Transit gaining traction?

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 | Cities, Planning, Transit, Trends | No Comments

The NYTimes, this weekend reported on better than expected ridership on the Phoenix light rail.  The Times points out that the 33,000 average daily riders come primarily from weekend riders looking to get out to the bars and restaurants.  This comes as little surprise to me, as many light rail systems, including the one in Denver, far surpassed initial estimates of ridership.  This story has played out over and over again in cities like Minneapolis, Houston, and Charlotte.  The Overhead has more on these underestimates.

› Continue reading

Tags: high speed, light rail, phoenix, Planning, Transit

Sense and the City

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 | Cities, Technology, Trends | No Comments

I’ve lately been excited by the concept of the senseable city (a term I’m borrowing from MIT).  Being able to measure and visualize the intangible rhythms and pulses of a city can be incredibly powerful.  As mobile devices are becoming more pervasive, and embeddable sensors cheaper, we have richer amounts of data at our disposal.  Now, I know this could feed all your worst nightmares about Big Brother, and as with any technology, in the wrong hands, it could be used for nefarious purposes.  However, this isn’t about a centrally controlled system of CCTV’s; this is about large amounts of raw anonymous data aggregated in ways where the whole tells us much more than any one part.  Raw anonymous data doesn’t sound sexy, but Current City makes it look sexy:

SMS during New Years Eve from realtime city on Vimeo.

› Continue reading

Tags: data, senseable city, sensors, technosphere, virtual cities

This is My City: Finding the Soul of the City

Thursday, July 16th, 2009 | Cities, Media | No Comments

Just recently stumbled upon a gem of online video for people who love discovering cities.  Called “This is My City,” the hosts, Thomas Beug and Tim Kafalas, find a stranger to take them on a real heart and soul tour of the town.  They skip the tour buses and the traps and go where the locals go, giving a much more authentic picture of the place.  Filmed in HD and presented uncensored, this is one of the more interesting travel shows I’ve seen.  I hope they continue to film episodes and I’d really love for this to get picked up, and hopefully it will maintain its authentic hook.

› Continue reading

Tags: philadelphia, reykjavik, television, this is my city, video