Tour the Globe With the Streetsblog Network

With dispatches from Latin America, Europe, Asia and beyond, today’s Network offerings have a decidedly international flavor.

Poetry on the platform in Seoul. Photo: The City Fix

Groningen, the Netherlands: Clarence is concerned about his upcoming Streetfilm on this Dutch cycling city. Culling footage from a place where 50 percent of all trips are taken by bike, he says it’s tough to do Groningen justice. “For years I had pictured how the world of Groningen would appear and this was the first time in my life where reality exceeded imagination,” he writes. “It really is bicycling nirvana.” Clarence has produced a Groningen preview, and promises an “epic length” Streetfilm in the near future.

Mexico City: Via the Washington Post, Network blog The Dirt reports that Mexico City has joined the ranks of metropolises around the world that have turned highway underpasses into urban assets. A pilot program allows for the spaces to be leased to private businesses at discount rates, provided the tenants pay for clean-up, construction and upkeep. “These were spaces that generated no benefit and had been illegally appropriated as dumping grounds for trash or as homeless campsites,” said a city planner. “They were spaces that cost the city to maintain and were a drain on resources.” Businesses are thriving, The Dirt says, and the program is set to expand.

Seoul, South Korea: It doesn’t get a lot of attention, but Daniel Kriske at The City Fix notes that one of the busiest underground transit systems in the world is the Seoul Metropolitan Subway. “It boasts the longest passenger route length of any system in the world, in addition to the second highest number of stations and second highest daily ridership.” The Seoul Metro also employs common-sense amenities that Kriske says could be adopted by smaller systems, like wayfinding signage — including directions to the nearest restroom. Then there’s the poetry on the glass platform doors, from native and Western authors. “Inclusion of cultural artifacts such as poems is just one small way that systems in developing cities can retain their individuality, traditions, and character,” writes Kriske, “even in the face of development and modernization.”

Bonus: Aaron Renn has posted some of his favorite city videos at The Urbanophile. Click for clips from Singapore, Dubai, Zurich, and Shanghai — and for the homesick, Philadelphia and Chicago.

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Groningen: The World’s Cycling City

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It’s no secret that just about anywhere you go in the Netherlands is an incredible place to bicycle. And in Groningen, a northern city with a population of 190,000 and a bike mode share of 50 percent, the cycling is as comfortable as in any city on Earth. The sheer number of people riding at […]

Cambridge: Britain’s Cycling Capital

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In the city of Cambridge, just about an hour’s train ride north of London, you’ll find lots of people bicycling. In fact, the official bike mode share is 22 percent, but advocates believe it’s even higher and could comprise up to 50 percent of all trips in the city center. More than protected bike lanes, the key to Cambridge’s success has been the […]

Businesses in Groningen, the Netherlands: More Bike Traffic, Please

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What happens when transportation planners try to accommodate cyclist traffic? If you’re in Groningen, the Netherlands, where over half of all trips are made by bike, you get complaints from business owners — who don’t want cyclists diverted from their street. David Hembrow of A View From the Cycle Path says students are flooding the Zonnelaan bike path […]

Streetsie Awards: The Best of 2013 (Part One)

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Happy 2014, everybody! I hope you had a great winter break and got home safely from your New Years Eve revelry (remembering, of course, the perils of walking or taking transit while drunk). We had an incredible response to our Streetsie awards poll. Here are the winners of Streetsblog’s annual awards for awesomeness. (The boneheads […]

”Bikelash!” The Streetfilm

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Six months ago, Dr. Doug Gordon and Dr. Aaron Naparstek charmed audiences at the 2014 National Bike Summit with a great routine called “Moving Beyond the Bikelash,” sharing what they’ve learned from the pushback to New York City’s bike network expansion. So last week, while at the Pro-Walk Pro-Bike Pro-Place conference, I thought it would be interesting to ask advocates from […]

High Frequency: Why Houston Is Back on the Bus

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Every so often, every city should do a “system reimagining” of its bus network like Houston METRO did. Back in 2012, Houston’s bus network was in trouble. Ridership was down, and weekend ridership was especially weak. Frequent service was rare. Routes didn’t go directly where people needed to go. If you wanted to get from one place […]