Urban Planet is a daily roundup of 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 Southern California Institute of Architecture, The Architect’s Newspaper and LA Metro recently issued an open invitation for ideas that would increase public transportation ridership in L.A. Architects, Li Wen and Shawn Gehle, have responded with NETWORK_LA. The app mines existing data streams to make a more responsive, accurate and personal transit experience for riders. The Trip Finder function, for instance, performs fastest route calculations which consider parallel options such as shared bikes, scooters and cars. In a city where 67% of the population drives to work alone, Wen and Gehle feel that their app could significantly increase transit ridership without major infrastructure investments. (FastCompany)
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One comment
I thought the front of this video looked familiar, and now I remember why: http://www.humantransit.org/2011/07/los-angeles-gensler-architects-attack-citys-transit-future.html
It sounds like a neat idea, but when it first came out Jarrett Walker of Human Transit pointed out why it doesn’t actually make much sense. The short version is that a grid transit is already actually remarkably efficient, and your convenience is other riders inconvieince