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.
• Detroit has had its fair share of hurdles over the past few years but Time says the winds of change are blowing and they are coming from Mayor Dave Bing’s office. In a city that has lost half of its population in the past half-century as well as its key industry, it may be time to cut losses on abandoned neighbourhoods and crumbling infrastructure to focus efforts on the city’s core assets. As the prestigious Kresge Foundation fronts a massive planning effort for Detroit’s future, Time offers a prescription of density, contiguity, naturalization, urban homesteading and ethnic diversity for Motown.
• While American bikesharing systems generally trail their European counterparts in terms of station density and overall ridership, Streetsblog reports good news out of Minneapolis. The city’s Nice Ride system, which launched this summer, topped 100,000 trips in its first five months. Even more hopeful – of the 680 users surveyed, nearly 20 percent used the system instead of driving.
• “An icon of [New York City’s] urban landscape, the humble yellow cab is set to undergo an unprecedented face-lift — perhaps the biggest change to the city’s street aesthetic since licensed cabs were required to be painted yellow in 1970,” reports the New York Times. The three competing designs offered up by Ford, Nissan and Turkish manufacturer Karsan, are more minivan than sedan.
• Not to be outdone in the iconic vehicle department, the prototype for London’s new double decker bus design was unveiled this week. According to The Star, the lightweight, fuel-efficient design harkens back to the round edges and charm of the Routemaster, a version replaced in 2005 after nearly a century of service. The new double deckers won’t start rolling until 2012.
• On Sunday, November 21st, the Vancouver Public Space Network is teaming up with 350.org to “take public art to a whole new (atmospheric) level.” A massive public art installation will take shape in Vancouver as well as 19 other cities around the world to raise awareness about global climate change.
Photo from The Star
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2 comments
What the Star misses, as usual, are the relevant details. The new London bus is a hybrid, with electric power supplied by a small engine under the stairs. It is fully accessible to wheelchairs. And the return of the rear platform was a critical design point — forcing everyone to load at the front was killing bus efficiency and had to go. When I lived in London (around the time the no-rear platform double deckers came out but before Oyster) I would chafe as everyone on this giant vehicle was forced to slowly pay on board, through a single door, while pestering the driver for tourist advice (oh, wait, that’s how the TTC still does it, a decade later?)
Anyways, it didn’t work so they switched to articulated buses and POP fare payment, but that was something of a local disaster (see link below) So on the new bus they worked it out by putting doors on the rear platform and will staff it with a second crew member during rush hours (when volume can cover the second union paycheck).
More reading:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/projectsandschemes/15493.aspx
http://uktransport.wikia.com/wiki/London_articulated_bus_controversy
Point is, there are better ways to make buses for busy big city routes than buying whatever Orion cranks out for the mass market — what works for Brantford Transit may not be right for the #6 Bay Street. This new bus is a great example of how to improve comfort, reliability, speed and fuel costs by focusing on the vehicle design.
Thanks Iskyscraper.
In Toronto I would avoid the bus like the plague, but in London (my new city) they work really well. A ride on a London bus costs GBP1.20, or about C$2.00. The London experience is enhanced in part by the unique bus design.