Streets For Whom?

Host: LivableStreets Alliance
Type: Education – Lecture
Network: Global
Date: Thursday, February 4, 2010
Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: LivableStreets Alliance
Street: 100 Sidney Street
City/Town: Cambridge, MA

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Description
Should Segways be allowed on sidewalks? Should all bicycles travel only in designated bike lanes? Should motorized scooters be treated as if they are wheelchairs? Where should rollerblades, skateboards, adult tricycles, bikes with trailers or kick scooters travel? The world of personal mobility is expanding. But all those other modes are having a hard time finding their place on the streets and sidewalks of our cities. It seems someone always thinks one or more of the alternatives is unsuitable. The solution becomes clear if one applies a universal — human centered — design approach to the problem. It isn’t simple, it is just clear. It ends the discussion about vehicles. It starts a discussion about people and how they can get around in the city. Barbara will discuss the concept of human-centered design and showcase examples of streets in South America, the US and around the world. A Q&A discussion will follow the talk.

Barbara Knecht, R.A. is Director of Design at the Institute for Human Centered Design. She is also co-director of the IHP “Cities in the 21st Century” and a consultant to Westhab, Inc., an affordable housing and community development organization. Ms. Knecht holds a BA from UC Berkeley and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University. She was awarded a Kinne Fellowship, a Loeb Fellowship, and received a Graham Foundation grant. She serves on the Metropolitan Life/Enterprise Foundation Awards for Excellence in Affordable Housing, the Board of Directors of Care for the Homeless, and the Streetscape committee of the Municipal Art Society.

Free and open to the public. Suggested $5 donation. Complimentary beer provided by Harpoon Brewery.

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LivableStreets Alliance Street Talk: Noah Budnick On The Changing Streets Of NYC

LivableStreets Alliance to host Street Talk by Noah Budnick on The Changing Streets of NYC: an inside view.

When: Thursday, May 28, 7 – 9 pm
Where: 100 Sidney Street, Central Square, Cambridge

This event is free and open to the public. donation suggested beer/sodas provided compliments of Harpoon Brewery! Learn about the political and physical changes that have come to NYC in the past few years. From the campaign for congestion pricing to European-style bike lanes, civic groups and City Hall are embracing green transportation like never before. Transportation Alternatives helped usher in this sea change and now they are working harder than ever to help educate the public and build support to cement the mind shift that’s taking place. Read more here.

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Street Talk, StreetFilms Premiere, Parking Day

ONE NOT-TO-MISS, FRIENDS-

(sure, all his films are online, but meet the man, get inspired, see some cool films with cool bostonians (and cambridgians etc etc)).

STREET TALK!
A night of StreetFILMS. Premiere of LivableStreets “Park(ing) Day” film short, and exciting advocacy film shorts (and commentary).
Thu. Oct. 23, 7:00 – 9:00 pm
by Clarence Eckerson, NYC Filmmaker
@ 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!

Get ready to be inspired by the possibilities for livable streets in/around Boston!!

Come out and watch the premiere of our first LivableStreets StreetFilm about Park(ing) Day 2008 by George Zisiadis! Then watch the films that inspired our new project, and hear from the filmmaker himself, Clarence Eckerson! See pedestrians in Melbourne, Ciclovia in Bogota, Summer Streets in New York City, and more.

The mission of StreetFilms is to document livable streets best practices throughout the world and show citizens that their streets can be better places for all users. The ultimate goal is to encourage more human- friendly cities and rethink how our streets can better foster walking, bicycling, and transit.

Clarence has nearly one hundred StreetFilms to his credit and has been called “the hardest working man in transportation show biz” for his years of dedication to create videos that are enlightening, entertaining and inspiring.

This event is sponsored by LivableStreets Alliance

Click here for more information

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StreetTALK: Using Transportation To Transform Communities

Got this in the emails today, looks promising for you transportation wonks.

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StreetTALK: “Using Transportation to Transform Communities: Learning from the Anti Highway Movement of the 1960’s”

Details:
STREET TALK!
“Using Transportation to Transform Communities”
Thu. Sept. 25, 7 – 9 pm
by Ken Kruckemeyer and Ann Hershfang
LivableStreets | Event/activity
@ LivableStreets office space, 100 Sidney Street, Central Square, Cambridge map…

Learning from the anti-highway movement: A grass roots movement swept Boston in the 60’s and led to, among other things, the orange line subway and park known as the Southwest Corridor. Meet some of the individuals who made this happen and hear their stories.

Event is free and open to the public, donation suggested, beer/sodas provided compliments of Harpoon Brewery!
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In the years following World War II, America was becoming increasingly highway development oriented. In the 60’s and 70’s a grassroots movement prevented several major highway projects from destroying its neighborhoods, and instead shifted funding to transit expansion, which we now take for granted. This activism prevented the development of several major highway projects which had the power to destroy Boston-area neighborhoods.

It is due to the efforts of steadfast neighborhood champions like Ken Kruckemeyer and Ann Hershfang that the City of Boston and the State decided against extensive highway development projects and instead shifted funding to the expansion of public transportation; which we now take for granted.

Of the many outcomes of this moment, two visible successes are the:

(1) Prevented development of the “inner belt” which was a highway that would have cut clear through Cambridge’s Central Square and Cambridgeport neighborhoods

(2) Tossing out what was to be the multi-lane “Southwest Expressway” that would connect Boston to points south via the Roxbury and Jamaica Plain neighborhoods in favor of the mulit-use transportation corridor and green space we now know as the Southwest Corridor Park and MBTA Orange Line subway.

Click here for a short WBUR piece highlighting Ken…

Click here for more history…

Click here for an interview with Ann…

More about Ken & Ann

Ken is a private consultant specializing in the design of civil infrastructure, focusing on integrated public transport systems, pedestrian and bicycle facilities, and roadway and bridge design. He is also an adjunct Research Associate at the Center for Transportation and Logistics and Lecturer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the MIT. Ken served as Associate Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Works from 1983 to 1991. Mr. Kruckemeyer is an Architect with degrees from Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a Loeb Fellow in Advanced Environmental Studies at Harvard University.

Ann has extensive experience in all facets of the transportation business, including serving on the Board of the Massachusetts Port Authority and 10 Years on the Massachusetts Turnpike Highway Board, as well as founding Walk Boston, a non-profit membership organization dedicated to improving walking conditions in cities and towns across Massachusetts. In essence, her entire professional experience stemmed from her involvement in the Anti-Highway Movement.

This event is sponsored by LivableStreets Alliance

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