Urban Design

You've got to hand it to Clarence Eckerson. The producer of Streetfilms managed to turn around a video of this morning's press conference announcing the new Bruce Schaller study of Soho streets (PDF) in less than four hours and it's a really nice piece of work. My only gripe is that he edited out the taxi cab blasting its horn in the middle of Schaller's talk. Anyway, here is video of this morning's press conference including lots of great, weekend footage of Soho streets:

A Porsche, an ambulette, Paul Steely White, Bruce Schaller and a vendor compete for street space in Soho

Walking to school is a healthy way for many kids to get their daily dose of exercise. Unfortunately many parents are rightfully concerned about their children's safety on the city's streets because of aggressive driver and lack of good pedestrian safety infrastructure. Everyday in front of many city schools you see parents dropping kids off in front of schools even though most live well within walking distance.

Copenhagen, Denmark is not a natural bicycling city. In the early 1960's it was very much of a car town. In 1962 the city created its first pedestrian street, the Stroget, and every year since then Copenhagen has allocated more and more of its public space to bicycles, pedestrians and people who just want to sit and take a load off. The result is a remarkably pleasant city. Danish urban designer Jan Gehl says that the single biggest key to the change has been the development of the city's extensive bicycle network and that the Copenhagen of great public spaces that we see today would not be possible without bicycles.

The Nyhavn or "New Harbor." Twenty years ago Copenhagen's quaint inner harbor was a parking lot. Today it is one of the city's most popular and iconic outdoor destinations.

If New York or other large cities are looking for a solution to congestion and its negative impact on the economy, Hong Kong offers an excellent strategy and success story. I was there a few weeks back working on waterfront issues (that rival New York City for unrealized opportunities), and was struck by changes that have taken place since my previous visit five years earlier. In 2001, there were few streets or districts that were comfortable to walk in or engage with despite being known as a bustling shopping city. In the intervening time the city has undergone a major transformation led by non other than the city's Transport Department.