The fifth fil in the MBA-series featuring Congetsion Pricing.
“Here you’ll learn why putting a price on scarce road space makes economic sense and how it benefits many different modes of surface transportation.
In London, which successfully implemented congestion pricing in 2003, drivers now get to their jobs faster, transit users have improved service, cyclists have better infrastructure, and pedestrians have more public space. More people have access to the central city, and when they get there, the streets are safer and more enjoyable. While the politics of implementing congestion pricing are difficult, cities looking to tame traffic and compete in the 21st century can’t afford to ignore a transportation solution that addresses so many problems at once.”

Another episode of “Moving Beyond the Automobile” by Elizabeth Press:
“You might be shocked at how much traffic consists of drivers who have already arrived at their destination but find themselves cruising the streets, searching for an open parking spot. In some city neighborhoods, cruising makes up as much as 40 percent of all traffic. All this unnecessary traffic slows down buses, endangers cyclists and pedestrians, delays other motorists, and produces harmful emissions. The key to eliminating it is to get the price of parking right.”

The third episode of “Moving Beyond the Automobile” by Robin Urban Smith:
In the third episode of Moving Beyond the Automobile, we take a look at a more efficient way to use a car. Car sharing allows users to evaluate the full cost of each car trip, which encourages them to decide what the most appropriate mode choice is for a specific trip.

The second episode of “Moving Beyond the Automobile” by Elisabeth Press:
For the second chapter in our Moving Beyond the Automobile series we’ll take a look at bicycling. More and more people are choosing to cycle for at least part of their commute in cities across the world. Leading the way in the United States, Portland, Oregon is up to a daily bike count of 17,000 riders! For this video we spent some time with leading thinkers in New York, San Francisco and Portland to discuss the direct relationship between providing safe cycling infrastructure and the number of people biking. The benefits of cycling are simple. Biking helps reduce congestion, air pollution, meet climate action goals and makes for healthier communities.

The first episode of “Moving Beyond the Automobile” by Clarence Eckerson jr:
“For the first chapter in our Moving Beyond the Automobile series we’ll take a look at Transit-Oriented Development, more commonly known by its “TOD” acronym in transportation industry circles. TOD is a high-density, mixed-use residential area with access to ample amounts of transportation. There are usually many transportation nodes within its core and contains a walkable and bike-able environment.

Stewart Brand helped usher in the environmental movement in the 1960s and ’70s has been rethinking his positions on cities, nuclear power, genetic modification and geo-engineering. This talk at the US State Department is a foretaste of his major new book, sure to provoke widespread debate. (source: TED- Ideas worth spreading)

Another great film by StreetFilms and Elizabeth Press about: the non-profit Sustrans is pioneering a community-based method to reclaim streets from high-speed traffic and make neighborhoods safer and more sociable places. (source: Streetfilms.org)

This is the first part of the film by the Dane Andreas Dalsgaard about the story of Bogotá: how the “crazy” politician Enrique Peñalosa (among others) totally changed the city from decay and despair to great hope! Please go to YouTube and see the remaining 5 parts.

Please follow StreetFilms in introducing the 10-part film entiteled “Moving Beyond the Automobile” beeing presented during the winter 2011, stating that:
“Today is an exciting day here at Streetfilms as we are officially announcing the debut of our 10-part series “Moving Beyond the Automobile” (MBA). Each Tuesday over the next ten weeks, tune in to Streetfilms as we’ll be posting a new chapter about smart and proven strategies to reduce traffic and improve street safety for all users.”
Clarence Eckerson jr is a great filmmaker!

A short film by Arupfii looking at the challenges and opportunities facing cities.

Vitoria-Gasteiz has been declared winner of the European Green Capital Award 2012.
TODAY:  Sutainable Mobility Plan. New bus network. Two tram lines, 97 kilometres of bicycle lanes, 30 km of pedestrian streets, 5,500 P&R (Park and Ride) lots.
TOMORROW:  60 new kilometres of bicycle lanes. 71% of public space adapted for pedestrian and bicycle use. 30% OF TRAVEL BY BUS OR BICYCLE

Vitoria-Gasteiz is the capital city of the province of Álava and of the autonomous community of the Basque Country in northern Spain with a population of 235,661 people. It is the second largest Basque city, after Bilbao. The dwellers of the city are called Vitorianos or Gasteiztarras, while traditionally they are dubbed Babazorros (source: http://en.wikipedia.org)

On February 26, 2009, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that traffic lanes along Broadway from 42nd Street to 47th Street would be de-mapped starting Memorial Day 2009 and transformed into pedestrian plazas until at least the end of the year as a trial. The same was done from 33rd to 35th Street. The goal is to ease traffic congestion throughout the Midtown grid. The results will be closely monitored to determine if the project works and should be extended.” Bloomberg also stated ” he believes the street shutdown will make New York more livable by reducing pollution, cutting down on pedestrian accidents and helping traffic flow more smoothly.”
(kilde:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Square)

A film by Clarence Eckerson and Streetfilms.org by cycling in Copenhagen, introducing it by stating: “While Streetfilms was in Copenhagen for the Velo-City 2010 conference, of course we wanted to showcase its biking greatness.  But we were also looking to take a different perspective then all the myriad other videos out there.  Since there were an abundance of advocates, planners, and city transportation officials attending from the U.S. and Canada, we thought it’d be awesome to get their reactions to the city’s built environment and compare to bicycling conditions in their own cities.”

Film about the great changes in Istanbul by EmbarqNetwork

Film about the great changes in New York by EmbarqNetwork
“New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Department of Transportation are on a mission to make the Big Apple the “greatest, greenest big city in the world” by ramping up bicycle infrastructure across the city, introducing bus rapid transit to the Bronx, and pedestrianizing Times Square, among other bold transportation initiatives.”

The story of building a sustainable city by Autodesk

The success story of Curiteba told by Jamie Lerner (wikipedia.org)

Jamie Lerner stands as something of a hero among his fellow Curitibanos. The chief architect of the Curitiba Master Plan, he was appointed mayor during Brazil’s military dictatorship in 1971. When the nation returned to democracy, he was elected to another term. During his 12 years in office, Lerner devised many of Curitiba’s innovative, inexpensive solutions to city problems. For instance, in the early days of the public transit system, to increase its funding and encourage ridership, he made a special city lottery, valuing bus fare as lottery tickets. To combat Curitiba’s growing litter problem, he created more incentives for recycling, including exchanging bottles, cans and other recyclables for food. Lerner believed in implementing plans swiftly — in just 72 hours, he converted the city’s downtown into Brazil’s first pedestrian mall.
(source: http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/fellows/brazil1203/lerner.html)

Curitiba has a planned transportation system, which includes lanes on major streets devoted to a bus rapid transit system. The buses are long, split into three sections (bi-articulated), and stop at designated elevated tubes, complete with disabled access. There is only one price no matter how far you travel and you pay at the bus stop.[51]
The system, used by 85% of Curitiba’s population, is the source of inspiration for the TransMilenio in Bogotá, Colombia; Metrovia in Guayaquil, Ecuador; Transmetro in Guatemala City, Guatemala; as well as the Orange Line of Los Angeles, U.S. State of California, and for a future transportation system in Panama City, Panama, Cebu City, Philippines and the latest, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (source: Wikipedia.org)

Ellen Dunham-Jones teaches architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is an award-winning architect and a board member of the Congress for the New Urbanism. She shows how design of where we live impacts some of the most pressing issues of our times — reducing our ecological footprint and energy consumption while improving our health and communities and providing living options for all ages.

Dunham-Jones is widely recognized as a leader in finding solutions for aging suburbs. She is the co-author of Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs. She and co-author June Williamson share more than 50 case studies across North America of “underperforming asphalt properties” that have been redesigned and redeveloped into walkable, sustainable vital centers of community—libraries, city halls, town centers, schools and more.
(TED – Ideas worth spreading)

The art of urban design includes for instance the implementation of better places for people. Here is a link to a lecture about such subject by “Urban Design London – online training cataloque”. 
Click HERE to be linked!

The street design concept “Shared Space” has many opponents especially among traffic security professionals. Plangate.org hope to initiate a debate about the traffic security aspect of Shared Space. Any views on the matter?

The street design concept “Shared Space” has many opponents, especially among people with restricted sight ability. Here is a link to a report from Rambøll exploring possibilities to provide this group with feasible opportunities within a “Shared Space” environment.
Click HERE to download the report!

A introduction report from http://www.shared-space.org:

Click HERE to read the whole presentation!

The story told in two parts!

The goal of this conference is to shed light on how new policy instruments and modes of governance may contribute towards climate goals in transport.

Another Copenhagen story from “you tube”:

Planget just want to wish all readers a great and prosperous 2011. We hope for a more political and professional understanding of sustainable urban transport in the forthcoming year and furthermore a willingness to create livable public urban environments.

Plangate has been on the air a year now, a great experience but there has been little dialog except for some very welcoming notes! However, an editorial wish is to see more dialog on plangate in 2011. Blogs are terrific communication channels. How can we encourage people to present comments and views on an important issue for us city dwellers? Please give us a clue! All the very best for 2011 to you all out there!

NB: We have tried to give a comment on a third party mac, but we had to log in to do so! This is nonsense and the “log in” restriction has now been removed! We are very sorry for having made it so difficult for the word to comment on our posts. Please be free to participate in 2011 without any restrictions! Welcome!

The success story of inner city of Copenhagen (the most livable city on the planet) is well known but worth repeating, here refreshed in this great HD-film from Street Films by Clarence Eckerson jr. in October 2010, introducing it by stating:

” In Copenhagen, you never have to travel very far to see a beautiful public space or car-free street packed with people soaking up the day. In fact, since the early 1960s, 18 parking lots in the downtown area have been converted into public spaces for playing, meeting, and generally just doing things that human beings enjoy doing. If you’re hungry, there are over 7,500 cafe seats in the city.”

Shared streets — the idea that pedestrians, bikes and cars can all navigate together in the same space — is a fundamental rethinking of the underlying philosophy related to the design and operation of transportation facilities, write Norman W. Garrick and James G. Hanley in an article on PLAENTIZEN.COM. Norman W. Garrick is an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Connecticut. James G. Hanley is an associate professor of history at the University of Winnepeg.
READ MORE

Ben Hamilton-Baillie at Litteraturhuset, Oslo (photo: Einar Lillebye)

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration (the Transport Planning Division) arranged a Shared Space conference in Oslo on the 24th of November 2010 at Litteraturhuset introducing for the first time in Norway the head of the word-wide Shared Space-movement today, Ben Hamilton-Baillie. More than 100 planners and professionals attended. The conference, chaired by Einar Lillebye and Ola Bettum, was devided into three sessions: presentations of papers,  a debate and a work shop discussing Universitetsgata in Oslo and Kong Oscars gate in Bergen. The following papers where presented here in pfd-format:

- Grethe Myrberg: Shared Space – experiences and challenges
- Michael Sørensen: Potensials and problems arising from integration – a critical view on the safety effect
- Inger Marie Lid: Accessible streets – disabling and enabling environments in cities: a pedestrian perspective
- Ben Hamilton-Baillie: Shared Space – Norway, New ideas for reconciling people place and traffic
Example 1: Drachten, Holland
Shared space traffic intersection in Drachten, The Netherlands. Traffic signals removed in 2002. The junction handles around 17,000 vehicles per day. One of many projects led by the late Hans Monderman.

Example 2: Seven Dials, London, UK
Shared space traffic intersection in London – a traffic intersection with seven streets and a fountain marking the center – a much used social arena.
SevenDials Geoff – video from Seven Dials, London.

- Heidrun Kolstad: Universitetsgata, Oslo – Shared Space

Universitesgaten, Oslo (photo: www.pbase.no)

- Ingvild Nesse: Kong Oscars gate, Bergen: The Street in the City

Kong Oscars gate, Bergen (photo: www.wikimedia.org)

The presentation is wordwide conference on “Urban Planning and design” is linked from http://www.conferencealerts.com/urban.htm

This Amazon branch is offering descriptions on books concerning “Urban Design and Land Use Planning” and a possiblity to purchase books directly through plangate.org, for instance:

From Ben Hamilton-Baillie:
KÖNIZSTRASSE BERN
Shared Space in a street with 4-line traffic at 22 000 AADT! Both the pedestrian –  and car flow has improved after the removal of all the traffic signs and equipment! Watch the fire engine manoeuvre! A very simple and inexpensive project!

Here is a link from RUDI.NET where Ben Hamilton-Baillie descibes the Ashford Shared Space scheme and Shares Space in general.

www.rudi.net/node/22085

plangate.no/ plangate.org would like to focus your attention on the web-site http://www.transport-research.info/web/ – extremely usefull for info about transport!

plangate.no would like to focus your attention on the web-site http://www.transportxtra.com/

Promote sustainable transport with EPOMM

“EPOMM is the European Platform on Mobility Management, a network of governments in European countries that are engaged in Mobility Management (MM). They are represented by the Ministries that are responsible for MM in their countries. EPOMM is organised as an international non profit organisation with seat in Brussels.”
LINK til EPOMM s webportal!

BRT: Bus Rapid Transit forklares på Wikipedia slik:
“Bus rapid transit (BRT) is a term applied to a variety of public transportation systems using buses to provide faster, more efficient service than an ordinary bus line. Often this is achieved by making improvements to existing infrastructure, vehicles and scheduling. The goal of these systems is to approach the service quality of rail transit while still enjoying the cost savings and flexibility of bus transit.^[1] The expression BRT is mainly used in North America; in Europe and Australia, it is often called a busway, while elsewhere, it may be called a quality bus.”
Her er LINK til den engelske plenleggingsguiden!

Curitiba, Brazil’s RIT was the first BRT system implemented in the world (kilde: Wikipedia)

EU´s Green Paper for Urban Transport, 2007.

Foredrag av Phil Jones om “What is Shared Space”m.  Link er fra “Urban Design London”s webside!
LINK til Phil Jones Accosiates!

Foredrag av Ben Hamilton-Baille om utforming av fotgjengerområder i by med utgangspunkt i “shared space”-strategien og revitaiseringen av byens offentlige rom.  Link hentet fra “Urban Design London”s webside! Kan desverre “hakkete” litt, men vær toldmodig! Anbefales!

Ben Hamilton-Baillie (born 1955) is an architect, urban designer and movement specialist from Bristol. He is the director of his own company, Hamilton-Baillie Associates Ltd., and in this role he provides consultancy advice on traffic and urban renewal. He has taught extensively in the UK and USA.He worked in London, Hamburg and Turkey before moving to Bristol where he spent 13 years in housing renewal and development. In 1995, he became regional manager for Sustrans, a sustainable transport charity in England. With Sustrans, he helped complete the first phase of the UK’s National Cycle Network, and to develop transport initiatives such as ‘Safe Routes to Schools’ and home zones.Baillie later researched and promoted new approaches to traffic management and street design. He was awarded a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship in 2000 which permitted him to visit and report on European and Scandinavian home zones. In 2001, he was a Harvard University Loeb Fellow. He serves on the expert team for the European Union project developing “Shared space” with projects in Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.
(kilde: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Hamilton-Baillie)

Les intervju om Bjørvika med Bård Folke Fredriksen på bloggen 2020cities HER!

Foredragene fra konferansen:
Hvordan skal vi klare å kutte utslippene fra transportsektoren fram mot 2020, uten at det går på bekostning av samfunnets transportbehov. Er dette i det hele tatt mulig?
Tematikken ble redegjort for slik:
Stortingets klimaforlik slår fast at Norge skal redusere utslippene av klimagasser med 30 prosent av utslippene i 1990, innen 2020. Det tilsvarer 15-17 millioner tonn CO2-ekvivalenter. Samferdselssektoren vil stå for de største utslippene av klimagasser i 2020, og er antakeligvis den mest utfordrende sektoren å redusere utslippene fra.
Samtidig som Norge skal nå disse utslippsreduksjonene møter vi andre utfordringer knyttet til transport; stor befolkningsvekst i byene, smalere budsjetter, store vedlikeholdsetterslep og økte krav til tilgjengelighet og komfort.
17. februar ble KLIMAKUR 2020-utredningen lagt fram med forslag til tiltak og virkemidler for å nå klimamålene, også på transportområdet. Klimakur-utredningen var sentral i innleggene og debatten på: NAFs Transport- og klimakonferanse – Hvordan skal vi nå 2020-målene?

(kilde:www.naf.no/konferanse)

(kilde: http://washingtonsquarepark.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/new-times-square-12.jpg)

On February 26, 2009, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that traffic lanes along Broadway from 42nd Street to 47th Street would be de-mapped starting Memorial Day 2009 and transformed into pedestrian plazas until at least the end of the year as a trial. The same was done from 33rd to 35th Street. The goal is to ease traffic congestion throughout the Midtown grid. The results will be closely monitored to determine if the project works and should be extended.” Bloomberg also stated ” he believes the street shutdown will make New York more livable by reducing pollution, cutting down on pedestrian accidents and helping traffic flow more smoothly.”
(kilde:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Square)
Klikk HER for å se film om folks mening på www.strettfilms.org!