And here’s another fun chart: According to the most recent data from the New York City Department of Transportation, biking in the city skyrocketed again this year. The colored bars represent the number of bikes counted at different commuter points over the course of a single day.

Our friends at Streetsblog provide an explanation:

The new counts bolster the evidence linking safer bikeways to increased cycling. New York’s bike network expanded significantly in the past 12 months, including…

Read & Discuss

Transportation for America released a new study on which U.S. cities are most dangerous for pedestrians. If you’re going for a stroll in Florida, keep your wits about you: Orlando, Tampa, Miami, and Jacksonville take the top five spots.

The report blames most pedestrian deaths on what they call “poorly designed arterial roads”—they’re high-speed, multi-lane city streets lined with shopping centers, drive-throughs, apartments, and office space, yet devoid of pedestrian-friendly elements like crosswalks.

I’m disappointed to see Los…

Read & Discuss

A look at the technology, design, and people behind the Mission One motorcycle

The world’s fastest production electric motorcycle was built in San Francisco’s Dogpatch—an industrial neighborhood bordered by the city’s waterfront. It is an amalgam of drydocks, former steel mills, and factories. Constructed in the 1860s and having largely survived the 1906 earthquake, the zone maintains a smoke-stacked atmosphere of sturdy stone and brick, the streets redolent of coal- and oil-powered commerce. It is appropriate…

Read & Discuss

In the GOOD 100 we applauded the idea of not only creating more space for cyclists and pedestrians on our roads, but of appropriating car lanes to do it. One place this has been tried is on the Burrard Bridge, which connects Vancouver’s downtown to the Kitsilano neighborhood to the west. Last summer the city gave one of the bridge’s six car lanes to bikes. The idea was controversial, to say the least. Skeptics thought it…

Read & Discuss

For Brits who text while driving, and for those who share the road with them, things are pretty far from merry in old England. The Times just ran the disturbing story of 22-year-old Phillipa Curtis, who, distracted while texting, crashed her Peugeot into a parked Fiat, killing the 24-year-old Victory McBryde. Curtis was recently sentenced to 21 months in a high-security prison. From NYTimes:

The crash might once have been written off as a tragic accident.…

Read & Discuss

Neither ethanol nor electric vehicles address the real problems.

We have two main “solutions” for curbing the unintended consequences of our use of fossil fuels: first generation biofuels (ethanol and biodiesel) and electric vehicles. I am unapologetic in my belief that both are very flawed solutions. At best, they make only a marginally positive contribution; at worst, they represent a situation where the patient’s medicine can actually make him sicker.

It may seem like heresy for a self-righteous Prius-driving…

Read & Discuss

Most of the world’s population now lives in cities. How can we make sure these urban centers are good homes for humanity? Cities from Bogotá and Rio de Janeiro to Seoul are leading the way, using fresh ideas to reduce pollution and waste; provide efficient, clean transportation; and support biodiversity.

…
Read & Discuss

New technologies are constantly being deployed to help a city’s citizens get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. By monitoring and improving its traffic flow from a centrally located transportation systems center, a city can make everyone’s commute faster. Click here to see how it works.

A collaboration between GOOD, Oliver Munday, and Redub.

Read & Discuss

John Rogers’s company, Local Motors, is novel to say the least. It’s an “open source” car company that will build and distribute their models in local factories, with lots of customer input and involvement. In fact, the actual design of the cars themselves come from the customers.

Here’s the description furnished by Pop!Tech, where Rogers just spoke:

Located in a Wareham, Massachusetts, industrial park, Local Motors solicits designs over its corporate website that are then put up for…

Read & Discuss

Anyone who has ever ridden a bicycle knows how useless bike lanes are when they are a) not enforced, b) not respected by cabbies and other drivers, c) not maintained, d) way too small, or e) all of the above.

Check out this awesome Flickr group of photos about crap bike lanes, brought together by the Guardian, and inspired by the Warringron Cycle Campaign’s new book. If you have any of your own post about them…

Read & Discuss

And here’s another fun chart: According to the most recent data from the New York City Department of Transportation, biking in the city skyrocketed again this year. The colored bars represent the number of bikes counted at different commuter points over the course of a single day.

Our friends at Streetsblog provide an explanation:

The new counts bolster the evidence linking safer bikeways to increased cycling. New York’s bike network expanded significantly in the past 12 months, including…

Read & Discuss

Transportation for America released a new study on which U.S. cities are most dangerous for pedestrians. If you’re going for a stroll in Florida, keep your wits about you: Orlando, Tampa, Miami, and Jacksonville take the top five spots.

The report blames most pedestrian deaths on what they call “poorly designed arterial roads”—they’re high-speed, multi-lane city streets lined with shopping centers, drive-throughs, apartments, and office space, yet devoid of pedestrian-friendly elements like crosswalks.

I’m disappointed to see Los…

Read & Discuss

A look at the technology, design, and people behind the Mission One motorcycle

The world’s fastest production electric motorcycle was built in San Francisco’s Dogpatch—an industrial neighborhood bordered by the city’s waterfront. It is an amalgam of drydocks, former steel mills, and factories. Constructed in the 1860s and having largely survived the 1906 earthquake, the zone maintains a smoke-stacked atmosphere of sturdy stone and brick, the streets redolent of coal- and oil-powered commerce. It is appropriate…

Read & Discuss

In the GOOD 100 we applauded the idea of not only creating more space for cyclists and pedestrians on our roads, but of appropriating car lanes to do it. One place this has been tried is on the Burrard Bridge, which connects Vancouver’s downtown to the Kitsilano neighborhood to the west. Last summer the city gave one of the bridge’s six car lanes to bikes. The idea was controversial, to say the least. Skeptics thought it…

Read & Discuss

For Brits who text while driving, and for those who share the road with them, things are pretty far from merry in old England. The Times just ran the disturbing story of 22-year-old Phillipa Curtis, who, distracted while texting, crashed her Peugeot into a parked Fiat, killing the 24-year-old Victory McBryde. Curtis was recently sentenced to 21 months in a high-security prison. From NYTimes:

The crash might once have been written off as a tragic accident.…

Read & Discuss

Neither ethanol nor electric vehicles address the real problems.

We have two main “solutions” for curbing the unintended consequences of our use of fossil fuels: first generation biofuels (ethanol and biodiesel) and electric vehicles. I am unapologetic in my belief that both are very flawed solutions. At best, they make only a marginally positive contribution; at worst, they represent a situation where the patient’s medicine can actually make him sicker.

It may seem like heresy for a self-righteous Prius-driving…

Read & Discuss

Most of the world’s population now lives in cities. How can we make sure these urban centers are good homes for humanity? Cities from Bogotá and Rio de Janeiro to Seoul are leading the way, using fresh ideas to reduce pollution and waste; provide efficient, clean transportation; and support biodiversity.

…
Read & Discuss

New technologies are constantly being deployed to help a city’s citizens get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. By monitoring and improving its traffic flow from a centrally located transportation systems center, a city can make everyone’s commute faster. Click here to see how it works.

A collaboration between GOOD, Oliver Munday, and Redub.

Read & Discuss

John Rogers’s company, Local Motors, is novel to say the least. It’s an “open source” car company that will build and distribute their models in local factories, with lots of customer input and involvement. In fact, the actual design of the cars themselves come from the customers.

Here’s the description furnished by Pop!Tech, where Rogers just spoke:

Located in a Wareham, Massachusetts, industrial park, Local Motors solicits designs over its corporate website that are then put up for…

Read & Discuss

Anyone who has ever ridden a bicycle knows how useless bike lanes are when they are a) not enforced, b) not respected by cabbies and other drivers, c) not maintained, d) way too small, or e) all of the above.

Check out this awesome Flickr group of photos about crap bike lanes, brought together by the Guardian, and inspired by the Warringron Cycle Campaign’s new book. If you have any of your own post about them…

Read & Discuss

Most of the world’s population now lives in cities. How can we make sure these urban centers are good homes for humanity? Cities from Bogotá and Rio de Janeiro to Seoul are leading the way, using fresh ideas to reduce pollution and waste; provide efficient, clean transportation; and support biodiversity.

…
Read & Discuss

The battle over which North American city is the best for biking is fierce and— most likely—unresolvable. Our latest Transparency will tell you which cities’ residents make the largest percentage of their commutes by bike. Portland, Oregon, you can keep on gloating.

A collaboration between GOOD and Chris Korbey.

Read & Discuss

The New American Dream

During a decade when Americans returned to cities for the first time in 50 years, it surprises me that “urban” can still be a code word for all things negative.

Attach the word “urban” to almost any ill, and what is bad becomes worse. Urban poverty is worse than poverty. Urban crime is worse than crime. It must follow that urban neighborhoods are worse than just neighborhoods, right?

Wrong. But you would hardly know it…

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The photographs on the pages of Ed Ruscha’s book Twentysix Gasoline Stations depict filling stations across the United States of America in the form of a stark, beautiful, and modern travel narrative. Inspired by Ruscha’s seminal work, the Japanense-Danish photographer Eric Tabuchi—who describes his fondness for petrol stations by likening their logos to coats of arms—took the concept into new territory with his project, “Twentysix Abandoned Gasoline Stations,” which focused on nonoperational stations in various states of…

Read & Discuss

Most of the world’s population now lives in cities. How can we make sure these urban centers are good homes for humanity? Cities from Bogotá and Rio de Janeiro to Seoul are leading the way, using fresh ideas to reduce pollution and waste; provide efficient, clean transportation; and support biodiversity.

…
Read & Discuss

Americans take 911 for granted, but in many developing nations a centralized emergency telephone number is unheard of. In Mumbai, a private ambulance company has stepped up to fill the void in emergency medical service. In a city where "ambulance" used to be synonymous with "hearse," Mumbai residents..
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In rural Africa, women spend 26% of their time fetching water, often walking for miles with heavy buckets balanced on their heads. That’s time that could be spent going to school, working outside the home, or teaching their children. The Hippo Water Roller eases the burden by allowing women to transport five times as much water with much less physical effort. In our latest LOOK video, we examine the impact of the rollers on…

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