Traffic Calming in Bohmte, Germany
WorldChanging.com posted a nice article on traffic calming in Bohmte, Germany.
It sounds wrong but, “On one section of a major thoroughfare through the city, Bohmte officials have erased lane markers, torn up sidewalks, and bulldozed curbs in a radical effort to force people to use common sense and courtesy when driving rather than relying on lane markers. The only traffic rules that remain are a speed limit of 30 mph, and a requirement that everyone who uses the road yield to the right.”
Shared space transportation planning works because, “people pay more attention when they’re not distracted by ‘highway clutter.’”
Full Story: “Shared Space” Traffic Calming: Counterintuitive, But It Works
MIT’s City Car
Engineers at MIT are finishing up their City Car design. The City Car is, according to CNet, “envisioned as a two-seater electric vehicle powered by lithium-ion batteries. It would weigh between 1,000 and 1,200 pounds and could collapse, then stack like a shopping cart with six to eight fitting into a typical parking space. It isn’t just a car, but is designed as a system of shared cars with kiosks at locations around a city or small community.”
Source: MIT offers City Car for the masses
Mapping on This American Life
This week’s episode of This American Life was about mapping. While people normally only use maps to get directions, the subjects of this episode map sounds, tastes, and smells.
You’ll find a map of houses with Halloween pumpkins shows more about income than you might think.
Link: Mapping
On the Future City Invincible
City Invincible has been lacking in content lately. Not because I lost interest, but because I’ve been so busy. I recently took a month-long trip to India, got a new job, and adopted a greyhound.
But I want to get things going again. My plan is to continue to monitor news about poverty, development, work, and housing. The “Selected News” section on the right has articles, found from all over the web, I suggest for reading and is updated almost daily. You can subscribe to it as an RSS feed in addition to this site’s RSS feed.
The main posts of this site will be more sporadic. During the week, I’ll write a few posts on really interesting news stories (maybe one or two). On weekends I’ll write longer commentary pieces about the week’s news.
Also, I started an actively growing NewsVine group called Urban Vine. There, we share stories about urban issues. Users vote on articles they like and the most voted-on articles make it to the front page. The goal is to get urban issues into the forefront. Please consider joining our group.
So don’t give up on me yet. There will be plenty more to come.
Half of Nation’s Poor Don’t Get Food Stamps
A recent study by the National Priorities Project shows that, “half of the nation’s eligible poor aren’t getting the food stamps to which they’re entitled.”
“The District of Columbia had the highest participation rate in 2004, at 71.8 percent, while Missouri ranked first among the 50 states in getting food stamps to its low-income residents. Nevada ranked last among states, with 32 percent of its eligible residents getting food stamps.”
Furthermore, “The study found that a significant number of counties, 13.2 percent, had below-average percentages of low-income people participating in the program, even though they had above-average poverty rates.”
Source: Study: Half of Nation’s Poor Don’t Get Food Stamps
Social Explorer
I finally found the resource I’ve been looking for on the web. SocialExplorer.com allows users to create maps using census data. Above is a map of Philadelphia showing median income by census tract. The source data is from the 2000 census.
Architecture for Humanity on Wired.com
The article I wrote about Architecture for Humanity’s Open Architecture Network was published on Wired.com today. It’s called “Design Within Reach: Architecture for Humanity Builds the Future of Housing.”
The article was written as a part of an experiment in crowdsourced journalism called Assignment Zero. Let me know what you think. Also, check out all the other Assignment Zero articles on Wired.com.
World Urban Population To Double
The Independent reports, “The combined forces of population growth and urbanization are creating a planet of slums, where the urban population will have doubled by 2030, according to a report released by the United Nations.”
“The UN’s findings echo recent predictions that 2008 will see a watershed in human history as the balance of the world’s population tips from rural to urban. Many of the new urbanites will be poor and the shelters into which they move, or are born, will be slums.”
Source: Planet of The Slums: UN Warns Urban Populations Set To Double
First zero-emission home unveiled in UK
Zero-emission Home | From BBC
The BBC reports, “The UK has unveiled the first zero-emission house that will set the environmental standard for all new homes in future.”
The “Lighthouse” features solar panels, a biomass boiler, and water efficiency devices such as rainwater harvesting. Also, its owners will be able to tell if they are wasting any energy through a “smart metering” system.
There’s no details about when the house will be built, how much it’ll cost, or what materials will be used for construction. So, really, it’s not the first zero-emission house until it’s built.
Source: First zero-emission home unveiled
Nonprofits use Google Earth to illustrate causes
Appalachian Voices is using 3D maps in Google Earth to show destroyed Appalachian Mountains | From CNet
Google Earth is making it easier for nonprofit groups to make maps that illustrate their causes. While normal GIS (Geographic Information Systems) programs are both expensive and difficult to use, Google Earth is free and easy.
According to CNet, “The popularity of mapping tools from Google and rival Microsoft has spurred nonprofits and other organizations to develop “layers” for the service that visually guide people to a cause. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency earlier this year said it plans to use Google Earth to map out toxic wastelands.”
gCensus takes layers most nonprofits are using a step further by allowing users to incorporate Census data. This allows users to create maps, of normally dull data, into a medium everyone can understand.
The Google Earth and gCensus combination creates an incredibly powerful, and easy to use, resource for nonprofits.
Source: Do-gooders doing Google Earth
