Paris School Streets: Safe for Children, Safe for Everyone Streetfilms® 2024-02-21 | For many years now advocates and communities around the world have been focussed on Paris School Streets not only because they make streets safer on those blocks for kids but by the swift and ample number of the high quality implementation of them.In the last 4 years there have been many thousands of social media photos of the school streets in action, presentations by academics & safe streets advocates and even a few video clips and an occasional news report from Paris on them, but there hasn't been anything on the scale of even a short film. So I set out to change that interviewing some people that could give a good amount of background on Paris School Streets. (And even two folks from the U.S. who frequent Paris I interviewed in NYC on some of our nicer places.) I didn't get everyone I wanted on film, one of my prime interviews came down with Covid(!!). But I hope you enjoy this. It is truly remarkable.
Talking Congestion Pricing in Stockholm Under a Toll Gantry with Jonas Eliasson! Streetfilms® 2024-05-13 | Gersh Kuntzman from StreetsblogNYC interviews Stockholm Congestion Pricing expert Jonas Eliasson under a noisy tolling gantry where a once-traffic choked spot along a highway now run relatively smoothly for drivers thanks to Congestion Pricing which was instituted in 2007.
There Are Many Reasons Why Stockholm Is So Pleasant to Walk In. Heres One! Streetfilms® 2024-05-06 | Okay. Before we dive in. Yes. Yes. These indeed these signs ARE ALL OVER Europe. I've probably seen them in this style in a dozen countries. But when you walk & bike around Stockholm, they really are ubiquitous. One reason is that pedestrians really do have the right of way in many situations. In fact, there is no law that a pedestrian can ever be ticketed for crossing the street ANYWHERE! And drivers always must yield. If they do not it is a $300 fine. And we are told the police do write some (in NYC in 33 years I can only recall seeing that happen ONCE!)Additionally, the more miles you put in walking (I did 11 miles the morning I landed) you can see that at least in this Swedish city, they try not to put in traffic lights. Many intersections consist of no stop signs and pedestrian right of way at all corners. It all leads to drivers being more careful and civil. The central city is so walkable and stress-free. My visit in 2017 it felt more walkable than any place I have ever been. And it feels even more amazing in 2024. After all, it is the birthplace of Vision Zero.
Utrecht Redux: Bicycle Dutch Shows Us the Restored Canal, Busiest Cycle Path & Much More! Streetfilms® 2024-04-29 | So as you may already know, one of Streetfilm's most successful videos of all-time was our 2019 trip to Utrecht to make the film "Utrecht: Planning for People, Not For Cars", which surpassed 1 million views faster than anything we've ever produced.I was visiting The Netherlands with my family for the first time and we decided to meet up with Mark Wagenbuur (Bicycle Dutch on Youtube) in Utrecht. He took us on a great tour of all the amazing things happening around the train station including many bike improvements, open space initiatives and we even visited the absolutely amazing Railway Museum which is definitely one of the tops in the world.I filmed it all for fun and made this great keepsake of the day. There's lots to see and you will enjoy watching in real-time how our day went. Thanks so much to Mark for not only being our guide but also for tagging along to the museum where we would have missed some really cool things if it wasn't for him.
Bicycle Dutch Rides Some NYC Crosstown Bike Lanes With Us! Streetfilms® 2024-04-15 | First things first: so thrilled Mark Wagenbuur (Bicycle Dutch) came to NYC this week. We've both made over 1,000 transportation films and he has become a good friend. It was so much fun to ride around with him and amazingly I'll be joining him to do the same in Amsterdam in about a week!!We did a 20 mile loop of the city and I tried to show off some of the best stuff we have here. It was a rainy, cold & windy trip but I think what he saw on 1st Avenue, the new East River Midtown Greenway, one of our best 2-way cycle tracks on Crescent Street in Queens, the magnificent 34th Ave Open Street, the Kosciusko Bridge path and several other NYC DOT projects he really quite enjoyed. He was filming while he made his way around NYC and hopefully he will post some of his thoughts on the Bicycle Dutch Youtube.But I saved my grimmest, bicycling pet peeve for the end of the ride: bicycling New York City crosstown. It was a Saturday and I thought it wouldn't be as bad as during the week, but it proved to be horrible as usual. Believe it only not we only did about 10 minutes of riding and this is just a portion of what we saw!NYC needs to really upgrade what we are doing for crosstown bicycle lanes, especially from the Village thru Midtown. The protected lanes we have are not truly protected. They need to be wider. Safer. Hardened with immovable barriers. If you have lanes that frequently look like this it's really not encouraging people to jump on a bike. Drop me a line as I am going to be covering crosstown lanes throughout 2024.
Painting Paseo: 26 Blocks of Joy (on NYCs 34th Ave Open Street) Streetfilms® 2024-04-09 | The first weekend in April saw the 34th Avenue, the 1.3 mile open street in Jackson Heights, Queens begin transforming the granite traffic-calming blocks at the head of most streets from uninspiring grey to vivid designs of fun & nature from a diverse group of Queens-based artists who had applied and submitted their ideas in the Fall.The Alliance for Paseo Park initiated the project nearly a year ago with funding from Council Member Shekar Krishnan and a committee first spent months getting permission from the NYC DOT. They then selected 26 Queens-based artists (many living right along the open street) and over the winter chose a universal color palette each composition had to utilize.In addition, most of the artists had no experience in painting granite and luckily, shortly after their deployment in 2022, Jackson Heights neighbor Grace Alejandra brought out some paintbrushes and expressed herself on a few of the blocks to beautify the open street. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive and she was recruited as a mentor and advice giver to those needing tips in painting granite.
Queens Childrens March: 750 People Have Died in Queens Since Vision Zero Launched in 2014 Streetfilms® 2024-03-23 | Friday a sobering march/vigil for the recent tragedy of 8-year old Bayron Palomino Arroyo who was killed walking with his family in a crosswalk with the light by an aggressive, dangerous driver with a history of bad driving including 4 prior arrested for unlicensed driving.The march was attended by a dozen elected officials and over 200 marchers who walked thru the streets of Corona to draw attention to current legislation in Albany, NY that if passed could allow cities to set their own speed limits, extend & expand the expiring red light camera program. In addition, speakers called on Mayor Adams to do more traffic calming - such as "universal daylighting" and the NYPD to do more far more aggressive enforcement.
Adventures in Paris 12th Arrondissement: School Streets, Car-Free Spaces & More Green Plazas Streetfilms® 2024-02-04 | After giving us an awesome interview about School Streets, City of Paris Urban Planner Priscilla Benedetti offered to take me on a tour of the 12th arrondissement and since I had some time before my next meet up I happily agreed. What she showed me in the next hour or so blew my mind away - not only due to the quality of the transformations but also the speed at which Paris is doing things.And this is only a small section of the arrondissement, remember citywide Paris is undertaking big changes to its streets both physically but also policies! Nothing was more than a mile away from the school street I filmed her at (a small tease to our next Streetfilm is given at the head of the film). If you think your city cannot do it due to funds, that is simply not the case. All cities can re-prioritize safer places for people and do this kind of work - it just takes the "will" and "guts" like Gil Penalosa loves to say!
NYC Broadway: Before & Afters That Will Leave You Astounded! Streetfilms® 2024-01-10 | A lot of people have watched my previous 20+ minute epic on the dynamic street changes on NYC's Broadway over the past 20 years. Many did ask if there was a way to excerpt just the actual before & afters so they could use it as a tool in presentations or to show their cities.So I excerpted quite a few of them here (about 15 pairs) so you can showoff the dramatic changes. If you want to watch the original with interviews featuring many New York experts including NYC DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, I highly recommend it: youtube.com/watch?v=7GgtmW-W9QY
Biking to Work with Actress Amy Hargreaves ! Streetfilms® 2024-01-01 | I've been lucky to hang out or ride along with some famous New Yorkers who are bike riders and actors over the years! Including: "The Ethicist" Randy Cohen, Kate McKinnon, Michael Musto, George Hahn, David Byrne and others. Today you get to see my fun commute with actress Amy Hargreaves, who has been a star of stage, screen and television for over 30 years!Come along on our fun ride from her Yorkville home base thru Times Square for the play "Till Death" at Theater Row (note it has since finished it's run) as we discuss all sorts of great urban topics like WIDE bike lanes, congestion pricing, safety for riding at night, Citi bikes and how she chooses what mode of transport she will use (she also does not own a car, but will occasionally rent one - wait until you hear THAT story!)It is an eclectic journey featuring her path thru the Upper East Side (we stopped to ride a few blocks of the new Third Avenue bike lane!) then via a dark and sparsely populated Central Park lower loop which leads us to directly into Times Square using 7th Avenue or as Amy says, "the belly of the beast"! All along hear how she says the ride to the stage helps her relax and prepare for her role and the ride home allows her to recoup energy and decompress.One of my favorite ride alongs ever!
See Many of Paris Newest Bike Lanes (And a Whole Lot More!) Streetfilms® 2023-12-20 | I was in Paris in November. I wanted to make just a short follow-up on what's happening with bike lanes as my chief reason for going was to document school streets (film coming in early January!) but when I met up with a few people and was out around the city all you see is road construction going on. I wish this much bike construction happened in NYC!So I got the drop on some of the newest installed lanes and one new car-free space! Check them out here. This film stretched to twice its length and still had to leave lots of great footage out. In one instance I literally was heading to interview Derek and I immediately said, "Hey, didn't the bike lane here used to be on the other side of the street?" And my recollection (even though I was only there a few minutes on my last trip) was they did improve the street.Paris does have the Olympics coming so it's all hands on deck. The entire city is mobilized to make the transportation system work as efficiently as possible to move the athletes, visitors, city officials and residents around during that month. But even with that being true it is stunning to see the building going on.
Greening Paris: 3 Neat Ideas All Cities Should Try Streetfilms® 2023-12-14 | Before departing for Paris this wasn't even on my radar of video ideas. However, while walking about and interviewing many people I kept capturing these little impromptu shorts and things I would ask about since I'd love NYC to invest in similar ones.. I packaged the three bits together here in this short I hope you enjoy!
NYC Improves 3rd Avenue with Safe Double-Wide Bike Lane, Bus Lane & Daylighting Streetfilms® 2023-12-11 | THIS IS A MUST WATCH!There are a couple of before and afters in this video that will show you the stark contrast with NYC's 3rd Avenue which was a dangerous traffic sewer with 5 car moving lanes and nothing in the way of safety for those outside a car to what NYC DOT changed it to now: featuring double-wide bike lanes, a brand new bus lane which features off-set crossing, daylighting and actual obstacles to prevent drivers from parking in this most dangerous places on the Avenue.On Saturday I got to check out the full implementation and met up with about 20 riders to have a happy jaunt up the nearly new 2 miles of installations (it's hoped it will eventually extend the entire Avenue).This is certainly now Manhattan's safest stretch of bicycling on any street running north and south. It has real protection and room for people to pass, pedestrians to be able to cross the Avenue more safely and bus riders to benefit faster speeds for buses with new red lanes (hopefully cameras to come shortly!)
See the Paris Metro Station thats also a Mini-Museum Streetfilms® 2023-11-28 | I have about a dozen short films I shot impromptu fashion on my Paris trip. The two big ones will be looking at new bike lanes and school streets, but I was so fascinated by many things. The Metro is a thing of beauty with fast trains, clean stations and frequent service (plus subway gates on the platforms!) The Louvre stop near my hotel though was super cool.
What Paris Uses its Curbs for Besides Car Parking! Streetfilms® 2023-11-15 | Just back from Paris. There will be at least a 1/2 dozen Streetfilms looking at everything from school streets to the brand newest of bike lanes. I had a 2 hour window after landing before heavy rains were due. So I immediately went out and started shooting some reflections and observations. This was one of them. I usually don't put myself front and center but my interviews were later in my trip (all excellent!) so I did an audit and some analysis of Paris curb use - and daylighting - to show how Paris continues on its quest to repurpose 50% of car parking spaces by 2026 to other better uses.Much more to come after Thanksgiving.
Brooklyns Berry Open Street: Upgrading for Safety & Permanence Streetfilms® 2023-11-02 | About a month ago I was riding down Brooklyn's Berry Street and unexpectedly saw the street undergoing a long-gestating transformation by NYC DOT. I took a few photos and got in touch with some volunteers of the North Brooklyn Open Streets. They let me know that the conversion would be mostly done by the end of October and that a perfect time to stop by might be during their Berry Spooky Halloween Event. So since it didn't rain on a Saturday for the first time in 7 weeks I went over with my family and did a brief stop to look at what's going on.A few things stand out: 1) NYC DOT painted a good deal of intersections with a "coral" coloring to emphasize heightened awareness of all modes. It is the first use of its kind in NYC. 2) Most intersections have now implemented impressive daylighting treatments with rock boulders, Citibike stations, beautiful flower pots, bike parking & more to keep visibility. 3) Many of the street directions for cars (which should be traveling about 5mph) reverse direction almost every other block. Keeping thru traffic off. 2-way bicycle/micromobility is still retained through signage and street markings.All in all another good example of NYC DOT attempting some innovative things on open streets and bike boulevards in the city.
How To Start A Bike Bus! Streetfilms® 2023-10-26 | In NYC at the 10th anniversary Vision Zero Cities Conference, hosted by Transportation Alternatives, one of the sessions was an outdoor bike excursion where bike bus organizers Sam Balto, Megan Ramey and Emily Stutts inspired attendees with anecdotes and advice with their individual tales on how they got started on their bike bus rides.And actually all three of their origin stories are intertwined. Megan started her Bike Bus on October 2020 during the midst of the Covid outbreak in Hood River. Along with Barcelona's mega popular Bici Bus, Sam cites her rides as his inspiration for first trying his out in Portland on Earth Day 2022, which has now become an internet sensation with millions of views on his video clips. And Emily saw Megan on John Simmerman's Active Towns Youtube podcast (youtube.com/watch?v=f20qkKua1Bo) which motivated her to try out a ride down dense and hectic Brooklyn's Bergen Street.Oh, and along the ride while interviewing Megan she gave unexpected credit to Streetfilms for introducing her to the concept via a 2010 video where I rode along with Portland's Beach Bike Train (see that film here: youtu.be/DNNxwF1BPKE?si=arrX4v8q8f4JM9aV&t=167) which she said she "stole" to craft her first event.You'll hear over and over from these three amazing individuals while we cruise through Brooklyn while they talk with conference attendees and navigate the streets.
People Over Parking! (2 Parking Spaces = 1 Studio Apartment) Streetfilms® 2023-10-23 | As part of this weekend's Open House NY 2023 event in Williamsburg, the team from Open Plans converted 2 garage spaces for vehicles into a comfy studio apartment demonstrating that "People Over Parking" is a better use in cities where parking minimums in effect.Parking mandates are an outdated, complex, and costly policy that requires new buildings to dedicate valuable space to storing private vehicles.Parking mandates are zoning rules that require a certain amount of off-street parking to be built in new apartment buildings or offices. As unbelievable as it seems, as a law, in most of New York City, the government requires developers to include parking spaces, regardless of whether New Yorkers actually want or need them. They have been part of the city’s Zoning Code for decades and haven’t been reformed citywide since John F. Kennedy was president.Parking mandates:- Raise the cost of housing by reducing the number of units that each building can rent or sell- Cater to and encourage car ownership by making it easier to own and use a car in New York- Create a less livable and walkable city by increasing the number of cars on the road- May replace street-level retail opportunities, negatively impacting streetscape, safety, and economic growth- Mandate the construction of parking lots on land that could be used for more housing, parks, or other valuable public uses
Hundreds of NYC Bike Riders Demand Mayor Eric Adams Make Streets Safer! Streetfilms® 2023-10-12 | Transportation Alternatives organized a critical mass of human beings to demand Mayor Eric Adams commit to making streets less deadly for bike riders and to fully implement current and new projects without compromising safety.Somewhere between 400 and 500 riders turned out to ride from Union Square to City Hall. I was able to put this up a few hours after the event after riding over 10 miles to get home.
What Was That Thing On The Street That Just Passed You? Streetfilms® 2023-10-10 | When it comes to the seemingly dozens of kinds of devices you might see in NYC's bike lanes and city streets, the average resident usually makes mistakes, even the NYPD and FDNY, as to what-is-what. StreetsblogNYC attempted to remedy the situation a bit when last year they published "The Field Guide to Urban Mobility in New York City", which explained the classifications of bikes, e-bikes, scooters & mopeds (and also showed some completely illegal modes).Our charming guide, Gersh Kuntzman, editor-in-chief of StreetsblogNYC, gives us a breakdown of the major users you will see and some of the issues and consequences of having so many types of speed and mobility using bike lanes and the city streets.
Watch the Dramatic Evolution of NYCs Broadway Between Union Square and Times Square (2005-2023) Streetfilms® 2023-09-26 | Whether you're an urban planner, streets advocate, historian or just lover of cities there is an abundant amount of information in this Streetfilm looking at the copious changes to the streets on NYC's Broadway thru our archives from the early 2000s thru to present day.Take in this fantastic walking tour put together by Open Plans with knowledgable tour guides and featuring pop-up special guest like former NYC DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan who explains to us about how the corridor changed early on!There is simply no other historical archive of Broadway out there that features all of this insider knowledge to the process and over 30 before/afters of Broadway - most taken in precisely the same spots referenced.I hope you enjoy this and pass along to young and old and professors and historians use this. As a personal note, in some ways, this is a sort of test to see if there is the appetite to do a full feature Streetfilm looking at how NYC's changed from 2000 thru present day. If that does happen it would include dozens of interviews combined with footage that I have of NYC from late 1990s on.....let's call this "Streetfilms Legacy: Chapter One"
Mayor John Bauters shows us some of Emeryville’s Best Streets Streetfilms® 2023-09-21 | People on Twi(X)ter of course have watched the account of biking advocate and outdoor healthy Mayor John Bauters explode over the past few years.We have had the pleasure of riding with Mayor Bauters prior (see here in NYC: ) but I happened to be on a Bay Area trip and got to join him for a fun, short trip to see some of what he posts about on social media. The city has lots more great plans. It is so good to see such a great mayor (we are slowly getting more and more) but Bauters is certainly at the top!
Montreals Magnificent REM Light Metro Montage (Metropolitan Express Network) Streetfilms® 2023-08-31 | So while on vacation in Montreal we naturally were drawn to ride the new REM (Réseau express métropolitain) metro line that opened its first five stations last month (21 more under construction!). It was glorious. Beautiful. Definitely one of the best skyline views of a city from a transit perspective and also to see train yards below for many Canadian companies. I really wasn't planning on posting anything, didn't even bring my camera for the ride. But did have my iPhone and figured I would be getting some photos and a few clips of video. However, I was unprepared for how spectacular it would be.When I got back to the hotel I watched a half dozen popular REM videos and most had the same vibe: stick a camera in the front window and watch the real time station travel loop. Not saying that is a bad thing, it's certainly cool to watch that unadulterated, uninterrupted travel. But looking at my own small compilation of shots I thought there lacked much variety, artistry and really getting see what you saw out the windows.So I decided to make my own in the end with a musical montage tribute to Montreal's REM. I hope you like it.
Montreals Fabulous Bike Infrastructure Continues to Expand Its Very Wide Lane Network! Streetfilms® 2023-08-29 | Take a very quick ride with us on this tour of Montreal's latest expansions of the Montreal's Réseau Express Vélo (REV). We had a small group of riders get together to do about 10 miles on a loop where we basically NEVER LEFT WIDE protected bike lanes. And after being so astonished most of our riding partners responded along the lines of "Oh, we could do 3x that length if we really tried!"
Montreal Revives Critical Mass (and Newlyweds Celebrate By Riding It!) Streetfilms® 2023-08-27 | I always seem to get lucky. While vacationing in Montreal with family I got a message asking if I was doing the monthly critical mass. It was supposed to be very rainy which never came to happen, making Mathieu and Jaclyn happy who got married and then rode with hundreds of friends, neighbors and strangers to celebrate that and to nudge the city to improve cycling even faster.
San Francisco Has Some of the Most Impressive Street Transit Priority in the United States Streetfilms® 2023-08-23 | If you are in downtown San Francisco, it seems just about every block you walk on has a red-painted BUS ONLY lane. And that's good because SF only paints red lanes if they are in effect 24-7.Streetfilms met up with Michael Rhodes the Transit Priority Manager for SFMTA to give us some quick highlights of the system. They have big things planned for the city with 30 more miles scheduled for the near future. In fact, they aim "to be the Copenhagen of bus transit priority".
Summer Streets 2023 Goes to Harlem Streetfilms® 2023-08-12 | The 2023 edition of Summer Streets in NYC now extends to events in all boroughs and the Manhattan route goes all the way up to 125th Street in Harlem! Here is a very quick montage so you can get a feel and taste of the route.
Celebrating Car-free JFK Promenade and Great Highway Park Streetfilms® 2023-08-04 | All I can say is: this is one day I will never forget. Being able to bike car-free along a beach with so many nice people....thank you everyone for welcoming me. I feel honored you all came out!
Bay Area City of Alameda Goes All in on Bikes Streetfilms® 2023-07-31 | As Streetsblog Editor Roger Rudick began with his recent post, "Nestled on the extreme western end of Alameda, bikewise the new development is like something transported from Europe". And it is.Since Streetfilms was visiting the Bay Area, I had to see it for myself. And The Point Development site certainly qualifies among the best places to bike in the area. It's an old Navy base at the western flank of the city that is in the long process of being converted into new uses for every day living and residences. Connectivity is the big deal as the Cross Alameda Trail brings riders directly to the Point Development bike network and then continues on a few minutes later to a a beautiful park and ferry landing which transports to San Francisco's Ferry Building in just 20 minutes.For lots more information, please check out StreetsblogSF's article: sf.streetsblog.org/2023/06/27/eyes-on-the-street-alameda-point-development-first-in-bay-area-to-do-bike-lanes-right
Touring Denver’s Newest Protected Bike Lanes Streetfilms® 2023-07-19 | To see what is going on in Denver all you gotta do is look at the poster frame for this Streetfilm which features four different types of protection for bike riders: concrete curbs, plastic bollards with rubber stoppers, bus islands/planters and large modular concrete slabs - among other strategies in the video. But all have one BIG thing in common - they have protected riders by moving car parking out from the curb.During the NACTO conference I got to go out and ride a few tours and also take individual rides with a few others. The result is this nice look at the evolving infra and testing that the city is doing to see what strategies and materials they consider best.
All These New NYC Open Streets & Spaces Have Turned Manhattan in to a Ghost Town! Streetfilms® 2023-06-20 | For about the 13,428th time since the pandemic I have seen articles and apoplectic Twitter folk proclaiming that NYC is dead, especially Manhattan.And one of the most frequent reasons cited by critics is all the pedestrian plazas, open streets, bike lanes, restaurant dining, etc (add your own here). Well on Thursday I went out to collect footage for a film I am working on and I have two hours worth. And all I saw everywhere I went in midtown by foot, bike and transit was a thriving Manhattan. But more peaceful thanks to all the streets improvements.So here is my ode to the "End of New York City". The doom and gloom armageddon that has hit it and has turned Broadway and places like it in to a miles long ghost town inhospitable to human life and activity. The NYC that will never recover that's limping along and might as well give up if its streets look like this going forth. Every day we get closer to Will Smith, Charlton Heston or Vincent Price driving down the streets wary of zombies and evil beings trying to take back the city. BEWARE!
The Case for Widening NYC Bike Lanes Streetfilms® 2023-05-26 | Streetfilms has been at the forefront for making the case that NYC bike lanes need to be wider. Today we put forth an even more bold statement versus just presenting traffic counts.
Portland, OR Uses Innovations to Keep Bike Riders Safer Thru Intersections Streetfilms® 2023-05-24 | Say what you will about the great bicycle cities all over the world, but in the United States every time I visit Portland, OR I see during my visit interesting attempts at trying to optimize safety at intersections for bicyclists (and pedestrians).My latest visit I got taken on a short tour by Jonathan Maus from Bike Portland to see just a few things implemented since the last time I was there. The intersections PBOT attempts to remedy often have unusual geometric challenges. Here you will see only a few since you can only fit so much in one Streetfilms.Two projects which finished since my last visit are Portland's new crossings such as the hilariously named Ned Flanders Crossing and the Earl Blumenauer Bike & Pedestrian Bridge. Both bridges are not only great additions to the cycle network, but you will see the approaches from both directions have been well thought out and implemented. In particular the Flanders Crossing downtown where the blocks leading up to it on both sides have been made extremely car-light with traffic calming and limited car-access.As you watch this if you live in North America think about ways in which your city could use some of these traffic strategies. For me, NYC has a lot of great bike lanes now, but often our intersections or links between them are not the greatest. We could use some of these in their tool kits (and some new crossings!!)
Denvers ¡Viva! Streets is 3.5 Miles of Outdoor Joy Streetfilms® 2023-05-15 | Denver had the first of four of its inaugural ¡Viva! Streets program. It was a real awesome time and I posted this video just 5 hours after it ended.
NYCs Vanderbilt Avenue: The Nexus of Open Dining, Open Streets & Safe Bicycling Streetfilms® 2023-05-11 | When I was out covering NYC's Vanderbilt Open Streets this weekend, I chance met up with Patrick Fromuth, Shift Captain of the Branded Saloon who was essentially the perfect ambassador for open streets, open dining & bicycling programs in the city. His Brooklyn restaurant is the embodiment of neighborhood in NYC featuring wonderful Cathedral, seating, art, greenery and plants and nods to LGBTQ history. And it all ties in together with the fun going on in the streets.Sit back and listen to this short tour and his remarks. And remember this happened completely organically - a happy impromptu meeting in the streets - as New York City as it gets.
Future Streets Rally: See Vanderbilt Avenue and why Open Streets Need to be Fully Funded Streetfilms® 2023-05-08 | NYC's successful open streets program is very popular. A rally was held on Saturday, May 6th attended by many neighborhood leaders asking for the mayor and NYC DOT to fully help fund the largely volunteer effort across the five boroughs.
Portlands Alameda Bike Bus Turns One: The Joy of Kids Biking to School Streetfilms® 2023-04-19 | On Earth Day 2022, Physical Education teacher Sam Balto - inspired by Barcelona's Bici Bus - decided to attempt to start his own at his school in Alameda neighborhood of Portland. The initial Wednesday effort was highly successful with about 75 riders.Realizing he tapped an incredible desire for kids and families to have a more fun, healthy and peaceful to get to school, it became a regular Wednesday event and inspired other neighborhoods in Portland and around the world. Some rides have come close to 200, with one-third of the school participating.I was in Portland but not there for the ride. Still I wanted to meet up with Sam to let him tell his story and thanks to Sam's footage and Bike Portland's incredible opening day video use, I was able to edit this great story celebrating one year!
Talking 18 Years of Bike Portland & Streetfilms with Jonathan Maus and Clarence Eckerson Jr. Streetfilms® 2023-04-14 | While visiting Portland this week for family fun and squeezing in shooting some Streetfilms during what might have been the only dry-ish 6 hours over 5 days, I went on a bike tour with Jonathan Maus of some of the most innovative bike intersection treatments of late. But the coolest thing was realizing both of us were celebrating 18 years of doing our current jobs (Bike Portland in April, Streetfilms in May) So in an impromptu decision we decided to place my camera on top of post outside a school in the middle of a light drizzle and see if we had anything to say. And some of it was magic and cool. (Apologies for the perodic light taps of occasional basketballs in the background.)We talked a lot about the love of our careers to date. How they are both so unusual and sometimes hard to explain. Of course we talked (and you'll see via archival footage) some of the changes that have happened in both NYC and PDX. But we also talk about our views of how social media has changed things and the next generation of media makers. And so much more, all for free, all right here!!!(As a personal aside, I used to feature myself on camera quite a lot in the first 5 years. But gradually grew to allow my subjects to tell the story and get out of the man-on-the-street mode. But of late I have been getting back in front for a few Streetfilms here or there. But I am happy this came out so well to feature Jonathan and me for nearly 20 minutes, only about 2 minutes were trimmed. I think I need to do this more often.)
See the Crazy Counts of Riders in NYCs 2nd Ave Bike Lane (Not one went the wrong way in 30 minutes) Streetfilms® 2023-04-05 | I've been meaning to get back to doing some counts of bike and micro-mobility users on some of New York's most popular bike lanes. 2nd Avenue is certainly one of those. So I set up the camera to record for two half hours in separate loactions yesterday and present a condensed video of my results.As usual despite many cranks & drivers stating that bikes barely ever use bike lanes, selective anecdotes are not facts. Every time I've done these during rush hours the results are even better than I expected. In fact during this 30 minute taping from 5-530pm on Monday, April 3rd a very shocking thing emerged I was unprepared for: not one rider in the video rides the wrong way. Not one! I'm a New Yorker of course, and even I admit to seeing a percentage of salmoning (that's going the wrong way in a bike lane) but to witness this result was cool. I think I have a theory: in NYC the best and most popular bike lanes don't have many wrong-way riders, or very few. Why? They are busy. They are safe. And there are safe options nearby to travel. The pairs on 1st Ave and 2nd Ave are a perfect example. Among NYC's most crowded. At rush hours it's a constant steady stream. You don't want to face dodging a dozen bikes per block. It's dangerous. I actually did a taping near this spot almost in 2021. (See here: youtu.be/TMQxPyD36wc) In 21 minutes there were 171 bikes, 323 vehicles and 11 buses. And with bikes only having one lane versus the four for other vehicles (which includes a partial BUS ONLY lane) it proves that the bike lane not only is worth it - but we need to think about making them wider since they are getting real crowded in Manhattan!You'll have to watch the video to find out, but it's a better count than 2021 and this time proportionally the results were even better for bikes. One note: the "range" for vehicle numbers is due to me having to do a manual count on paper due to the angle of the camera placement. Thus a paper count I got 545 vehicles (and 8 buses) versus later using just the straight video which I could only come up with 525, but the parked cars can shield a few here or there. So let's say I was even massively off and it was 600 - it still proves spatially bikes are a great deal for NYC.
What Do All These Places Have in Common? Streetfilms® 2023-03-28 | This PSA is short and sweet. Find out the answer at the end. What did you guess?
SEE The Super Sidewalks & Protected Bike Lanes on NYCs 9th Avenue Streetfilms® 2023-03-22 | It should never take this long, but persistance pays off!Residents in Hell's Kitchen have been fighting a very long time to make their loud and dangerous streets safer, more livable and more equitable for the neighborhood. Led by community activist Christine Berthet they have accomplished some seemingly impossible changes to their chunk of Midtown Manhattan.But the cherry on top is now here: in the last few months NYC's Environmental Protection and the Design and Construction finished a decade long project replacing sewers & water mains on Ninth Avenue in Manhattan and so NYC DOT took the opportunity to expand pedestrian space 10 feet in the project's footprint and to also further harden the protected bike lane there and make it safer. There are now only three lanes for moving traffic, righting a wrong many decades ago when Robert Moses halved the sidewalks to provide an additional lane to the Lincoln Tunnel.The most exciting announcement was that NYC DOT said it would be bringing this style of street geometery to other places (presumedly Manhatttan's Avenues) and other overly wide roads throughout the city. Check out our amazing Streetfilm, the second half of which goes deeply into the history of the movement and energy behind the Hell's Kitchen folks making it happen since 2005 (and Streetfilms was there!)
Open Plans: Maps Can Be Redrawn Streetfilms® 2023-03-09 | Last week our first-annual Open Plans Public Space Awards was an inspirational crowd-pleaser attended by many in the transportation world.At the event we also debuted our brand new Open Plans PSA explaining our core mission. We’re calling it “Maps Can Be Redrawn” which features nearly 90 shots of the streets of the city.It was scripted by Eric Parker and voiced by Yael Rizowy.
Streetfilms Safe Bike Routes #1: Jackson Heights to Queensborough Bridge Streetfilms® 2023-03-06 | This Spring I'm thinking of cataloguing some of the safest, long journeys you can take by bike in NYC using protected lanes, boulevards, open streets and more. I'll be asking people to submit theirs in the future.So for the first I put on a GoPro (first time outdoors ever using one on my helmet) and showed people how nice and car-free my 4 mile journey is to the Queensborough Bridge. I put in most of the turns and sped up the footage for parts. It's just about always this clear, very rarely will you even have a bad encounter with a vehicle.I and doing it for two reasons: one to show people who might be timid that there are indeed some very nice routes that exist that are relatively safe and the other: we need our elected officials, city and NYC DOT to have routes like this in EVERY neighborhood that piece together extremely safe bike excursions for work, exercise, fun and errands!
The Fifteen Minute City: Carlos Moreno & Catherine Gall Explain To Streetfilms Streetfilms® 2023-02-12 | During this summer while making some Streetfilms in Paris I was very lucky to get to chat with Professor Carlos Moreno and Catherine Gall about some of the great strides the city has taken around bicycling, pedestrianization and general livability.At one point Prof Moreno, who is an advisor to Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, about the concept of the 15 Minute City.
Does Your City Need W-I-D-E-R Bike Lanes? See Widths in Some of the Worlds Best Bike Cities! Streetfilms® 2023-02-09 | See some of the best cities on the planet and how wide selected bike paths are in places. There are some cities in the United States that are building woefully narrow bike paths. Let's go learn from the best!
CARS MAKE A LOT OF NOISE: See What Happens When You Take Them Away! Streetfilms® 2023-02-01 | I recently discovered a good deal of footage from 2011 and 2017 of the loud, chaotic speedway our neighborhood NYC open street used to be. I was gonna use this in a recent film about 34th Ave design but decided to hold it for this separate bonus short look (and listen!)As you check out these archives, be aware that nearly every before shot is directly contrasted with a recent shot absent the din of what the street ambience is versus the remarkable 2011 footage of how much the constant drone of cars is present (and we're not even talking about honking or cars playing music loudly). Most of these shots were filmed on the exact same block 12 years ago.One of the major arguments of people that are against open streets is how much "louder" the street has become. Of course any reasonable person knows that's folly. When the constant noise of motors and road tire friction is removed, what's left are sounds of humans that would naturally be there walking, talking, playing, etc. on sidewalks. This irks some people. (The exception I will admit is that on some open streets there are occasional events where there might be music played or a protest or cultural event. Those certainly will have some elevated noise levels. But they are not daily and still would argue if you had a decibel meter out there might not even reach the levels of most car noise.)
Designing Open Streets & Plaza Blocks: The Transformation of NYC’s 34th Ave Streetfilms® 2023-01-25 | In NYC at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Mayor Bill de Blasio set aside a small number of streets throughout NYC as open streets. None was as popular or as successful as Queens' 34th Avenue, it started as six blocks but was eventually expanded to 1.3 miles.Through the next year the program was made permanent with the 34th Avenue Open Street Coalition putting out barriers daily. Eventually after community meetings, the NYC DOT allocated more funding and another group (Friends of 34th Avenue Linear Park) advocated for more permanence and better street design. Together the two groups working with community and elected leaders agreed that the street should have multiple style blocks with some around schools completely closed to cars (plaza blocks) while others should have various treatments to discourage thru travel by drivers.In the Summer of 2022, the NYC DOT implemented a plan in which most of the 26 blocks were given just that using a unique series of closures, planters, chicanes, concrete blocks, diverters, bike lanes, neighborhood loading zones, flex posts, curb extensions and street textures to calm the street 24 hours a day, while still deploying barricades from the hours of 7am to 8pm daily. In the late Fall, Streetfilms got the opportunity to walk some of the open street to ask Eric Beaton (Deputy Comm. for Transportation Planning & Management, NYC DOT) and Emily Weidenhof (Director of Public Space) to explain these treatments on camera and about future plans for the corridor. Please check it out!
NYCs Fifth Avenue Goes Car-Free for the first time in over Fifty Years Streetfilms® 2022-12-05 | A very exciting day today in New York City as NYC Dept of Transportation and the Adams Administration open Fifth Avenue to people and closed it to cars. It was an instant success as the streets were already crowded with people before the official opening!I got to speak with the Commissioner as well as few friends and advocates I ran into also walking the Avenue. I also got some very cool footage that other news stations didn't as I brought a monopod and was able to extend it 10 feet above Fifth Avenue to show just how amazing the visual of throngs of pedestrians (both NYC residents and tourists) out shopping, seeing the holiday decorations, eating and generally strolling for the fun of it with their families.It's no doubt with such an enormous initial Sunday success, the next two will be equally the same and next year will be bigger, longer and more dates. Here is to hoping!
The War on Cars: Community Board 99 Streetfilms® 2022-11-17 | In November "The War on Cars" held a live event at Caveat in Manhattan with a big crowd of fans & followers. The title "Community Board 99" was to poke good natured fun at community boards in NYC (and elsewhere) about some of the absurd things that happen in these meetings, but also to bring up meaningful debate and "provide guidance" to the city on a range of issues.
Biking around Hells Kitchens New Spaces with Charlie Todd Streetfilms® 2022-11-10 | Last year while filming my NYC Family Cargo Bike documentary, one of the featured people I interviewed by chance was Charlie Todd from the NYC-cool Improv Everywhere group (You can see that most excellent Streetfilm here: youtu.be/fBK4RSZN1Do).Over the last year I've seen him more often as I never realized he was a big bike advocate in his community. So I recently met up with him to go for a ride and warned him I would have my camera with me just in case he wanted to talk about the newest bike and pedestrian facilities going in on Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Hell's Kitchen. Well we ended up talking quite a bit about how the lanes work and how they have supplanted older facilities which didn't work for either mode.Charlie is also now a member of Manhattan's Community Board 4!
