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Mapping Noise Pollution with Cell Phones
Cell phones usually contribute to urban noise pollution. But the folks at Paris’s Sony Computer Science Laboratory have created an app that lets any GPS-enabled phone help us understand the problem. Behold NoiseTube: Serenity now! … -
Ideas for Cities: Ped Shed over Drive Shed
Ped Shed over Drive Shed
Cities could close and re-purpose or retrofit parking garages to create incentives for walking or riding bikes, mixed with unique spaces for work, play, art, learning, farming, and other sustainable, entertaining, and productive experiences. This is part 19 of a continuing brainstorm on the future of cities, inaugurated at the CEOs for Cities Velocity conference in September, 2009. We’ll post a new idea each day until we run out, at which point we’re counting on… -
Ideas for Cities: Citizen Recruiters
Citizen Recruiters
Every single citizen should be engaged in the city, valued, and respected. Citizen Recruiters are analogous to military recruiters who go out and get people “in the game.” They would issue a personal invitation to be involved, and help the recruits navigate the system to find the right opportunities to “play.” They could get involved in city services, learning, or apprenticeships. Supported by a technology infrastructure, CRs would invite citizens both in person and… -
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Transparency: The Effects of Bike Commuting on Obesity
The average American is both overweight and spends more than 100 hours per year commuting, that vast majority of those hours being spent in a car. Are those numbers correlated? Could we help reduce our societal weight gain by encouraging more commutes by bike or foot? Our latest Transparency is a look at the number of active commutes in several countries, as compared to those countries obesity rates. A collaboration between GOOD and Lamosca. … -
Identity Theft for Cities
How poor regional planning can suck the life out of cities. Regionalism is all the rage. The Obama Administration is betting big on regional planning as a way to make smarter decisions on transportation, climate, the economy—all those things that don’t respect political boundaries. The Administration plans to reward communities that work together across jurisdictions toward common goals and, by implication, punish those that do not. Who can argue with that? I certainly can’t. But as I sit… -
Ideas for Cities: Prosper.org
Prosper.org
The Ingenuity Ringmaster (blessed and supported by the city) would commit to a problem worth solving, and citizen innovators would submit ideas, and then the city would create a portfolio of projects with design criteria and guidance. Leveraging a micro-financing engine, citizens could vote with their dollars to decide which problems were solved. Personal investment would also drive involvement and contribution (anyone can volunteer to mentor the team, etc.). People would share, learn, and improve… -
@GOOD Readers Answer: How Long is Your Morning Commute and What’s Your Means of Transportation?
Today on Twitter we asked our followers how long their morning commutes were, and your means of transportation. We collected some of our favorite responses below. We ask a question to our Twitter faithful once a day, so if you’re not yet following @GOOD, make sure to sign up and participate in the conversation. -
TreeHugger Explores the World of Cargo Bicycles
In their ongoing series devoted to moving cargo around by bike, TreeHugger focuses today’s entry to the workhorse of the genre: extended frame bikes. Here’s a glimpse: In our endeavours to take a snapshot of the world of Bicycle Cargo we have to date looked at the Racks And Bags used for bicycle cargo as well as the Bike Trailer. Now in Chapter Three, we take a gander at over 20 Extended Frame Bikes, as used for the… -
Furry Friends
The Wooster Collective talks to Neozoon about their furry installations, and what they mean for how we view animals. Neozoon’s work is both amusing and arresting. Seeing the playful animals in city centers and on monuments makes us smile. But the subsequent realization that these are actual animal pelts (made from discarded fur coats) creates a feeling of uneasiness. For sure, their message does not go unnoticed. WOOSTER: How do you choose the specific placements? NEOZOON: Finding a place… -
Waste Not, Watt Not
It’s been a bummer of a week for climate news. The Senate bill continues to languish behind health care and there have been some disconcerting rumbles that it might now be back-burnered even longer as an increasingly spineless nervous Senate focuses on jobs and deficit. And out of Singapore on Sunday we hear that Copenhagen definitely won’t produce a legally-binding agreement, but will rather be the first piece of a “one-agreement, two-step” process, the controversial (and dangerous (pdf),…
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Cities
How can we make cities better, so that they improve the lives of the people who live in them and the health of the planet?
