Search Results
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Weekend Reading 9/2/11
Alan:
Guess which mode of transportation flourished after the East Coast earthquake, as it did in Japan? Cycling. Washington, DC’s Capital Bikeshare had record ridership during the two hours after the quake. David Alpert described the bike rush in the Washington Post. Mark Hinshaw has an insightful piece in Crosscut. (We put it in Sightline Daily, but you might have missed it.) It documents the way sprawl and foreclosures coincide in greater Seattle.Alan: Guess which mode of transportation flourished after the East Coast earthquake, as it did in Japan? Cycling. Washington, DC’s Capital Bikeshare had record ridership during the two hours after the quake. David Alpert described the bike rush in the Washington Post. Mark Hinshaw has an insightful piece in Crosscut. (We put it in Sightline Daily, but you might have missed it.) It documents the way sprawl and foreclosures coincide...Read more » -
How Far Can You Get By Transit?
File this under cool: A new site shows you how far you can get by transit in a handful of cities. Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Spokane, Salem, and Eugene are included from the Northwest. Here's where you could get within 15 minutes by transit from downtown Vancouver:
File this under cool: A new site shows you how far you can get by transit in a handful of cities. Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Spokane, Salem, and Eugene are included from the Northwest. Here’s where you could get within 15 minutes by transit from downtown Vancouver:Read more » -
Weekend Reading 7/15/11
Alan: I've just finished Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers' What's Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption, which documents and cheerfully promotes the rising tide of new, Internet-powered means of sharing and reusing things. From cars to extra bedrooms, toys to designer handbags, business loans to garden tools, scores of new companies and nonprofits are figuring out how to get all the benefits of ownership without all the cost -- or ecological footprint. Sightline is looking into such models, and the legal barriers to them, for Making Sustainability Legal, but this book is worth reading just for fun and inspiration.
Alan: I’ve just finished Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers’ What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption, which documents and cheerfully promotes the rising tide of new, Internet-powered means of sharing and reusing things. From cars to extra bedrooms, toys to designer handbags, business loans to garden tools, scores of new companies and nonprofits are figuring out how to get all the benefits of ownership without all the cost...Read more » -
Technology in Transit
A couple months back, I got a smart phone. One of the first things I downloaded was OneBusAway, an app that provides real-time information on transit stops, routes, and arrivals using data provided by King County Metro. Finally, I thought! I’d never again have to wait around for a bus that’s 20 minutes late. I’d know exactly when the next bus would arrive, shrinking my wait time at the stop....Read more » -
A Better Way To Measure Walkability
Genius. If you’re not familiar with Walk Score, you should be. It’s become the de facto standard for measuring neighborhood walkability in the US, with both real estate marketers and serious researchers using neighborhood Walk Scores as a gauge of pedestrian friendly municipal design and zoning. But now, one of the smartest web apps out there is getting even smarter. The good folks behind Walk Score are beta-testing a brand...Read more » -
Dining a la Cart
Across North America people are hopping on the food cart bandwagon, something northwesterners know a little something about—CNN Travel recently named Portland the best street food cityin the world. While carts have flourished in Portland, Seattle and Vancouver’s street food scenes have sputtered. Why? Both cities have tough laws on the books that prevent a lively street food economy, such as limiting sidewalk food to precooked items like hot dogs...Read more » -
Are EcoDistricts a Solution for Sustainability?
I’m pretty skeptical about big, high-profile efforts to alter the course of unsustainable behavior in our region. The Sustainability Gap—the difference between what politicians say and do on sustainability issues—isn’t getting smaller. So when I consider Portland’s EcoDistrict Initiative it’s with what might be considered an unhealthy amount of cynicism. Is the EcoDistrict Initiative just another fancy, shiny, and new way of making change with little underneath it besides Power...Read more » -
How Walkable is Your School?
Last week—and just in time for the start of the football season—the benevolent geniuses at Walk Score published walkability rankings for every NFL stadium in the US. If you’re keeping score, Seattle’s Qwest Field, the Northwest’s only NFL stadium, ranked fifth in walkability among the NFL. But if Canadian Football League stadiums had been included, the BC Lions permanent home would have tied for 2nd, behind only St. Louis.) But last week also marked the start...Read more » -
Walk Score Adds Transit, Part 2
Walk Score–the popular website measuring your community’s walkability—rolled out a whole ton of new features today. Most notably, you can now get your “Transit Score,” a glimpse of how well your neighborhood is serviced by public transit. The results can be surprising. My apartment in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood boasts a Walk Score of 97—a true “Walker’s Paradise.” But the same address only generates a Transit score of 53. It looks...Read more » -
Using Crutches in a Walker’s Paradise
I broke my ankle three weeks ago. And no, it wasn’t undertaking some spectacular athletic feat. It was a simple trip and fall at home. But now that I’m on crutches, I’ve had the opportunity to see what it’s like to be disabled. I am fortunate, obviously, because my bones will heal, and soon I’ll be up and about. But along with a new found gratitude for simply being able...Read more »
