This just in box

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Mode shift: moving from driving to transit, biking, and walking

Wednesday, July 22, 7:00 – 9:00 pm
by Jason Schrieber, Principal, Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates

@ LivableStreets office space, 100 Sidney Street, Central Square, Cambridge [ map... ]

free and open to the public, donation suggested. beer/sodas provided compliments of Harpoon Brewery and delivered thanks to Metro Pedal Power!

What makes people shift out of their cars? Is it building more subways, bike lanes, and better sidewalks? Is it financial factors like a gas tax, congestion charges, and parking prices? Is it land use patterns like a mix of uses, local retail and where people live and work? Or how about the health and environmental benefits? Think about the factors that make you choose to walk, bike, drive or take transit. What would make you, or the people you know, take one mode of transportation over another?

Come to the StreetTalk to hear Jason’s perspectives on these issues related to the metro-Boston area, and get a visual tour of some of the great places in the world for getting around. Jason will reveal some surprising truths comparing the subsidy for transit versus that for driving. He will talk about several local initiatives aimed at helping us achieve “mode shift”.

Jason Schrieber has 14 years of multi-modal planning and design experience including changing parking policies to better balance cars and other modes of transportation. Jason previously worked for the City of Cambridge where he managed all planning activities for the City’s transportation department. Nelson/Nygaard: www.nelsonnygaard.com

Damn you rain!

The Cambridge Block Party has been moved to next Thursday, be sure to update your calendars!

Cambridge Bicycle Commuter Open House and Block Party
Thursday, May 21st: 6pm-9:30pm
Location: Cambridge Bicycle Shop, 259 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

On May 21st, Cambridge Bicycle Shop invites you to attend their first annual Cambridge Bicycle Open House and Block Party!!! Think you have one sweet commuter ride? If so, prove it by entering the “Best Commuter Bike” Contest. Have questions about how to start bike commuting? No problem! Cambridge’s friendly and knowledgeable staff will be on hand to answer questions about how to best outfit your bike and showcase featured commuter models.

Food is being donated by area cafe’s/ restaurants (Toscanin’s and Four Burgers), featured commuter bikes will be on display and there will be a “people’s choice” award for the “Best Commuter Bike”. Other highlights include a raffle for a new bike, fab door prizes (compliments of Knog and Crumpler), a Best Commuter Bike trophy thanks to Marty Walsh at geekhouse bikes, and great runner up prizes compliments of the shop.

This event is free and open to the public; all proceeds for the raffle will be donated to the LivableStreets Alliance.
This event is free and open to the public.

This just in from LivableStreets! Check it out.

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LivableStreets Alliance StreetTalk! Presents Russ Lopez on Urban Health: How shaping our built environment shapes ourselves. Come hear Russ Lopez speak about how our built environment – from playgrounds to fast food chains – shapes ourselves on Thursday April 2, 7:00 – 9:00 pm @ LivableStreets office space, 100 Sidney Street, Central Square, Cambridge. This event is free and open to the public, donations suggested, beer/sodas provided compliments of Harpoon Brewery!

“If there’s a supermarket in your zip code, for example, you’re 10% less likely to be obese. If there are a lot of intersections in your neighborhood – a sign of street connectivity and continuity – you’re less likely to be obese. And, not surprisingly, the more time people spend in their cars, the more likely they are to be obese” says Lopez.

Russ Lopez, a native of California, is an Assistant Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health. Past employment includes working on urban and environmental issues for then Lt. Governor John Kerry. He also worked for ten years in various positions in for the City of Boston on housing, community development and environmental concerns. Dr. Lopez was the first Executive Director of the Environmental Diversity Forum, a coalition of environmentalists and community activists advocating for environmental justice issues throughout New England.

This event is sponsored by LivableStreets Alliance. For more information, www.livablestreets.info/node/2039

What happens when you give street space back to people?
Thursday Feb. 5, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
@ Boston Public Library, main branch at Copley [ map... ]
free and open to the public

An accomplished public official, economist and administrator, Enrique Peñalosa completed his three-year term as Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia on December 31, 2000. While mayor, Peñalosa was responsible for numerous radical improvements to the city and its citizens. He promoted a city model giving priority to children and public spaces and restricting private car use, building hundreds of kilometers of sidewalks, bicycle paths, pedestrian streets, greenways, and parks. After organizing a Car-Free Day in 2000, he was awarded the Stockholm Challenge Award and rewarded by a referendum vote endorsing an annual car-free day. Peñalosa also led efforts to improve Bogotá’s marginal neighborhoods through citizen involvement; planted more than 100,000 trees; created a new, highly successful bus-based transit system; and turned a deteriorated downtown avenue into a dynamic pedestrian public space. He helped transform the city’s attitude from one of negative hopelessness to one of pride and hope, developing a model for urban improvement based on the equal rights of all people to transportation, education, and public spaces.

This event is part of a 4-day series of events sponsored by Livable Streets Alliance and the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, in collaboration with WalkBoston, Institute for Human Centered Design, Bikes Not Bombs, Charles River Conservancy, MassBike.

This is a great article about Enrique Peñalosa:
Bogotá’s urban happiness movement: A radical campaign to return streets from cars to people (GlobeAndMail, June 2007)
From living hell to living well: A radical campaign to return streets from cars to people in Colombia’s largest city is now a model for the world. “A city can be friendly to people or it can be friendly to cars, but it can’t be both,” says former Bogotá (Colombia) Mayor Enrique Peñalosa. “Car Free Day is just one of the ways that Mr. Peñalosa helped to transform a city once infamous for narco-terrorism, pollution and chaos into a globally lauded model of livability and urban renewal. His ideas are being adopted in cities across the developing world. They are also being championed by planners and politicians in North America, where Mr. Peñalosa has reinvigorated the debate about public space once championed by Jane Jacobs.”

And a few great StreetFilms:
Click here for a film about car-free streets in Bogota
Click here for a film about bus rapid transit in Bogota
Click here for more information.

LivableStreets Alliance will host the first “Boston Bikes Update Report” by the city’s Director of Bicycle Programs, Nicole Freedman.

The public meeting will be held starting at 7 PM in the mezzanine conference room of the main branch of the Boston Public Library. The focus will be on future steps needed to create the “world class bicycling city” that Mayor Menino has promised. There will be additional discussion about what could be done to significantly expand the cycling population — and its political influence — by attracting “traffic intolerant” bicyclists, by installing low-cost bike-friendly infrastructure in all parts of the city, and by setting up programs to assure that low-income and non-white communities feel included, among other strategies. Thursday, January 29, 7 pm Boston Public Library, main branch at Copley, mezzanine conference room. MassBike staff will be participating in this event, and MassBike members are encouraged to show up.

Click here for more information.

StreetTalk!

Car-free Sundays in Bogota Colombia – How about more car-free parkways here in Boston?

Wednesday Dec. 10, 7:00 – 9:00 pm

Program includes 3 short StreetFilms on Bogotá, premere showing of LivableStreets Street Film on Mem Drive Sundays, and Special guest Renata von Tscharner from Charles River Conservancy. @ LivableStreets office space, 100 Sidney Street, Central Square, Cambridge [ map... ]

free and open to the public, donation suggested beer/sodas provided compliments of Harpoon Brewery!

Would you like to see car free days in Boston? Did you know that a section of Memorial Drive is car free every Sunday between April and November? Do you wonder what it would take to have a car free Storrow Drive? Did you know that over 70 miles of streets are car free every Sunday in Bogotá, Colombia thanks to their former Mayor, Enrique Peñalosa? And did you know that LivableStreets will be hosting Peñalosa in Boston in February?

Come watch StreetFilms about Bogotá, Colombia to see their street transformations and learn more about what Enrique Peñalosa did to start car free streets. Hear about advocacy efforts to get car free parkways. Learn about the history of the Memorial Drive car free days, and watch LivableStreets new film about it!

This event is sponsored by LivableStreets Alliance.

So I was at the Com Ave “first” bike lane (it has come to my attention it is really not the first one, just the first significant one). His Honnah Mayor Menino was there, and Nicole Freedman director of bicycle programs, David Watson of MassBike, and Larry Slotnick (thanks for the tip Charlie) Phil Goff from the Livable Streets Alliance, and some other guy who I have forgotten but had something to do with roads or something…Anyway.

Every century ride starts with pushing through that first mile, and that is what this was (hopefully) for Boston. The first in a series of bike lanes aimed at creating a network of well design bicycle infrastructure. Do I think these lanes are too short, yes. Do I think these lanes are on a section of Com Ave that didn’t need bike lanes, yes. Was the Mayors MASSIVE FREAKING TAHOE parked in the bike lane THE ENTIRE FREAKING TIME HE WAS THERE, yes. But does that mean I think these are bad bike lanes, hell no.

These are important first step, Nicole, David, Phil and the Mayor and all the people in all of their groups worked hard to get these lanes put in. These lanes are a token of things to come. I can only hope that these sort of infrastructure projects become so common that there will be little cause for hooplah and press coverage.

I think that a well designed system of bike lanes, bike racks, and other cycling infrastructure will shepherd Boston out of it’s dismal bicycle past (rated worst city in America for cycling). Ironically bike lanes themselves do not make bikers safer, however they do encourage more cyclists to get out on on the street, which does in fact make bikers safer. More cyclists = less cars = more cyclists = less cars, you get the idea.

I was unable to get video of the whole deal, but here is some of it from MassBike.

LivableStreets Alliance Street Talk
with Maria Salve & Dan Sorger of Somerville based, Dutch Bicycle Company

“Dutch Bicycle Company, bringing European standards of practicality, function and utility to cycling in Boston”

Date & Time: Thursday, July 24th, 7:00pm-9:00pm
Location: LivableStreets Alliance office, 100 Sydney Street, Cambridge MA, 02139

Move over track bike; thanks to Dutch Bicycle Company, now there’s a more comfortable ride in town. Importers of handbuilt bicycles that favor comfort and ease over speed, Dutch Bicycle Company wants to change the way you ride and conduct business around the city. With an array of 3-speeds, cruisers, cargo bikes and more, Dutch Bikes feels the age of the bicycle as urban transport has come to the U.S. and they are striving to provide bikes that are up for the task.

We invite you to come and learn how co-owners Maria Salve & Dan Sorger, are brining European standards of practicality, function & utility to cycling in Boston. There is a $5.00 suggested donation; event is open to the public. Beer & soda generously provided by Harpoon Brewery

For complete event information, please visit: www.livablestreets.info

Do you ever think about what city life was like prior to the introduction of the automobile? Curious to know how creative cities are reclaiming streets from cars and converting them into engaging public spaces?

Come find out what a car-dominated city like New York can learn from iconic metropolis’ like London, Copenhagen and Paris in a *free* showing of “Contested Streets, Breaking New York City Gridlock” with your Livable Streets Alliance pals!

Date & Time: Tuesday, July 1st, 7:00pm-8:30pm
Location: LivableStreets Alliance Office
100 Sydney Street, Cambridge MA, 02139

Movie running time is 57 mins.

Free & open to the public, $5.00 donation suggested, beer/sodas provided compliments of Harpoon Brewery

STREET TALK! (This coming TUESDAY)
The New Amsterdam Project: Human powered cargo trikes; paving the way for sustainable delivery services
Tue. Apr. 29, 7 – 8:30 pm
by Andrew Brown, founder and CEO of the New Amsterdam Project @ LivableStreets office space, 100 Sidney Street, Central Square, Cambridge

free and open to the public, donation suggested, beer/sodas provided compliments of Harpoon Brewery!

Attend, learn & be inspired by the recently launched, Cambridge-based bicycle delivery service, the New Amsterdam Project (NAP). NAP provides human-powered pick-up and delivery services for local businesses, organizations and universities. Founder and CEO, Andrew Brown will be discussing the inspiration behind the cargo-trike fleet and how the company will transform the Boston metro area.

When it comes to urban delivery services, the New Amsterdam Project’s fleet of human-powered trikes is quickly becoming a strong competitor to conventional vans and trucks. Thanks to their compact design, these cargo vehicles –which accommodate up to 600 lbs.– can easily navigate urban congestion and require a fraction of the space otherwise needed for parking/ delivery by a car, van or truck. And, as a zero-emissions transportation service; the NAP is able to offer clients and their communities an environmentally sound alternative for their transportation needs. Their clients include: Boston Organics, Taza Chocolate, Petsi Pies, and many others.

The New Amsterdam project was recently featured in a Christian Science monitor article: “Cargo trikes nudge delivery trucks in Cambridge, Mass.; A Cambridge, Mass., delivery company is using industrial tricycles to deliver goods in efforts to curb global emissions.”

This event is sponsored by LivableStreets Alliance