Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Quality of Life

Evaluating Summer Streets

By Aaron Naparstek | Jul 22, 2008 | 29 Comments

Here's a modest proposal for evaluating the success of a Summer Streets event: Measure the amount of time kids are able to run and play without their parents having to worry about them being hit by a car, the number of friends you bump into and new people you meet, the pounds of automobile exhaust and carbon that aren't being spewed into the hot summer air, the amount of horn-honking, engine-revving and boom stereos you're not hearing, and whether your local merchants are happy about the event and making more money than they usually do on a slow summer weekend.

Tom Vanderbilt Ponders Motorist Sociopathy

By Aaron Naparstek | Jul 18, 2008 | 14 Comments

Yesterday, at the end of our piece about the recent road rage incidents in usually-polite Portland and Seattle, we posed a question to Tom Vanderbilt, author of the forthcoming book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do and What It Says About Us. We asked: What is it about automobility that often seems to […]

Times Shows Little Love for Livable Streets

By Brad Aaron | Jul 11, 2008 | 19 Comments

Are you "a certain kind of urban idealist"? Chances are that if you read Streetsblog, the answer is yes. At least according to the New York Times. This week, the Times covered three major livable streets initiatives, now either underway or under consideration by the city: its first step toward establishing a bike-share system, a […]

DC Defends Livable Streets Improvements as WaPo Declares “War”

By Brad Aaron | Jul 9, 2008 | 10 Comments

In an effort to improve safety and mobility for pedestrians and cyclists, Washington, DC has embarked on a number of livable streets reforms (market rate street parking), and is considering others (reclaiming auto-occupied street space for people). Though a recent article in the Washington Post casts these initiatives as a "war" against car commuters, it’s […]

Contented Streets: Why Copenhagen Is the World’s Happiest Capital

By Brad Aaron | Jul 2, 2008 | 12 Comments

Why have Danes again been named the happiest people on the planet? Early this year ABC News cited bikes as "perhaps … the best symbol of Danish happiness," and in this clip from "Contested Streets" it isn’t hard to see why. Here, livable streets guru Jan Gehl and others explain the many ways an increase […]

Want a New Public Plaza in Your Neighborhood? Apply Now.

By Aaron Naparstek | Jun 25, 2008 | No Comments

Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan unveiled the Department of Transportation’s New York City Public Plaza Program last night at the Pratt Institute in Manhattan. Through the program, DOT aims to transform "underused streets into vibrant, social public spaces" throughout New York City. To create and run these new public plazas DOT is seeking to partner with local […]

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