With Mayor Rahm Emanuel signaling a commitment to high-performance bus rapid transit, the Chicago-based nonprofit Metropolitan Planning Council envisions a 95-mile BRT network that would carry an additional 71,000 daily riders.

With Chicago DOT Commissioner Gabe Klein at his side, Emanuel has already implemented the city’s first protected bike lanes as part of a plan to add 100 miles of bike lanes within four years, announced a $1 billion upgrade to the Chicago Transit Authority’s Red Line, and passed a $2 “congestion fee” on downtown parking garages that will go towards the creation of a CTA Green Line stop that serves McCormick Place – the nation’s largest convention center – and a downtown circulator bus route being billed as bus rapid transit.

The circulator could be an interesting harbinger of Emanuel’s bus policy and how far he will go with BRT. He has stated that BRT projects in Chicago will include “dedicated bus lanes, signal preemption, pre-paid boarding or on-board fare verification, multiple entry and exit points on the buses, limited stops, and at-grade boarding.” As it’s proposed now — with off-board fare payment and signal priority — the downtown circulator is a step in this direction. But it has yet to be seen whether Chicago will commit to high-performance BRT that sets a precedent for other American cities.

From Boston to Kansas City, U.S. cities tend to implement “BRT-lite,” where the actual benefits fall well short of expectations. Most of this disconnect is due to poor marketing by transit agencies trying to drum up excitement for projects that don’t meet true BRT standards. When the projects deliver less than promised, the reputation of BRT as an effective transit solution suffers.

Chicago has a chance to change this perception and serve as a model for cities nationwide by building a “gold-standard” BRT system, based on the rating system established by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. Budgets may be tight, but as Emanuel is showing with his funding plan for the downtown circulator, he’s not afraid to raise new revenues. And BRT’s lower construction costs relative to rail may make it the most realistic way for Chicago to move ahead on expanding its transit network.

Image: James Yamasaki / The Stranger

Under the headline, “Okay, Fine, It’s War,” Seattle’s The Stranger blog this week published a manifesto “of and by the nondrivers themselves.” They’re sick of being called “militants” for caring about pedestrian safety, and they’re tired of the specter of a “war on cars.”

We heartily recommend that you read the whole thing, but here are some of our favorite parts. Like this, from the first plank of the manifesto: “The car-driving class must pay its own way!”

For cars we have paved our forests, spanned our lakes, and burrowed under our cities. Yet drivers throw tantrums at the painting of a mere bicycle lane on the street. They balk at the mere suggestion of hiking a car-tab fee, raising the gas tax, or tolling to help pay for their insatiable demands, even as downtrodden transit riders have seen fares rise 80 percent over four years.

No more! We demand that car drivers pay their own way, bearing the full cost of the automobile-petroleum-industrial complex that has depleted our environment, strangled our cities, and drawn our nation into foreign wars. Reinstate the progressive motor vehicle excise tax, hike the gas tax, and toll every freeway, bridge, and neighborhood street until the true cost of driving lies as heavy and noxious as our smog-laden air. Our present system of hidden subsidies is the opiate of the car-driving masses; only when it is totally withdrawn will our road-building addiction finally be broken.

They go on to demand better, more expansive transit, safer streets and sidewalks, and traffic calming. And this:

This antagonism [between car driver and nondriver] traces directly to the creation of the modern car driver, a privileged individual who, as noted, is the beneficiary of a long course of subsidies, tax incentives, and wars for cheap oil. But the same subsidies that created this creature (who now rages about the roads while simultaneously screaming of being a victim in some war) can—and must, beginning now—be used to build bike lanes, sidewalks, light rail, and other benefits to the nondriving classes.

That’s the kind of manifesto we can get on board with.

After the manifesto, The Stranger goes on to report on the rising numbers of crashes between cars and cyclists, the violent anti-bike rhetoric being spewed by car drivers that are the  “victims” of some imagined war on cars, the massive disparity between funding for car infrastructure and everything else, and the heroes of the non-driver, beloved both for their advocacy and their tight asses. Read it, read it all.

Minneapolis has dozens of miles of off-street facilities.

Only 11 cities in the U.S. have earned the title of Gold-Level Bicycle Friendly Community from the League of American Bicyclists. In May, Minneapolis joined the select ranks and, last week, the city got a chance to show off its bike progress to a national audience of active transportation advocates and officials.

When Mayor R.T. Rybak took the stage at the Safe Routes to School National Conference, he made it clear that Minneapolis is gunning for Portland, aiming to be the best biking city in the nation. Not surprisingly, many of the 600 attendees were eager to see the anatomy of a gold-level bicycle friendly city firsthand.

The city’s rise is thanks, in part, to the Non-Motorized Transportation Pilot Project, a program created by the last federal transportation bill that put $25 million in the coffers of four cities to increase bicycling through infrastructure improvements. To showcase the innovations spurred by those dollars, in Minneapolis, Shaun Murphy, the city’s non-motorized transportation coordinator, and Steve Clark, walking and bicycling program manager for Transit for Livable Communities, took Safe Routes participants on a bike tour of some of the completed and in-progress projects.

Drawing largely from Clark’s cheat sheet, here are the “10 Design Solutions that Can Transform your City.”

• Bike Sharing System: The Nice Ride bike sharing system has documented more than 215,000 trips since its inception just one year ago. According to rider surveys, 20 percent of these trips replaced car travel and 23 percent of subscribers do not own a bicycle.
• Colorized and priority bike lanes: Shared bike lanes, or sharrows, aren’t nearly as effective as bike lanes in encouraging cycling. But, when painted on a green field, sharrows magically become “priority bike lanes” and boost both the numbers and confidence of cyclists.
• Buffered bike lanes: Many cyclists prefer riding with a buffer zone protecting them from moving traffic and Minneapolis has installed a cycle track on a major downtown stretch with parked cars serving as the barrier. During peak traffic hours, parking is banned, but the bike lane, with a painted buffer, remains.
• Road diets: Minneapolis has found ways to either reduce the number of travel lanes or trim their width to allow for bike lanes. This includes many four-to-three lane conversions and a two-to-one lane conversation, allowing for a wide bike lane, on 1st Avenue downtown.
• Off-street facilities: Few U.S. cities rival the extensive greenway system in Minneapolis, which includes 84 miles of bike paths through parks, around lakes and, of course, along the old rail line that connects the Twin Cities. The Midtown Greenway alone carries more than 3,000 per day during peak season.
• Bike/walk centers and trail-oriented development: The Midtown Greenway Bike Station, a public/private partnership situated directly on the trail, offers riders a chance to rent a bike, grab a coffee or fix a flat. According to Clark, this is the only bike shop in the country that can only be accessed by bike or on foot — there’s no car access.
• Ubiquitous bike parking: Minneapolis leads the country in bike parking units per capita and is working toward more covered facilities, given that 30 percent of regular bike commuters continue through the winter.
• Bicycle boulevards: Minneapolis is taking a low-volume, low-speed street and turning it into a popular alternative to a parallel high-volume arterial. Bryant Bike Boulevard has access to the main road, and reverses stop signs so bicyclists aren’t forced to stop at every intersection. The speed humps and low speed limit make the street less appealing to motorists, and once completed Bryant will be painted with gigantic bike symbols twice the size of the typical markings for sharrows or bike lanes.
• Improved crossings: Going hand-in-hand with bicycle boulevards, crossing major streets can be a challenge. So Minneapolis has installed a number of innovations, including planted medians, curb extensions (bump outs), and flashing beacons at a busy street crossing on the Midtown Greenway.
• Advisory bike lanes: Advisory bike lanes are based on the principle of designing the street from the “outside in.” In Minneapolis, East 14th Street gets less than 5,000 cars per day, but there’s not enough room to include a bike lane. The solution? No center stripe and a dashed line for the bike lane. This treatment is becoming common for low-volume streets throughout Europe, proving to be an effective strategy for reducing speeds.

Obviously, Tijuana could use some help with their planning. For more images from Rojas' workshop, visit the Latino Urban Forum Flickr Page.

On August 5^th and 6^th I facilitated a high-energy, successful community visioning activity for Camino Verde, a colonia in Tijuana organized by Reacciona Tijuana. This project started as a collaboration between Giacomo Castagnola, architect/artist and myself as part of an urban planning art exhibition being organized in October for the Museum of Latin American Art.

I wanted Castagnola to experience the new method of community engagement for urban planning I developed. Castagnola, based in Tijuana has many colleagues working in the realm of art and social change.  He identified Gabriela Posada del Real as a partner and she identified the project area. The Tijuana colonias are an ideal venue to implement this hands on method of community engagement.

Del Real identified Camino Verde as the project site. She is currently working there with Luis Garzón an artist painting houses and fences. She also has a strong relationships with the women of this community. Camio Verde is an informal neighborhood or colonia in Tijuana that developed along a dry creek similar to LA’s Arroyo Seco.  This creek forms a valley. On both sides of the valley homes and small business have developed along the hillsides.  The roads and houses developed organically embracing the topography shaping a unique landscape.

In the middle of the informal development is the dry river bed which creates a strong sense of place in the community since it proves both physical and visual open space. The major road with buses run along it and commercial business have developed along it.  On the weekend a weekend swapmeet has developed on this road and river bed.

The creek has been channalized with concrete similar to the LA River.  Garbage and graffettii fill the concrete channel, however many children play in it because it provides the only centrally located, flat open space in the hilly landscape.

Tijuana city officials want to cover the concrete river bed and create a much needed park and open space.

Our process was two fold. It was to engage the community in the urban planning process and hear their ideas about the place they live.

Our workshop took place outside on a small concrete soccer field adjacent to the river bed. The women of the community set up tables, chairs and a tarp for shade that was attached to fences on either side.  Four tables were set up in a square with color consruction paper placed on it. The building materials were placed in the middle of the square to allow for easy access.

A participant explains her model.

Our first workshop took place on Friday afternoon. It started at 3:00 and ended around 6:00 p.m.  We had over forty participants ranging from six to seventy years. The first workshop’s goal was to have the community members develop and create their own ideal city or neighborhood. Participants were given the task to design their ideal place in twenty minutes based on their personal knowledge, experiences, and needs. This time allowed participants to self-reflect by investigating the environment. There were no maps, pictures, scale, and no wrong or right answers, only that everybody build a 3 dimensional model.  Using a medley of recycled, vibrant materials, and colored construction paper, participants used their hands and minds to to build their ideal space.

The Camino Verde youth scrambled around the table to find their materials. The thousands of colorful, tactile objects were like candy and triggered the youth emotional connections to the environment. The adults followed. By using non-represent objects people were forced to be creative. Green yarn becomes grass, blue poker chips become the ocean, and hair rollers become apartments or office buildings.

By using their hands to build participant are allowed to investigate their relationship with the built environment. They can freely move objects to discover relations between activities and create small vignettes of urban life. Participants gain the greatest satisfaction from this process because they were able to translate memories, visions, and ideas from their mind into a physical form. Participants have an epiphany because they learn what creates their ideal space.

When they completed the design challenge they had one minute to present their individual solutions to the group. We went from table to table with a speaker to head each idea created. Participants created very complicated models. Unlike talking where you say a statement the models allow participants to develop comprehesive ideas.  For the youth the excerise was about playing. They aproach their models as if they were playing a game so it was easy for them to engage and build while it was a bit more difficult for senior citizens.

After each one presented, each table was tasked to present create one city using all the best ideas from each individual.  They also had to name each city.

Day Two Camino Verde Interactive Model

On Saturday morning from 11:00 to 2:00 we held a second interactive model building activity. Catagnola and myself created a conceptual model of the Camino Verde. The model was a thought provoking, diorama of the community. The model was designed for the viewer to ponder, explore, and participate in creating a vision for the community’s future.

We arrived an hour before the activity began to built a eighteen foot long by thirty inch model of the community. The Camino Verde interactive model was designed by Castagnola and myself as conceptual representation of this place that captured its landscape and urban form. The model was constructed from cardboard and foam core, and glue with the help of volunteers.

Trying to plan when a river divides a community.

The dry river bed was in the center of the cardboard model.  This helped the residents idenify their community.  The goal for the model was the residents would be able to bring their ideas from the prevouse workshop and place it in Camino Verde.

The Camino Verde interactive model was placed adjacent to the dry river bed on the same spot we facilitated the workshops.  Again the women of the community set up tables, tents,  and a tarp for shade.

The model was seen by many people shopping at the street stalls.  This was the perfect venue for participants to explore the community’s urban landscape

The installation also created an intimate scale that balanced out the cavernous open space of the valley. This set the stage for participants to discover what creates the place in they live. The installation enacted the river bed like any great public space where there was room for active and passive participation. People created their worlds while others watched the phenomena.

The hundreds of small, vibrant materials helped the residents visualize there community. Participants observed the miniature vibrant landscape for a few minutes and than they began to read the model as a map. They would begin to orientate themselves on the model/map with the help of the river. Once participants understood the diorama they began to interact with it and rearranged the building and landscape pieces on the model.

From this point on the viewer becomes the participant and projects themselves into the model. By the participants projecting their memories by touching and moving the small buildings on the model they began to investigate various urban forms that creates Camino Verde. They develop, and sculpture their own ideas about its physical nature.

The installation was a transformative experience for the inhabitants of Camino Verde. They received the diorama with great enthusiasm.  People contemplated the model and milled around it. They smiled, laughed and spoke to strangers about urban planning issues.  They stayed any where from twenty minutes to a few hours.

Every one brought their personal baggage to the diorama. Young men took risked and built tall, precarious towers or water parks. Women were the most enthusiastic because many of them never have this opportunity to build and create cities.  Many women thought about home and what that means to them by examining forms, shapes and colors.

Participants walked away from the model with a sense of accomplishment, hope, and empowerment. As peopled played –they dabbled, moved a few things around, talked about how cool it would be if only…. and then they moved some more things, see something new take shape, begin to have real conversations about re-envisioning the cities (“Wouldn’t it be great if…”)…. and finally, they and walk away realizing how empowering it is to “play” with these movable pieces, how truly dynamic and plastic (in the sense of changeable/adaptable) cities are, and how much potential this kind of exercise has for truly reinventing our cities.

The town of Metuchen is one of New Jersey's "Transit Villages," a program designed to encourage sustainable, transit oriented development. Photo: NJ.com

Most state DOTs — and there are notable exceptions — see their primary responsibility as building highways, never mind that highways are likely to spur outward development, which leads to the need for more highways. What comes after the highways are built is considered by many to be beyond the state transportation agency’s scope.

A decade ago, however, the state of New Jersey — historically a poster child for sprawl — achieved a transportation planning breakthrough. Two administrators at the New Jersey Department of Transportation set out to reverse the whole dynamic. They wanted to make transportation projects more holistic, serving communities rather than subordinating all other concerns to the hallowed cause of car capacity. They wanted to infuse transportation planning with a land use strategy that would minimize costs and environmental impacts.

At the time, the Garden State was rapidly approaching the limits of its developable land. And the standard practice of tackling congestion with more roads just seemed to be a fiscal impossibility, says Jack Lettiere, who led NJDOT from 2002 to 2006.

“We spent tens of millions trying to relieve congestion,” said Lettiere. “The faster we went, the slower we went. People were getting mad at us. Funds were getting low.”

Working with planning director Gary Toth, Lettiere sought to institute a new approach. They created a program within the department called New Jersey Future in Transportation (FIT) and, though later administrations have diluted its impact, the concept remains influential.

At the time, NJDOT was building on a concept, pioneered by the state of Maryland, called “Context Sensitive Solutions.”

“Four-lane highways through the center of downtown just don’t revitalize,” Lettiere said. “What we did was give our engineers a different problem to solve. Rather than build a highway, we told them, ‘Transportation is not an end unto itself. We have to fit it into the culture of the community.’”

That was the goal when they redeveloped Route 57, which runs through New Jersey’s rural northwestern corner. The project sought to contain future development within established town centers, while preserving farmland and scenic vistas.

Lettiere and Toth sent transportation planners out to hear community concerns and develop a plan that fit the region’s rural nature. A corridor plan was completed in 2006. It set the goal of preserving 7,000 acres of land through smart growth strategies. The plan also included traffic calming measures through some of the small towns along the route. Route 57 was designated as a scenic byway in 2009.

The dairy, pig and Christmas tree farms that characterize this area have been preserved. There is little suburban-style development pressure. In addition, scenic byway status allows road agencies to tap into federal grant money, said Brian Appezzato, a senior transportation planner with Warren County, which is bisected by the road.

Believe it or not, this was a major departure from the standard practice at state DOTs. Even today, many state DOTs approach road projects as challenges in maximizing vehicle throughput.

“Most [transportation] departments will tell you that land use planning is not their purview,” said Lettiere. “I think that’s the problem that has to be overcome.”

Lettiere and Toth were both pushed out by subsequent administrations (one of the hazards of public service). But Jay Corbalis of New Jersey Future said the state is still a national leader in progressive transportation. Unfortunately, since the time that Lettiere and Toth were at the state DOT, New Jersey has lost some ground in its progress toward sustainability.

“Getting into the land use issue essentially, it’s something that has waned really since they left,” Corbalis said. “They were pioneers in a way.”

“I think the broader legacy of spending more money on ‘fix-it-first,’ the philosophy of the department being in the land use business, has declined,” Corbalis went on.

Part of the problem with changing the objectives in such a fundamental way is that it requires a long educational process for the department, said Lettiere.

“Initiatives like this really need to be shepherded through the department,” he said. “You have to recognize that transportation is more than just building a road or a bridge. It’s a departure from how [transportation engineers] do their business. They haven’t been educated.”

New Jersey FIT continues to leave its imprint on the field. During Lettiere’s administration, NJDOT and PennDOT developed the Smart Transportation Guidebook, a manual for coordinating land use and transportation decisions. That document continues to help guide transportation policy in a sustainable way in the Keystone State.

Meanwhile, Allen Biehler, former secretary of PennDOT, is working to advance those same principles as part of the Smart State Transportation Initiative, a project of the Rockefeller Foundation and USDOT involving 19 states.

Biehler said he remembers some advice Lettiere imparted.

“He said, ‘The real challenge is to get that practice accepted by people in the field.’”

“The highway guys are great about talking about highway thickness and adding five lanes to deal with congestion,” Biehler said. “But they’re not so great about talking to communities about land use.”

But programs like the Smart State Transportation Initiative are slowly helping that shift take place in more and more places around the country.

“It’s evolving,” said Biehler. “We’re trying to make progress and keep things moving forward.”

Share the Road signs, Tennessee Style.

I was in Memphis TN last week, and found an article about laws that would go into effect in Tennessee on July 1, 2011 (one finds similar articles in many states, and in California, there’s usually such a list just before New Year’s Day).  What’s of interest to Streetsblog readers is that, to quote the [Memphis] Commercial Appeal: “Tennessee’s 2007 law requiring motorists to leave at least three feet between their vehicles and cyclists they pass is expanded by a new law requiring higher standards of care by drivers, and enhanced penalties when bicyclists and pedestrians are hurt or killed in crashes involving motor vehicles.”

Even though I don’t ride a bike, and can still move fairly fast when crossing a street, Streetsblog has raised my consciousness on such matters, and I just wanted to let Angelenos know that progress is being made elsewhere.

If you’re interested, you can read “”Scoffing at Laws Will Pay a Price” at the Commercial Appeal website.  This article should be required reading for Sacramento lawmakers as they debate our own, somewhat watered down, 3-Foot Passing Law.

The Antelope Valley covers an immense area 60+ miles north of the City of Los Angeles. Within the valley are 2 large cities with populations above 150,000, Palmdale and Lancaster, and several smaller desert communities.  Politically, the valley is part of 3 different counties — Los Angeles, Kern, and San Bernardino — with most of the population living in Los Angeles County.

Cycling is very popular here as a recreational sport. You can ride only a short distance and find yourself out in the country. On a Saturday or Sunday morning with various cycling clubs or groups, you can go out on a peaceful ride through the countryside with fairly empty roads and gorgeous desert views for miles and miles.  You might experience high winds, but hey, that’s character building.

Caffe Racers on the windy California Aqueduct. (Michele, Brian, Sarge, and Alex)

The flip side of that is that in the city cycling for transportation is more difficult, though not impossible.  The people who laid out the roads here did so on a grid pattern with arterials on a mile and half-mile grid. Most of those arterials have very high speed limits of 50, 55, and even up to 65 mph.  This makes biking challenging, even on the streets that have bike lanes.

Wide bike lane narrows on Lancaster Blvd.

Not only are there few streets with lower speed limits, but there are also few direct routes for people biking to get across Lancaster or Palmdale going east-to-west. This is primarily because of the railroad tracks that bisect both cities and Sierra Highway that runs along the railroad tracks. Only a few major streets intersect with the highway; the rest don’t go through.  The streets that do go through are all high speed with narrow outside lanes and/or no shoulders.

Going north-south, there are also only a few good routes. Even the best one, 30th St West, has a 1-mile, 2-lane, 55-mph stretch that can be safely ridden on a shoulder going north. Going south, there is no shoulder, forcing riders who don’t feel comfortable to go 2 miles west to 50th St West or several miles east to the Sierra Hwy bike path.

Some local cyclists’ comments about our riding conditions:

Fred Flores: “First off, I would like to say that The City of Lancaster ought to encourage more bicycle racks to park our bikes in and around the businesses in town (movie theaters, eating establishments, and retail outlets). As well as establish bicycle only lanes like those found in Portland, OR, or in Holland, so that we can bike free of worrying about auto traffic. Also, I would like the local Sheriff’s Department to do more in the way of enforcing traffic laws for autos and for bicyclists. Too many drivers have a habit of plowing into traffic from driveways, side streets and of California stops. As for bicyclists, too many ride on sidewalks and against traffic, and at night, there are too many bicyclists who ride at night without any lights. It is way too difficult to see these guys in the dark.”

Richard Maine: “There are times and places where it is safer to ride on the sidewalk than in the street — sometimes a lot safer. There are also places where it is legal; in Lancaster and Palmdale it isn’t.”

AV bike commuter Douglas Wade shared a video he made of his daily commute.

Fortunately, last year, after transforming the downtown area, the City of Lancaster started working on a new bike and pedestrian plan with the help of Ryan Snyder Associates. There have been several community meetings and walk-audits. There will be another community meeting coming up in June and the final plan should be forthcoming soon.  I participated in each of the previous meetings and walk-audit and found those involved to be very committed to improving the lot of local cyclists and pedestrians as well as improving infrastructure for those with disabilities.

Brian Ludicke, Director of Planning for the City of Lancaster, was kind enough to grant me an interview to discuss the planning process and the vision he has for cycling and walking in the city.   You can read the full interview, here.

Paul Avila, President of the Antelope Valley High Desert Cyclists.

Los Angeles County recently completed their new County Master Bicycle Plan, after holding several meetings at a fire station in Lancaster over the last 6 months. The plan looks promising with many of the changes requested by the cycling community.

The Antelope Valley High Desert Cyclists have been in discussions for years with both cities and the county for many years, but we’ve been frustrated with the pace of change.  To further our goals, the club voted at Monday night’s meeting to become a chapter of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition.

Gabe Klein helped build a bike-friendlier DC. Now's he's headed to the nation's third-largest city. Photo: Ready Set DC

Klein earned a reputation as a transportation star in the nation’s capital, helping put Washington on the national map as a leading bike- and transit-friendly city. During his tenure, he oversaw the creation of the country’s largest bike sharing system and built DC’s first separated bike lanes. Klein was also instrumental in helping move forward a streetcar system for the District, and under his leadership, the city pursued a wide-ranging parking reform effort [PDF].

The hiring decision signals Emanuel’s commitment to making Chicago a world-class biking city, one of his campaign promises. Emanuel has also made transit the centerpiece of his proposed transportation plan. According to the Washington Post, Klein turned down offers to run state DOTs before accepting Emanuel’s offer.

Klein was ousted in the political shuffle when Vincent Gray took over the Washington mayoralty from Adrian Fenty in the fall. His ascension to the top transportation spot in the nation’s third-largest city is unusual — DOT chiefs rarely leap from one city to another. Emanuel’s decision to hire a well-known DOT leader from another city speaks to the newfound emphasis on transportation policy in urban politics, and the star quality that some innovators in the field have attained.

In a statement on his blog, Klein said he was excited to help make Chicago a leader in progressive transportation planning:

This is an opportunity to continue public service in the 5th largest urban economy in the world, for a leader every bit as reform-minded and results oriented as former DC Mayor Adrian Fenty; to make Chicago an example nationally for innovation in transportation and public space, and most importantly, to positively impact quality of life for the 2.6 million residents of Chi-town.

According to Erik Weber at Greater Greater Washington, “Gabe Klein was the poster child for Fenty’s reliance on fast-acting, agile agencies that were willing to push new policies quickly into fruition, evaluate them on an interim basis, and, assuming successful outcomes, work quickly to push for broader implementation.”

Klein, whose résumé includes a stint as an executive at Zipcar, based many policies on the principle that people shouldn’t have to own their means of transportation. He advocated for car-sharing, bike-sharing and transit in order to reduce household transportation costs.

DC active transportation advocates already miss Klein. Chicago is luck to have him.

Hat tip to Alex Goldmark at Transportation Nation for the breaking news on the Klein hire.

All images from the Latino Urban Forum Flickr Page.

(Note: This is the second installment in our four-year series about how Baltimore, Maryland. Our first installment, “Baltimore Getting Serious About Bikes” appeared in May, 2008. – DN)

The Baltimore Interactive model is a thought provoking; birds eye view of this city. The model is designed for the participant to ponder, explore, and participate in creating a vision for this city by moving objects around it.

The six feet by six feet large model captures the city’s majestic rolling hills, and it’s European urban form of small street blocks, narrow streets, and intimate squares adorned with monuments. The five hundred small structures placed on the model add life to the map by adding a third dimension. Like a painting the model illustrates the city’s the beauty and charm in a creative, and graphic presentation.

The model is a condensed version of Baltimore’s center core that begins with Federal Hill to the south and ends at North Avenue to the north. From the east the model begins at Martin Luther King Street and to the west it ends with Little Italy and Greenmont Cemetery.

To facilitate quick recognition of Baltimore the major streets, landmarks such as the Howard Street light rail, Lexington Market, North Avenue Market, Camden Yards, and Penn Station were added and labeled along with geographical features such as the Inner Harbor and Federal Hill which visually define Baltimore’s center.

In addition I added bike lanes, pocket parks, street trees, and median islands. I removed I- 83 (the so called-Jones Falls Express) and day lighted the actual Jones Falls that it was built over.  The Jones Falls forms a diagonal line through the model running north south. These interventions establish this model as an art piece for creative, urban thinking about Baltimore and not a replica of the city.

These infrastructure changes help the viewer visual these physical changes to their city.  These interventions provoke a quick response from the participant about transportation, open space, beauty, sustainability, and the over all future of the city.

The five hundred small, vibrant buildings are made from found objects, wood blocks, tile, jewelry, plastic game pieces, colorful beads, shinny tape, and many other materials.  They measure from one inch to 6 inches in height.  Many of the buildings were created and mailed from LA but some were found and created in Baltimore with the help of others.  Students gave me additional building materials; I visited a local thrift shop, worked in the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) woodshop, and found an assortment of wood printing furniture on site.  This helped me create additional structures for the model.

Some buildings are painted and are designed to capture the essence of Baltimore’s the existing structures. Dozens wood printing furniture pieces were cut into one inch by half inch squares to depict row house.  Camden Yards Baseball Stadium was created from a golden glass ashtray, while the Aquarium was created with a series of sea creatures.  Stacking a series of wood pieces created Lexington Market. These building add a fine grain texture and detail to help capture the urban vibrancy of Baltimore.

These buildings are conceptual representations of Baltimore structures and not literal. Since the buildings are not glued to the map, participants are allowed to move them freely wherever they choose.

The model is a sculpture because the five hundred building are carefully arranged to mimic the urban landscape of the city with the taller building in the center and shorter building on the periphery.

This sets the stage for the interactive process that allows the participants to understand how this city is physical created, experienced, and imaged. They can personalize the model by moving building around or adding additional materials located in bins under the model. The model is and will be constantly changing with all the interventions by the public.

The participant is attracted to the model by its size and collection of small, jewel like building that shimmer in the light.  Once at the model the participant observes the miniature vibrant landscape but more importantly begins to read the model as a map, which it is.

The viewer orients himself or herself on the model/map with the help of labeled street names, landmarks, and geographical features. The viewer becomes the participant and projects themselves into the model. They ask for following questions:  Where are we located on this map? Where do I live? Many times participants will locate their residence either on or off the map.

Once participants understand the diorama they begin to interact with it and start rearranging the pieces on the model. They see the model as a living sculpture of their city that they can personalize by moving building around or adding additional materials located in bins under the model.

Other participants are fascinated by the design and construction of the small buildings and not the map itself.  They scrutinize the construction of the model and buildings and the sculptural aspects of the installation.  They like and the overall composition of the buildings that form streets, and skylines. They look for building materials they recognize such as Jenga blocks, Lego, buttons, saltshakers, and everyday recycled objects.

Many times children will run up to the model and start to play with it. The parents will tell them no and I say it’s okay. They parents breath a sigh of relief. Adults, on the other hand, have to be told its ok to touch it.  Some adults will not touch it because they do not want to mess it up and enjoy its beauty.  But I would tell them its all part of the process of city building.

“Baltimore needs to transform vacant lots to park, therefore I am placing this green yarn on the street.” “I need to change the sculpture in front of the train station because I do not like the existing one.” “I would like to live by the Jones Falls when it is a river again”. “I think these building look good together.”  “I will build the tallest building in Baltimore.” “Baltimore needs more bike paths.” One young boy said “I have never seen Baltimore this tidy” and I responded “You can make Baltimore as tidy as the model.” These were just some of the dozens of comments generated from the model. I learned a great deal about Baltimore from people’s interactions with the model.

Minneapolis-St. Paul is investing in a new system of transitways and priced traffic lanes instead of traditional highway expansion. Planners there say the region will never be able to build its way out of congestion with highways.

Like many communities throughout the country, Minneapolis-St. Paul is moving beyond the decades-old assumption that the only way to eliminate congestion is with more outward-stretching asphalt. This fall, officials in the Twin Cities voted to roll back highway expansions and increase access to transit options instead.

Local planners say it’s time to acknowledge that the region simply can’t afford to accommodate growth by building new highways.

“We couldn’t keep going on acting as if we were going to get money to build our way out of congestion,” said Arlene McCarthy, Director of Metropolitan Transportation Services for the Twin Cities Metro Council, which drafted and approved the new plan. “One county alone could easily consume all the money the region has. That’s the reality.”

With vehicle trips expected to increase 35 percent by 2030, regional planners estimate it would cost approximately $40 billion to even attempt to tackle congestion with traditional road projects. But only about $8 billion is expected to be available to the regional planning agency over the next ten years.

The goal of the Twin Cities 2030 Transportation Plan is to maximize the use of existing freeways by adding bus lanes or priced traffic lanes in shoulders wherever possible. The new framework will require increased emphasis on transit and other non-automotive modes.

Rather than measuring transportation capacity in terms of traffic volumes, planners have focused on moving people. The 2030 plan calls for using congestion pricing to help encourage transit, carpooling, walking and biking. The Twin Cities envision a network of “transitways,” which will serve the region through passenger rail, bus rapid transit or express busways. Compact, transit-oriented development will be built in clusters along these corridors. The plan also calls for clustering jobs near transportation centers and encouraging mixed-use development, McCarthy said.

The overall strategy is to pursue high-benefit, low-cost projects. “We’re asking the question, ‘Can we provide the majority of the benefit at a much lower cost?’” McCarthy said. “We’re finding that we can do that.”

As part of the new framework, 14 previously planned highway expansions totaling $2.3 billion have been tabled. However, six “high-impact, low-cost” highway projects are still slated to move forward. Many of the remaining projects focus on the building of high-occupancy/toll (HOT) lanes, but traditional highway building is included to a limited extent as well.

Local environmental and business groups have been supportive of the proposal. Jim Erkel, director of the land use and transportation program at the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, said it will help ease water and air pollution in the region and prevent sprawl from consuming farmland. The plan, he said, should also help the region stay in compliance with the Clean Air Act.

“We’re going to be looking at less impervious surface,” he said. “Building in already developed areas should mean fewer vehicle miles traveled.”

In addition, Jeremy Estenson of the regional chamber of commerce told the Star Tribune in September that despite some reservations, overall the business group is behind the plan.

This map outlines the downsized number of highway expansions planned for the Twin Cities under the 2030 Plan. Map: Twin Cities Metro Council

Of course, not everyone is thrilled. A group of suburban political leaders raised strong objections, noting that without highway expansion plans in place, the suburban counties would not have been eligible to apply for windfall funds like the federal support that flowed from the 2008 stimulus package.

“Some of us felt that we should have a more aggressive plan,” said Dennis Hegberg, a commissioner with suburban Washington County, which is growing rapidly. “There are a number of state and federal highways that need attention and I feel they’re not being paid attention to.” Still, Hegberg said he and his counterparts have accepted the result of the council’s vote.

One major catalyst for change was the tragedy that took place on August 1, 2007, when the I-35W bridge collapsed in Minneapolis and seven people were killed. The event prompted a tax increase to support bridge maintenance, and more generally, forced political leaders to take their responsibility for infrastructure maintenance seriously.

“After August 1, 2007 the ground shifted tremendously,” said Erkel. “It seemed to take that to make the legislature realize that we had a lot of things to take care of.”

The 2030 Plan, and its emphasis on maintenance, should help ensure the community avoids such tragedies in the future.

The plan puts the Twin Cities ahead of the curve in regional transportation policy from a national standpoint. But Minneapolis still lags behind places like Portland, Oregon; Arlington, Virginia; and Montgomery County, Maryland on issues such as land use and transit, said Myron Orfield, director of the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota and author of American Metropolitics.

Though the traditionally progressive Twin Cities benefit from having very strong land use statutes, they haven’t been aggressive enough in enforcing those standards, he said.

Will Schroeer, policy and research director for Smart Growth America, agreed that the Minneapolis plan has room for improvement. Priced lanes offer some advantages, including the ability to recoup expenses, manage congestion, and create priority space for buses, Schroeer said. But the additional lanes still reinforce auto dependence.

Twin Cities officials acknowledge within the plan that the region already has a greater number of highway miles per capita than many comparable areas. The region built hundreds of miles of new highways in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. While the 2030 plan is a step forward, Minneapolis could have gained more ground on the nation’s best-planned regions by just saying no to any new highway lanes. “It’s new capacity in an area which doesn’t really need new capacity,” said Schroeer. “It’s better than regular capacity but it’s still not great.”

Oberstar, right, and DeFazio share a ride in a pedi-cab. Willamette River Bridge Project

As committee chair, Oberstar has been a strong advocate for transit investment and livability reforms. He’s also the architect and chief proponent of the six-year $500 billion transportation bill that’s been stalled in the House since last summer.

Oberstar has easily won 17 consecutive elections, but the 18th is proving to be a little sticky. The LA Times reports:

[R]ecently, American Crossroads, an independent group affiliated with GOP strategist Karl Rove, started running spots on the Duluth stations that blanket the area. A group formed by Democrat-turned-Republican Dick Morris also launched a spot against Oberstar.

Then a third group called 60 Plus, which bills itself as a conservative alternative to AARP, began broadcasting $100,000 worth of ads saying it was time for the 76-year-old incumbent to retire.

Now, Oberstar’s seat is in play.

According to polling by SurveyUSA, he’s currently just one point ahead of challenger Chip Cravaack, within the margin of error. And he’s not the only champion having to fight harder than usual to retain his seat.

It’s being portrayed as a testament to the power of anti-incumbent sentiment this year that Peter DeFazio (D-OR) finds himself in a surprisingly close race against Republican Art Robinson. DeFazio, as chair of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee, has strongly advocated for including livability measures in the transportation bill.

He won his last race with 82 percent, and no independent polls were even commissioned this time around — his chances were considered that good. Conservative money has helped Robinson close the funding gap, though. And the only poll that’s been conducted — admittedly, by a Republican polling firm — shows DeFazio just six points ahead. That’s a lot closer than he expected this race to be.

Colorado is a classic swing state. Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by a margin of just 3.5 percent. The state voted for Obama in 2008, the first time it went blue in a presidential contest since Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign. And before that, you had to go all the way back to LBJ.

But now this purple state may be losing its red. Gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes’ trainwreck of a campaign could leave the GOP a minor party in the state of Colorado. Could it have something to do with his bizarre allegations that bike-sharing in Denver is a UN plot? Or his zeal to de-regulate the oil and gas industries?

From left: Tom Tancredo, Dan Maes, and John Hickenlooper in a three-way debate in Colorado's gubernatorial election. Image: AP

As Talking Points Memo reported yesterday, if Maes fails to attract just 10 percent of the votes next Tuesday, the GOP will be saddled with minor party status in Colorado until 2014. A recent Denver Post poll shows him at 9 percent. The Democratic-affiliated PPP poll gives him just 5 percent. Minor party status would leave the GOP at a serious disadvantage by limiting their fundraising and ceding their spot at the top of the ballot.

That doesn’t mean Democrat John Hickenlooper will just cruise into the governor’s mansion though. American Constitution Party candidate Tom Tancredo (formerly a Republican member of Congress) is making this race a contest, with Hickenlooper ahead by about 6 percent, according to the polling average cited on Real Clear Politics. They’re competing for the seat being vacated by Democrat Bill Ritter, who was rated the country’s greenest governor last year.

Tancredo is too singularly obsessed with immigration to talk much about transportation or environmental issues. But not Maes.

“This is all very well-disguised, but it will be exposed,” he said in August of Denver’s bike-sharing program, which Hickenlooper had helped to launch as the city’s mayor. “This is bigger than it looks like on the surface, and it could threaten our personal freedoms.”

His conspiracy theories about bicycles made Maes, a Tea Party favorite, a bit of an easy target for his opponents. He fueled the fire with a series of paranoid statements, each kookier than the last, about the UN plot to subdue America through cycling.

Maes, who got his start in business working in the telecommunications industry before moving on to a credit reporting agency, is more of an oil-and-gas guy. He wants to remove “bureaucratic regulations” that restrict the fossil fuel industry.

Meanwhile, Democratic candidate John Hickenlooper has been fiercely promoting green transportation during his tenure as mayor of Denver. Openly asking questions like, “How do we wean ourselves off automobiles?”, Hickenlooper has championed both biking and transit, building consensus among 32 area mayors for the $6.5 billion FasTracks regional rail and bus expansion project.

Hickenlooper has gotten under the skin of the auto industry by openly plotting the shift away from the single-occupancy vehicle. “This country’s in love with automobiles,” he said in an interview with Grist. “That’s not going to go away quick. But we can give people more options.”

He likens the ascent of biking versus driving to the rapid rise of the cell phone. “If you told people 10 years ago that landlines would disappear as fast as they are, they wouldn’t have believed you.”

And Hickenlooper is very aware of the sea change in people’s desire for urbanism. “People say nobody wants to live in downtowns in Western cities, because people want yards,” he told Grist. “But we built over 25,000 condominiums and homes in downtown Denver in the last 15 years. If you lay [transit] out right, people will change their ways.”

But the 40 percent of the vote Tancredo is commanding points to the fact that for a large part of the Colorado electorate, this election isn’t about energy independence or smart cities. It’s about immigration. Hickenlooper has had to play defense on charges that he’s made Denver a “sanctuary city” for undocumented immigrants.

But whether or not he wins the Minuteman vote, he’s got the bike vote locked up.

My friends and I walked down to the street and marveled at the constant stream of cyclists - old and young, men and women, all kinds of bikes. What a great way to experience a city! For those who didn't have bikes, there were kiosks every half-mile or so where you could borrow a bike for free. I didn't have my passport with me so I couldn't borrow one. The good news is that this is a weekly event so I plan to borrow a bike next week. There are also numerous racks full of free city bikes that people could use as well.

What also impressed me was that several of the blocks had programmed space where the streets were used for other purposes. With world cup fever going on down here, several blocks of street were converted into mini-soccer fields. Another stretch of street was turned into a showcase for locals who had restored old VW Bugs to show off their cars. Ciclovia here gives a variety of options for people to experience their streets as vibrant places to enjoy.

At major intersections, police regulated the car traffic so it could cross the Ciclovia on a regular basis. We later took the subway about six stops down to the historic Zocolo, and to my surprise, the Ciclovia was going on all the way down there!

If Mexico City can do this on a weekly basis, why not Los Angeles? I'm definitely looking forward to riding in the first Ciclavia in Los Angeles on September 12^th. I encourage you to plan on attending and invite your friends to join you.

Gresham, Oregon used to look like your typical suburb.
Lots of lawns and lots of parking. When Portland’s MAX light-rail line
expanded to Gresham, developers saw an opportunity to bring something
different: walkable development. But a downturn in the local real
estate market interceded. One developer trying to build a four-story
condo project decided that he’d be better off with a video store
surrounded by surface parking.

The
Crossings at Gresham brought transit-oriented development to Portland’s
suburbs, opening the door for financing to flow to similar projects.
Image: Myhre Group Architects.

Metro
– Portland’s regional government — decided that wasn’t good enough.
They bought the site outright. Then Metro proceeded to double down on
the original plans for the project, which it called The Crossings.
Four stories became five, making the development the tallest building
in Gresham. Condos became a mixed-use development with ground-floor
retail, sidewalk cafés and engaging street-level facades.

There was still one big problem: financing. Charlotte
Boxer, director of commercial real estate at Pacific Continental Bank,
was skeptical of Metro’s project. "What would draw people to live
there, or what would make a retailer decide to lease there?" she asked.
"There was substantial risk on Metro’s part and on ours as the lender,
because we had no comparables to go to that would say this would work."
For the project to succeed financially, they’d have to charge rents 25
percent higher than the going rate in Gresham, for a type of
development no one had ever tried there.

In many parts of
America, efforts to build transit-oriented, walkable communities are
foiled because financing can’t be secured for projects that differ from
the templates lenders have become used to since World War II. In Salt
Lake City, for example, the local government’s push for
transit-oriented development has been stymied because local banks won’t lend to projects without huge parking lots.

Why
do lenders balk at development that reduces car dependence? In a word,
inertia. "The lending industry appears to be very conservative, if your
definition of conservative is doing the same thing this year as you did
five years ago," said David Goldstein,
the
co-director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s energy
program and an expert on environmental real estate financing. Because
banks have no institutional memory of lending to transit-oriented
development, they are reluctant to do so going forward.

In
Portland, officials and activists have begun to escape this cycle. The
policies they’ve pursued to foster walkable development are instructive
for many American cities looking to grow without making traffic
congestion worse.

Even in transit-rich New York, economic development officials have subsidized developers who import car-oriented standards. They are happy to secure favorable lending terms, underwritten by the U.S. government, for multi-story parking decks.
It’s safe to say that goals like enhancing the pedestrian environment
or attaining sustainability targets are not motivating these decisions.
Portland development officials do things differently. When planners
there decided that urbanism and sustainability were good outcomes, they
went out and started convincing lenders to change the way they do
business.

Megan Gibb runs Metro’s transit-oriented development program,
which works with developers and offers financial incentives for TOD.
The Crossings, for example, received discounted land, tax breaks, and
other financial incentives from Metro. "Our whole program is to build
more market-comparables," said Gibb. "The more TOD projects there are,
the more it builds on itself." Each project that gets built makes the
next one easier to finance.

Gibb also highlighted the
centrality of public-private partnerships to Portland’s success.
According to Gibb, banks normally look at standard, car-oriented
development models and say, "We know this worked in the past. Why would
we want it to be any different?" When the public sector commits to
smart growth, however, bankers instead see that the government "thinks
this is really important and is willing to put their money where its
mouth is." For financial institutions that are often quite risk-averse,
government action provides the security necessary to move forward.

John Warner, who manages most of the TOD projects at the Portland Development Commission,
argues that at first, government may have to push the envelope to
convince banks that walkable development pays off. "Until you’ve got
examples that lenders can look back in time at," he said, "you have to
be doubly conservative and oversubsidize something to prove the
concept." Warner added that in Portland, where lenders have bought into
a consensus about the need for sustainable development, they’ve been
able to walk back many subsidies.

At The Crossings, Metro’s
vision — and incentives — turned the project into reality.
Financially, it’s a complete success, with 100 percent occupancy and a
sizable waiting list. It’s won awards for transit-oriented design and
earned the praise of Gresham’s residents and politicians. Perhaps most
importantly, however, it set an example.

Boxer, the initially
skeptical executive at Pacific Continental Bank who provided The
Crossings’ financing, now says she is "very proud to say I have
financed the project." She also calls it "truly pioneering," providing
a model for how to bring walkable development to suburban locations.
The Crossings, itself possible because of the successful projects that
preceded it, helped pave the way for more and better transit-oriented
developments that followed.

The
Beranger condos, a new transit-oriented development in Gresham,
wouldn’t have been possible without The Crossings’ success. Image: Gresham Downtown Development Association.

Even
in Portland, though, proponents of walkable development have more
convincing to do. One bank that’s played a central role in financing
urban-style housing near transit, ShoreBank Pacific,
is still getting accustomed to projects with less parking, for
instance. "Having no parking for a business is still a pretty
challenging place to be," said ShoreBank VP Bonnie Anderson.

Moving forward, then, Portland will have to craft policies that
expand the comfort zone of lenders. Gibb and Anderson saw shared
parking and car-share as tools to mitigate banks’ fears about financing
projects with fewer parking spaces than normal.

There are
also structural reasons that banks avoid transit-oriented development,
which can’t be overcome by building a few market comparables. Because
profits from transit-oriented development tend to materialize more
slowly than from typical suburban development, new financing methods
are needed to make TOD more attractive to lenders. And of course, banks
respond to the regulatory environment. Portland makes many developers
adhere to principles of walkable development near transit lines.

It’s
true that Portland area bankers have yet to embrace the full range of
development needed to reduce car-dependence. But as the region attempts
to grow sustainably, it benefits immensely from development officials
like John Warner, who talks passionately about "the community
organizing needed to get all the stakeholders on board with the
absolute necessity of transit-oriented development." While here in New
York, where growth is ostensibly shaped by a citywide sustainability
plan, the chair of the local Economic Development Corporation still
thinks that not providing enough parking is "the worst thing we could do."

After Sen. Scott Brown’s (R-MA) January upset
in the race for the congressional seat long held by the late Ted
Kennedy, his win was chalked up to several factors: voter reluctance to
embrace health care reform, campaign-trail gaffes by the Democratic
candidate — and a hyper-folksy ad campaign that featured Brown cruising around the state meeting voters in his "old truck."

Now the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza catches an interesting new take on that ubiquitous truck ad (at which even President Obama took aim).
Republican Dan Winslow, a candidate for the Massachusetts state
legislature who has worked for Brown and erstwhile GOP presidential
hopeful Mitt Romney, has cut a version of the commercial featuring him
touring his prospective district by bicycle.

Could Winslow’s ad signal a growing Republican transition away from bashing bike infrastructure projects as pork-barrel spending?

"Folks,
you ain’t seen nothing yet," Mayor Bloomberg told an Earth Day crowd
yesterday. "The best and greenest days are yet to come." The PlaNYC
update coming in 2011, he implied, would have a slew of new initiatives
to make our city more sustainable, and he’s taking suggestions. 

He could get some good ones from Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. Released on Earth Day, "Sparking Boston’s Climate Revolution" [PDF],
is that city’s answer to the greenhouse gas reduction targets in
PlaNYC. Many of the ideas — green buildings, new bike infrastructure
– will look familiar to New Yorkers. But on one crucial green measure,
Boston could be poised to leap ahead of New York: using parking policy
to reduce driving. 

Boston’s plan calls for charging more for
on-street parking. In commercial areas, meters will charge higher rates
and stay in effect longer. In residential neighborhoods, Boston intends
to start charging for residential parking permits for the first time.
Over just the last two years, the city distributed 100,000 permits for
free. The Boston plan also calls for charging much higher rates for
every additional permit given to each household. So owning a second car
will come at a higher price.

The higher meter rates and permit fees will not just disincentivize
driving, but also raise revenue that Boston intends to use to fund
pedestrian and bike improvements.

For years, Boston has had a freeze on building off-street parking in three neighborhoods, similar to Manhattan’s Clean Air Act-driven zone
below 60th Street. As in Manhattan, however, developers can obtain
permits to skirt the restrictions. The Earth Day report calls for
cracking down on those permits and looking into the possibility of
expanding the parking freeze in new neighborhoods.  

In
contrast, PlaNYC contains almost nothing about parking policy: just a
promise to increase the use of muni-meters and reduce the impact of
surface lots on water quality. While DOT’s pilot ParkSmart program
has experimented with pricing on-street parking more efficiently in a
handful of neighborhoods, the planning department and NYCEDC promote
driving through zoning rules and RFPs that demand large amounts of off-street parking. Rather than try to expand the zones where parking restrictions are strongest, New York has fought in court
to evade its existing regulations. (To be fair, Bloomberg would need
Albany to pass legislation in order to enact a residential parking
permit program like they have in Boston.)

In the race to have the "greenest, greatest" city, Menino is making Boston a contender.

It was a privilege and honor for my artwork to represent the United States at the United Nation Habitat organized World Urban Forum (WUF) in Brazil. The theme of the fifth biannual conference was The Right to the City: Bridging the Urban Divide. The Forum was established by the United Nations in 2002 to examine urgent problems facing the world today. The conference focused on rapid urbanization and its impact on cities, economies, climate change, and policies. It brought together over 17,000 participants including government leaders, ministers, mayors, diplomats, regional and international associations, community groups, and practitioners. The US delegation was comprised of high-level staff from the White House Office of Urban Affairs, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the State Department, the United States Agency for International Development, and the United States Department of Agriculture. This year, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan led the US delegation.

As part of the WUF conference, there was an exhibition area where various nations, public institutions, and non-government organizations could set up booths to showcase their work. HUD staff invited me to participate in the conference's USA Exhibition booth. This booth served as a gathering area for host speakers from the US Delegation, which allowed me to meet many of the high-ranking staff.

The USA booth featured an interactive model of a car-free Rio I created. HUD recognized my innovative approach to engage, empower, and excite the general public about sustainable urban planning. HUD believed that this public participation method is a useful educational tool providing community residents the opportunity to envision the urban planning process and solve urban problems. My model was thirty inches wide and six feet long and was placed on a 40-inch-high table, which made it very accessible to the public. The model was a representation of Rio's beaches, mountains and street grid. The model - along with a life-size poster of President Obama - made our booth particularly playful.

Hundreds of participants visited the US booth daily. Many people were fascinated by the vibrant colors, recycled materials and the purpose of the interactive model. Once attendees were aware that they could touch the model, many became fascinated with rearranging it. This allowed me to engage with attendees from all over the world ranging from heads-of-state to casual passers-by.

Anna Tibajuka, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, was fascinated by the model. I explained to her how it breaks down the planning process into clearly understandable parts. Her response was to remove some of the favelas lining the hillside areas of the model and replace it with new housing. The United States Ambassador to Brazil, Clifford Sobel was interested in the interactive model and thought is was an important tool for engaging communities in the planning process. Maria Otero, State Department, Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs was happy to see the model. Mercedes M. Márquez, Assistant Secretary Community Planning and Development, Housing and Urban Development also former general manager of the City of Los Angeles Housing Department enjoyed the model as well.

Africans, Latin Americans, and Europeans all worked together making modification to the model. Two guys from Norway turned every building into one story while a German guy attempted to build the highest building. An Indian gentleman said he is going to create a model like this back home for his children. A group of Afghanis were fascinated by this process and spoke to me in broken English as to how I could help them back home. A young Polish couple though this would be a great way to revision Warsaw. A young boy from The Congo played with the model for over an hour, making changes big and small model. Still others demand more open space and parks in the model. Dozens of Brazilians were very happy that I made their fair city car free since traffic is a problem in Rio.

From the hundreds of responses I received from participants form all over the globe is that they all share the same values toward the cities. They want decent housing, public transportation, open space and a sustainable future for their communities.

The interactive car-free Rio model was a big success because it illustrated how, given the right tools, we can all work together to shape the future of cities.

For more information www.unhabitat.org/wuf

My next project is to help the City of New Orleans.

An extension of Miami’s Metrorail is on the ropes in the fight for federal aid. (Photo: Laurel_blogger via Photobucket)

In its full report [PDF]
on transit New and Small Starts, the FTA listed 14 transit projects in
the "Preliminary Engineering" phase, with three of those receiving an
overall project rating of Medium-Low. Projects need to receive
an overall status of Medium or above in order to get federal funding,
even after the FTA relaxed its former emphasis on cost-effectiveness.

So which three projects are still stuck in neutral when it comes to winning Washington’s approval? Boston’s Silver Line Phase III plan, a $1.7 billion tunnel that would connect Chinatown with the southern waterfront and the airport; Sacramento’s South Corridor Phase II, a four-mile extension of local light rail estimated at $270 million; and Miami’s Orange Line Phase II, a 9.2-mile extension of the city’s Metrorail with a price tag of $1.3 billion.

Miami
and Boston, having already gotten the cold shoulder in 2008, could face
a permanent no from the feds if they cannot strengthen their proposals
this year.

Interestingly, the three transit projects that
have yet to reach a Medium rating got subpar evaluations of their local
governments’ financial contributions even though their proposed federal
share of capital costs was comparable to the those for successful
transit projects in Minneapolis and Denver. (Boston’s preferred federal
share stands at 60 percent, Sacramento’s at 50 percent and Miami’s at
47 percent.)

For the full skinny, check out page 13 of the FTA’s report.

Here at LA Streetsblog, we spend a lot of time looking at some of the bicycle and pedestrian designs from around the world and going "why not us?"  Budapest.  Copehnagen.  Beijing.  Heck, even Tempe and Baltimore are doing better when it comes to supporting cyclists.

Well, thanks to the Times, we have a new city to add to the list.  The above picture is from an article about Japanese government attempts to clean up the Red Light District of Tokyo.  Note the great bike lane, even if someone is walking through it.

Hat Tip to reader Erick G.