It was a very cold December day in 2003 - I recall being sick and the wind chill near zero - when I was able to go up on The High Line after a moderate snow storm and shoot some video. And until the recent whoosh of publicity over the grand opening of Phase [...]
Archive for the ‘Manhattan’ Category
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“Snowy High Line” (2003)
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Brian Lehrer Talks Streetfilms!
Hey Streetfilms Fans! After Brian Leher became a victim of bicycle theft earlier this week, he invited Hal Ruzel into the studio for some lessons in bike locking. You may remember Hal from such Streetfilms as Hal Grades Your Bike Locking 3: The Final Warning and Hal (and Kerri) Grade Your Bike Locking.
Brian mentions some [...] -
The Queensboro Bridge turns 100!
It's extremely rare you get to cross one of New York City's major bridges by foot using the main roadway, but early Sunday morning that's just what happened as the Queensboro Bridge turned a hardy 100!
The NYC Bridge Centennial Commission is in the midst of celebrating the completion dates of six major NYC bridges and [...] -
The Transformation of NYC’s Madison Square
We already touched on Madison Square in our in-depth interview with Janette Sadik-Khan last fall, but we always felt that it deserved a much closer examination based upon all the footage we couldn't use in that Streetfilm. Take a freaking look!
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Daylighting: Make Your Crosswalks Safer
Daylighting is a simple pedestrian safety strategy which removes parking spaces surrounding an intersection in order to create better visibility for all street users and reduce the risk of conflict.
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P.S. 87 First graders give peds, cyclists & drivers advice
How's this for understanding modal harmony?
Livable Streets Education has been working in New York City schools, encouraging students to explore and question the environments around their school and in their neighborhoods, and to voice the changes they want to see on their streets. We recently asked first graders at P.S. 87 to give advice to [...] -
Grand Street 2005
With all the hullabaloo over the new Grand Street bike lane, we thought we'd resurrect a Streetfilm (actually before they were even called Streetfilms!) from back in June 2005 with TOPP founder Mark Gorton talking about the then incredible width of Grand Street and the inequity of street space devoted to its users. We [...]
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A New Vision for the Upper West Side
See how one community organized to create a plan for safer, healthier and more livable streets and public spaces.
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Wikis Take Manhattan
Wiki and free-culture enthusiasts travel around the five boroughs to snap photos for use in Streetswiki and Wikipedia articles.
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Park(ing) Day NYC 2008
Transportation Alternatives reports during this year's foray into PARKing Day there were over 50 parking spaces temporarily reclaimed throughout the city, nearly doubling last year's total. I'll say this: that's a lot of freaking sod!!
As usual for these things, the fare ran from the wildly creative to the calm & soothing. There was [...] -
Summer Streets 2008 (NYC)
Feeling remarkably similar to Bogota's Ciclovia, the New York City Department of Transportation held its first Summer Streets event on Saturday by opening 7 miles of city streets to pedestrians and bike traffic only. From 7 AM to 1 PM, roads were car-free from 72nd Street to the Brooklyn Bridge along Park Avenue. It was splendiferous.
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Summer Streets PSA
Here's the official 30 second PSA promo that Streetfilms edited to help promote Summer Streets! The event is very similar to other great worldwide street happenings we have brought you - from Ciclovia in Bogotá, Colombia to Sunday Parkways in Portland, Oregon.
In NYC on three consecutive Saturdays - August 9th, 16th, and 23rd - a [...] -
LPI – Leading Pedestrian Interval
Leading Pedestrian Intervals (or LPIs) are a traffic signalization strategy that allows pedestrians an exclusive 3 to 5 second signal (in some cases much longer) to begin crossing the street before cars get a green light. Consequently, they are also known by their sassier nickname, Pedestrian Head Start. But in my view the best variation on what LPI stands for comes from Christine Berthet of the Hells Kitchen Neighborhood Association who proposes: "Life Preserving Interval"
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Hike the Heights!
Hike the Heights is a yearly guided urban hiking safari for kids thru Morningside Heights, following along paths defined by the presence of statues of giraffes. The object is to encourage fitness as well as promoting fun and education. The event, sponsored by CLIMB (City Life is Moving Bodies), connects numerous parks in the Harlem area. <
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Hal (and Kerri) Grade Your Bike Locking
In our follow up to "Hal Grades Your Bike Locking," two experienced mechanics offer advice and grades on the bike locking ability of New Yorkers.
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Street Transformations: Meat Market Plaza
Check out the dramatic before and after video of this now public space.
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The Mayor and Tyra Plant a Tree!
While out filming livable streets improvements around Gansevoort and Ninth Avenue today, we roamed into a quagmire of paparazzi in a feeding frenzy. Soon it was apparent why: Mayor Bloomberg and Tyra Banks showed up briefly to beautify our physically separated bike lane on Ninth Avenue by planting a tree!
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From Tragedy to Advocacy: Mary Beth Kelly
Mary Beth Kelly's husband, Dr. Carl Henry Nacht, was killed while riding a bike, but it hasn't stopped her from doing something she enjoys nor fighting for safer streets.
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Barnes Dance!
The Barnes Dance is an all-cross pedestrian signal!
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Transforming NY City Streets
Neighborhood activists, professional planners, and experienced advocates gathered this week to share their secrets on how New Yorkers can transform the public realm.
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Street Stars: Christine Berthet
Check out this profile of one of NYC's great neighborhood activists and how she gets things done.
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Cyclist(s) of the Month: The Neistat Brothers
The Neistat Brothers offer up anecdotes about their bicycling films and views about transportation in NYC in general.
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A Walk around the Upper West Side
Mark Gorton and neighbor Lisa Sladkus point out traffic calming features they'd like see on the UWS.
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Clowns Liberate Bike Lanes
Bicycling clowns use humor to enlighten motorists parked in bike lanes.
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NYC Streets Renaissance with Jan Gehl
Jan Gehl headlines an exciting livable streets event at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan.
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Street Transformations – Upper West Side
We take three before & after photosims, manipulate them and add music. Voila! You've baked a livable streets cake!!
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UWS Streets Renaissance: Amsterdam Avenue
Mark Gorton and neighbor Lisa Sladkus point out Amsterdam Avenue's speed geometry.
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UWS Streets Renaissance: Space Allocation
Mark Gorton and neighbor Lisa Sladkus examine how the width of sidewalks affects the pedestrian environment.
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UWS Streets Renaissance: Double Parking
Mark Gorton and neighbor Lisa Sladkus point out the perils of double parking on the UWS.
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Clarence: The Purple Traffic Calming Wizard
The Purple Traffic Calming Wizard chats with the hoi polloi to find out what peeps think about the physically separated bike path on 9th Ave.
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Tykes Take the Streets: Kids Art Bike Parade
Kids and parents put their adorned bikes on display in a ride down 2nd Avenue.
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David Byrne Celebrates NYC Bicycling in Style
Last night, I was one of 1200 lucky ticket holders attending "How New Yorkers Ride Bikes" a David Byrne presentation at Town Hall as part of the 2007 New Yorker Festival. Stuffed with laughs, entertainment, and bicycle inspiration, it was hard not to be psyched about the current state of cycling in NYC. In fact, [...]
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Ninth Avenue Gets a Physically Separated Bike Lane
NYC is getting a separated bike lane. Pinch us! Pinch us!!
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StreetFilms at the Guggenheim: August 18th
This Saturday, August 18th from 12 to 3 pm, Transportation Alternatives has been invited to take part in the acclaimed Shapes of Space exhibition at the Guggenheim. The exhibit explores the concept of space within art, and T.A. has assembled an interactive discussion of New York City's public space that will include showing StreetFilms' Intersection Repair and ten other of our shorts.
Admission is FREE to T.A. members! You can't beat that deal. (Maybe the producers of Xanadu are reading; I'd love to see that for free too!)
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Life Near the QBB
Sarah Gallagher from the Upper Green Side introduces Streetfilms to some of the dangers of living near the Queensboro bridge. Talking to store owners, and others in the area, we learn there is another high cost of doing business in the area other than rent.
"There's never a quiet time anymore. And there's never [...] -
Pedestrian: Obey! What’s up with this?
Bicycling home from the Village, came across this sign at corner of Washington & Barrow Streets asking peds to obey all pedestrian traffic laws.
Anyone know what this is for? Odd corner; very low traffic volumes. Looks unofficial. -
The 86th Street Parallel
Glenn McAnanama of Upper Green Side explains what 86th Street means for the Mayor Bloomberg's Congestion Pricing plan and the importance to delivery and emergency vehicles.
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Upper East Side Street Sweeper Dance
Glen McAnanama of Upper Green Side explains the chain reaction of the consequence of free on-street parking, what it means to the health of New Yorkers and how it all contributes to world greenhouse emissions.
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I.S. 89 Speed Gunning
StreetFilms was out at I.S. 89 in Manhattan last week working with Brooke DuBose and Graham Beck of Transportation Alternatives. The middle school students, with the help of Manhattan Youth's Bob Townley, organized an after-school speed gunning event in response to two recent accidents involving motorists and students crossing the West Side Highway on their [...]
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T.A. Rides with the Mayors of Sydney & Copenhagen
Lord Mayor Clover Moore of Sydney, Australia and Copenhagen’s Mayor of the Technical & Environmental Administration Klaus Bondam ride bikes with Transportation Alternatives in a symbolic loop around Central Park.
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Why I Ride
Why do people ride? Ask them, they'll tell you.
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PSA: What Can Brown Do For You?
The StreetFilms crew was on Fulton Street in Lower Manhattan a while back and discovered this delivery truck eating up an already meager sidewalk. Pedestrians, many of whom were forced out into the street, seemed to regard the obstruction as a common occurrence. Just one example of the thousands of intrusions per day [...]
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Hal Grades Your Bike Locking
Mechanic Hal Ruzal from Bicycle Habitat grades the bike locking ability of New Yorkers. Avoid a bad grade and listen to his advice.
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Room To Breathe: NYC
Transportation Alternatives (T.A.) gathered a gaggle of cyclists on 42nd Street in Manhattan to stage a dramatic visual that shows how much street space is gained if more people rode bicycles or took mass transit instead of driving personal cars.
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T.A. Rides with Peñalosa & David Byrne!
The staff of Transportation Alternatives rides with Enrique Peñalosa & David Byrne to the "Manhattan on the Move" transportation conference.
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Manhattan on the Move
An overview of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's historic October 2006 Transportation Conference.
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Tribute to Eric Ng
A memorial ride for Eric Ng, who was killed by a drunk driver on the West Side Highway Bike Path.
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Public Space Transformations
These photo simulations from the Project for Public Spaces show how we can transform some of our misused intersections into amazing spaces full of life, commerce, and vitality.
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PSA-Pedestrian Density
Cars get more space than pedestrians do on the streets, which leads to overcrowded sidewalks.
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Jan Gehl in Times Square
Jan Gehl (Gehl Architects) and Mark Gorton discuss the potential for pedestrian-friendly changes in Times Square.
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Gridlock Sam: Parking Policy & Permits
Part Two of our interview: Sam Schwartz and T.O.P.P. founder & Executive Director Mark Gorton discuss how the modal split into NYC's Central Business District (essentially south of 59th Street) has changed over the last half century and how some of those numbers could easily be reversed by revoking free parking permits for NYC Governmental [...]
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PSA-Dirty Little Secret
An inequitable use of parking by government agencies is a dirty little secret in Chinatown.
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Psychic Space
Mark Gorton, founder of The Open Planning Project, points out how parked cars and street use makes a difference in two streets just blocks apart in SoHo are felt by pedestrians.
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The Sidewalk Nibblers
A proposed plan by DOT for a subway station at 96th street will leave pedestrians with 18 ft. less sidewalk space!
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Canal Park: The Re-Emergence of a Park!
Richard Barrett talks about his community's struggle to rebuild Canal Park, a task deemed impossible by New York City's Department of transportation.
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Miracle Ticket
Sometimes when you are armed with a camera in New York City, miracles do happen.
