creation of an “urban island,” by rerouting the Don River."



Click here to see video animation:

https://twitter.com/TorontoStar/status/789186431239401472

more info: https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2016/10/20/port-lands-flood-protection-cost-rises-to-125-billion.html

Better street design

"It is better to design roads to have more frequent stimuli: trees, sidewalks with pedestrians, commercial development, [and] residential development," writes Levy. Another trick is to make lanes narrower. Drivers speed up in wider lanes, and they're also pedestrian-hostile, making it harder to cross streets safely. Narrowing them helps in both cases, and could create more space at the side of the road for bigger sidewalks or wider bike lanes."



from: https://www.fastcoexist.com/3064333/design-is-better-than-enforcement-to-make-cities-safer-for-everyone

I always loved a good map!

"Data lover and Geography PhD candidate Robbi Bishop-Taylor uses open-source GIS software to generate high-resolution maps of the world. In a recent project, Bishop-Taylor created a high-resolution map of Canada’s trails, roads, streets and highways; weighted and colored by size (from small unsealed trails and roads in blue to freeways in bright yellow)."



from: http://twistedsifter.com/2016/09/canada-mapped-by-trails-roads-streets-highways/

Tiny ways to make outsized transformations

"Sometimes the smallest things we can do for our neighborhoods can have the biggest impact. At Curbed, we know the power of a vegetable garden planted in a vacant lot or a library installed on a sidewalk. For Micro Week, we want to share 101 urban interventions and ideas that show how even the tiniest changes can make our cities better places."

from: http://www.curbed.com/2016/9/22/13019420/urban-design-community-building-placemaking

Hostile design

"Take a public bench: Though its primary purpose is to give people a place to sit, it can also be used for sleeping, skate tricks, or even romantic entanglements. If such uses are deemed inappropriate, unpleasant design elements can be added to deter them. For example, strategically placed armrests can make sleeping uncomfortable, skating dangerous, and love-making gymnastic, thereby forcing "proper" use of the bench."



Or "a low wall with metal anti-skate bars affixed along the edges."



"This kind of design becomes problematic when humans aren't aware of it," Savić says, "Or when it's done for the pure purpose of profit with little benefit to society in general. It's especially problematic when it targets certain groups, like young people or the homeless." While Savić believes that unpleasant design is often inevitable, even useful in some cases, she thinks the notion that objects can solve problems is flawed. By attacking one problem with unpleasant design, other problems are often created, she says. She gives the example of pigeon spikes, which deter pigeons from landing on eaves and other structures. Though the spikes work well, they tend to concentrate birds in locations without spikes. It doesn't solve the root of the problem, it just moves it."

from: http://www.popsci.com/unpleasant-design

Bike Vancouver!

"In 2012, Vancouver's city council set an ambitious goal to reach a bike mode split of 7% by 2020 which was achieved in 2015, 5 years ahead of the plan! And even more impressive: if you just look at just work commute mode splits, they've achieved 10% which certainly puts them in a rare category in North America."



"When you ride around the fantastic network of bike lanes throughout the city, it is no wonder Vancouver, BC is experiencing a leap in ridership. Most of the city feels safe to ride in and it's fun to see all sorts of people out on bikes. And the fact that they are constantly going back to re-engineer and tweak some parts of the lanes to make them even safer is a key plot point that we need to engage all cities to do more of."

"Here's just one fact from Dale Bracewell from the City of Vancouver who's our main storyteller: when the city had just painted bike lanes on Hornby Street, the share of women cycling was 28%. After the landscaped protected bike lanes were constructed and years of growth, the share of women cycling by 2015 has grown by 40% (now 39% of the total people cycling)."

Vancouver's Breathtaking Network of Safe, Protected Cycletracks from STREETFILMS on Vimeo.

The cost of sprawl

"Sprawl Costs the Public More Than Twice as Much as Compact Development - How much more does it cost the public to build infrastructure and provide services for sprawling development compared to more compact neighborhoods? A lot more, according to this handy summary from the Canadian environmental think tank Sustainable Prosperity."

from: http://usa.streetsblog.org/2015/03/05/sprawl-costs-the-public-more-than-twice-as-much-as-compact-development/

Bike lanes in Victoria

"Construction has started on the city's first two-way protected bike lane on Pandora Avenue in the city's downtown. While the lane itself is only a few blocks long, it's part of a larger plan dubbed Biketoria that aims to vastly improve cycling infrastructure in the Vancouver Island city. "The whole Biketoria network of corridors is transformational for the city of Victoria," said Brad Dellebuur with the city's engineering department. "It is going to fundamentally change how you move around in the city."



from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/victoria-breaks-ground-on-first-protected-bike-lane-1.3794968

Science!

"$22.7M to support research in building resilient, interdependent systems able to withstand disasters."

from: https://nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=189956&org=NSF&from=news

Transit your way

Apple and Google Maps aren't perfect, "which leaves room for competitors to fill in the various gaps. One such competitor is the small team behind a popular public transit app called, a bit dryly, Transit App. In their bid to create a fully functional map that would include every transit mode in a city without sacrificing aesthetics, the Montreal-based company of just 17* developers, designers, and cartographers are taking the two tech giants head on. “Google Maps and Apple Maps have tried to do it, but we thought we could do better.”



from: http://www.citylab.com/design/2016/08/the-transit-app-trying-to-beat-google-and-apple-at-mobile-mapping/493421/

"A transit map is much more than a list of stations. It’s the underlying anatomy of your city. It shows how people move, how neighbourhoods are connected, and how your craziest city adventures begin."



from: https://medium.com/transit-app/transit-maps-apple-vs-google-vs-us-cb3d7cd2c362#.xa27pzg3u

Vancouver's new planner

"Vancouver, which is beset by high anxiety over homelessness, growth, development and the soaring price of housing, is in a prime position to reset itself, says the city’s new chief planner. “There’s a moment of ripeness to ask the big questions and make some big moves,” said Gil Kelley, who was recruited from San Francisco to head up the city’s beleaguered planning department. “It’s a time to look at where is the city heading in the long term.” He said Vancouver is suffering from a bewildering dilemma that has become common among attractive 21st-century cities: The better it becomes, the worse it is for some residents."



“Vancouver is iconic physically, but it has also been willing to strike out ahead and be a global model,” Mr. Kelley said, explaining that was one of the reasons he was willing to leave San Francisco and come to Vancouver. “I wasn’t sure I wanted to take this position when they first called, but I was seduced by the moment Vancouver’s in.” He praised the big shift the city made in the late 1980s and early 90s as planners helped create a new model of urban living downtown. But, he said, the city needs to have a collective conversation about where to go next – not a comprehensive rezoning and development plan, as some have suggested, but a vision for the future."

from: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/vancouvers-new-chief-planner-says-city-is-ripe-for-change/article32254131/

Great Neighbourhoods

The APA has chosen its 15 communities in its 2016 list of Great Places in America.

"Characteristics of a Great Neighborhood include:

1. Has a variety of functional attributes that contribute to a resident's day-to-day living (i.e. residential, commercial, or mixed-uses).
2. Accommodates multi-modal transportation (i.e. pedestrians, bicyclists, drivers).
3. Has design and architectural features that are visually interesting.
4. Encourages human contact and social activities.
5. Promotes community involvement and maintains a secure environment. 
6. Promotes sustainability and responds to climatic demands.
7. Has a memorable character."

from: https://www.planning.org/greatplaces/neighborhoods/characteristics.htm

Need to learn 3D modeling?

Need to learn 3D modeling?

"SketchUp is one the most popular and easy-to-learn 3D modeling programs available, and it's a great tool for planners and urban designers. This course provides an introduction to how planners and architects represent three-dimensional objects with step-by-step instructions for creating and using simple 3D models."



from: https://courses.planetizen.com/course/sketchup-2016-intro/1#

Colour done well in architecture

#vancouver #colourful #residential

A photo posted by Cherish (@cherish2028) on Sep 23, 2016 at 8:35pm PDT

Land use affects exercise levels

"Four land use factors were found to be directly and independently significant with respect to exercise. In each case, the greater the presence of the land use characteristic, the more the subjects engaged in physical activity, on average:

• Residential density. It takes a critical mass of homes in a neighborhood to support economically viable shops and amenities within walking distance.
• Intersection density. Well-connected streets tend to shorten travel distances and put more likely destinations within walking distance.
•  Public transport density. More transit stops within walking distance make it more likely that residents have transit options and will elect to use them.
• Access to parks. Parks serve not only as places where people exercise but also as destinations people walk to and from, getting exercise as they do."

from: http://www.placemakers.com/2016/09/06/four-characteristics-of-active-healthy-neighborhoods/

Innovation in architecture

"Vancouver city council has referred to public hearing a proposed condo tower that will redefine the downtown skyline."

"With its distinctive curved silhouette, the 43-storey building will be a development by Westbank Projects Corp. The high-rise, planned for the southeast corner of Alberni and Cardero streets, has been designed by Kengo Kuma, a Japanese architect who will be creating a new stadium in Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics. An urban-design analysis by city staff notes that the building form constitutes a “recognizable new benchmark for architectural creativity”.

from: http://www.straight.com/news/795631/westbank-plans-new-tower-curved-silhouette-downtown-vancouver