Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

• Time's Michael Grunwald took the train ride from Miami to Orlando to consider the Obama administration's $8 billion investment in high speed rail. The US President aims to create 13 national high speed rail corridors to relieve road and air congestion, reduce carbon emissions and highway deaths, create jobs and jump-start the domestic manufacturing industry. The stimulus funding is a great first step but at 1/8 of last year's spending on highways, there is much more work to be done.

• The New York Times reports on the growing trend of cargo-hauling tricycles in New York City. The bespoke "industrial trikes" transform bikes from personal transportation devices to child-carrying, grocery-hauling complete car alternatives. Users even reported a positive change in their interactions with cars and trucks when using the device.

•The ]]> http://spacingottawa.ca/2010/07/28/world-wide-wednesday-maps-trains-trikes-and-three-million-in-the-a40/feed/ 0 http://spacingottawa.ca/2010/07/21/world-wide-wednesday-the-america-edition-plus-parking/ http://spacingottawa.ca/2010/07/21/world-wide-wednesday-the-america-edition-plus-parking/#comments Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:49:49 +0000 Hilary Best http://spacingottawa.ca/?p=3154

Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

• The hull of ship from the 1700s was found last week at the World Trade Centre site in Manhattan, reports CNN. Archaeologists suspect that the ship was sunk to retain and add precious land area to the island.

• Looking for a recession proof industry? The Globe and Mail reports that parking lots continue to pull in record earnings in Canadian cities. With supply limited by increasing real estate development in our downtown cores, the price of parking has increased 233 per cent in Calgary and 130 per cent in Toronto over the past ten years. While some bemoan the dent this has made in their pocket book, Spacing's Shawn Micallef calls this the "universal price of great urbanism" .

• As New York City cracks down on illegal advertisements, Treehugger reports that some of the city's guerilla gardeners are "turning billboard blight into pop-up planters".

• In Oakland, CA, Scraper…

Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We'll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

• Should private corporations be allowed to purchase the naming rights of public subway stations? The Transit Politic Blog muses on the answer as the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) considers selling Philadelphia's Pattison Avenue subway station to At&T (a decision that has since been voted through by the SEPTA board). Yonah Freemark makes a compelling argument for why "removing [a station's] geography-based name and replacing it with a corporate name" not only diminishes a station's character but is also needlessly disorienting.

• A fascinating post on the Human Transit Blog applies scientific studies on how our brains navigate space to how we understand the urban environment. Differentiating between spatial navigators at one extreme, and narrative navigators on the other, Jarrett Walker looks at how these different navigational strategies effect everything from our ability to…

Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We'll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

• In Hong Kong they drive on the left side of the road, in mainland China on the right. This simple difference creates an complicated engineering dilemma. How do you design a bridge between the two without creating chaos and confusion on the road? How do you get drivers to switch from one side of the road to the other without a head-on collision? Dutch design firm NL Architects, have come up with an answer -- build a figure eight bridge. As explained by Fast Company (who also host a video model of the bridge) the proposed "Flip Bridge" works by "separating the two sides of traffic, using a figure-eight shape. One side of the road dips under the other, funneling cars that were traveling on the left to the right (and vice versa), without forcing them…

Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We'll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

• The BP oil spill, which continues to wreak havoc on the United States' Gulf Coast, is just one more reminder of the perils of oil dependence and the dangers of offshore drilling. An article from Grist Magazine looks at the role cities can (and should) play in moving towards a more sustainable future.

• The first of model of the 380A, the fastest train in the world, was officially completed last week. Designed by China's Changchun Railway Vehicles Co., Ltd, and funded by the Chinese government, the new train can go up to 380 kph (236 mph), and will be in use in the country by 2011.

• A new gadget allows cyclists to charge their cell phones as they bike. Released by Nokia, the Bicycle Charger Kit starts converting peddle power into…

Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We'll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
• Though still incomplete, New Delhi's subway system is already being hailed as "a runaway success". According to the The New York Times not only is the Delhi Metro "scrupulously clean, impeccably maintained and almost unfailingly punctual" it also boasts cheap fares, and, even more incredibly, manages to turn an operating profit.

• London's Routemasters, the red doubledecker buses the city is famous for, are getting replaced. While still the iconic red, the new fleet, designed by Thomas Heatherwick and Wrightbus, will be significantly more sustainable and sleeker than the older models. The Architects Newspaper hosts a video on the design features of the new bus, scheduled to hit the road by 2012.

• Bangkok's city street continue to be the site of escalating violence between the Thai military and Red Shirt political protesters. A series…

Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We'll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
• What would a socially equitable city look like? The Polis Blog sheds some light on this complex question in a fascinating series entitled "The Just Metropolis". In the Polis Blog's second group post, 9 contributors write of their vision for a just city. They tackle the issues from multiple perspective, from the role of art in cities to social housing to the rule of the law.

• The LA Times looks at Medellín, Colombia's architectural renaissance. Home to 3.5 million, Medellín has been ambitiously investing in large-scale civic architecture for the last 10 years. Thanks to this public infrastructure initiative, libraries, schools and parks now dot some of Medellín's roughest neighbourhoods. According to the Times, "these projects are the capstones of a broader civic rebirth that has seen murder rates tumble nearly 90%…

Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We'll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

• The National Council of Research in Rome is generating innovative ideas on city building by looking at the urban environment through the eyes of children. As explained on The Polis Blog, the City of Children project works with cities across Italy, Spain and Argentina to change the way municipal policy is created by "engaging children as parameters and as guarantors of the needs of all citizens."

• Why does a 1-mile long greenway in the middle of Boston remain "a placeless desert" on the nicest days of the year?  The Boston Globe's Architecture critic unpacks why the city's Kennedy Greenway fails to attract visitors and muses on what can be done to improve its future.

• Moving from an example of poor public space design to some of the world's best--the…

Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We'll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

• Good Magazine has devoted its newest issue entirely to neighbourhoods. Check it out online for tips on starting a community garden and strategies for throwing an amazing block party.

• By this time next month the most expensive world fair in history will be in full swing in China's largest city. Shanghai continues to build intensely in preparation for the lavish event having already constructed massive pavilions, new subway lines and an additional airport terminal. The Washington Post reports on how China is preparing for the World Expo and what lessons the country learned from the equally extravagant Beijing Olympics.

• Bad manners on New York subways have spurred guerrilla activists into action. Graphic designer jayshells has distributed 400 "public service" posters across the city's subway trains outlining some of the most obnoxious public transit behaviour.…

Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We'll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

• Luud Schimmelpinnink--one of the activists behind the 1965 White Bicycle Plan in Amsterdam--has envisioned the bike city of the future. Schimmelpinnink's design incorporates electric bikes, iphone apps, smart cards, and puncture-proof tires to create a fully integrated, easy to use, and theft-protected program. Tree Hugger looks at the plan's details and shows renderings of some its most innovative design features.

• The CityFix recently ran a feature on the reasons behind the cable car's increasing popularity as a means of mass transit across the developing world.

• In light of the recent park building trend in the United Sates, The Infrastrucutrist has compiled a list of the country's 6 best new urban parks. Highlights of the series include Chicago’s $475 million, 24.5-acre Millennium Park featuring a…