Clarence Eckerson Jr.
Clarence Eckerson Jr. is the Director of Video Production for NYCSR's StreetFilms and producer of bikeTV. He loves the color purple, chocolate chip cookies, and enjoys walking, biking, and taking transit. He has never owned a driver's license.
Recent Posts
Ride New Orleans: Setting the Transit Agenda
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Ride New Orleans formed in 2009 out of a growing sense that the average New Orleanian wasn't being prioritized by the RTA. In just a few short years, the group is already setting the transit agenda.
Vancouver’s Multi-Modal Success Story
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One of the best transportation stories of 2016 comes from Vancouver, British Columbia, which achieved its goal transit, biking, and walking accounting for 50 percent of all trips a full four years ahead of schedule.
How to Build a Thriving, Equitable Bike-Share System
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Bike-share has the capability to expand access to jobs and transit for communities in need of better transportation options — but only if the system is set up and operated in an equitable way. Our latest collaboration with the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) examines how to build a thriving, equitable bike-share system. At the end […]
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 […]
Peatónito: Protecting Pedestrians in the Crosswalk
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Peatónito (“little pedestrian”) might be the most beloved figure in the world of street safety. How can you not love a superhero who protects pedestrians from cars?! Since donning the cape and luchador mask three years ago, he’s become a media sensation in Mexico. This week he’s in New York City for Transportation Alternatives’ Vision Zero for Cities 2016 conference, […]
Austin: The Most Bike-Friendly City in Texas
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I was in Austin a few months ago for the NACTO Designing Cities Conference. While in town I was able to put together this look at what the city is doing to improve bicycling, including the dazzling 3rd Street curb-protected bikeway. Also captured on camera: many bike paths along the Pedernales River, car-free nights on 6th street, and the ridiculously long […]
Gabe Klein Talks About Getting Sh*t Done in His New Book, “Start-Up City”
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Streets can be tough to change. Between institutional inertia, tight budgets, bureaucratic red tape, and the political risks of upsetting the status quo, even relatively simple improvements for walking, biking, or transit can take years to pull off — if they ever get implemented at all. But a new generation of transportation officials have shown that it doesn’t have […]
20’s Plenty: The Movement for Safer Speeds in the UK
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Five years ago, Streetfilms was in the UK town of Warrington to talk with the great folks behind 20’s Plenty For Us, a largely volunteer group trying to get speed limits reduced to 20 mph. The first film drew broad interest in the 20’s Plenty movement, and on a recent trip I caught up with them again. Founder Rod King MBE […]
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 […]
The Philadelphia Bike Story
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Of U.S. cities with more than a million residents, the one where people bike the most is Philadelphia. In 2012, the U.S. Census estimated Philadelphia’s bicycle commute rate at 2.3 percent [PDF], higher than Chicago (1.6 percent) and New York (1.0 percent). It’s just about always been that way. That comes as a surprise to many people, since Philadelphia doesn’t have […]
Freeways Without Futures: I-345 in Dallas
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In this Streetfilm, Patrick Kennedy, founder of A New Dallas, talks about the movement to replace Interstate 345 in downtown Dallas with connected streets and walkable development. Shot at the “Freeways Without Futures” session at the Congress for New Urbanism’s recent conference in Dallas, the piece provides views of I-345 from heights most people never get to see. Kennedy was joined […]
Bike-Share Comes to Philly With the Launch of Indego
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On Thursday, Philadelphia’s long wait for a bike-share system came to an end with the launch of the 60-station, 600-bike Indego system, which is set to expand in the near future. At the kickoff, volunteers and officials — including Mayor Michael Nutter — rode about half of those bikes to their docking stations. I got to talk to […]