Life in the streets. Documenting the culture of intersections.
Street narratives, public service announcements, ideologies, and other stories from the asphalt.
Do you feel strongly about an intersection? Please share your street story!
Snap some photos or a quick video with your digital camera. Record an audio file, write a haiku, paint a picture.
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Is Portland’s Reputation for Bike Friendliness Good for Business?
via Alta Planning / portlandmercury.com
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Jaime Lerner reinvented urban space in his native Curitiba, Brazil. Along the way, he changed the way city planners worldwide see what’s possible in the metropolitan landscape.
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5 Years of Using a Bike as Transport
I realized tonight that my 5 year anniversary is coming up fairly soon. The anniversary of my starting to ride a bike again after abandoning it once I got a drivers license… and also had that regrettable infatuation with rollerblades, but let’s not talk about that :0)
However, being the geek that I am, I wanted to figure out *exactly* when I bought the bike, so that I could plan a celebration. I though I’d look back through old emails and track down when I first started writing to everyone about bike fun… and it worked! I found the exact email I wrote to a friend, saying “I bought a bike today! This town is so small and everything here (was living in Taos, New Mexico at the time) is so close together, I think I could ride my bike to rent movies and get groceries and commute to work. And gas is 2.40 a gallon, holy crap!”. Hard to believe that was once a revolutionary thought in my world. I suppose it didn’t hurt that I had co-workers who commuted by bike and even went so far as to encourage me to ride by giving me an old headlight and a used pair of gloves for that new bike. (Thanks Dave Maciolek!)
However, in that same email I also said “I looked on craigslist, but all of those used bike are so expensive. I could buy a new one at Wal-Mart for less money… it seems like a better deal to get a new bike for less than a used one!” Haha, oh my, I have learned so much since then… I was so wrapped up in car culture back then, not through any great attachment to it, but simply through force of habit. I’m happy to say that I’m now car free. And in the last few months I’ve spent $1,000 on parts for my Big Dummy, and the end is not yet in sight before I can actually start building it up. I’m glad I finally came around to the benefits of a quality, useful bike. Especially in relation to the cost of owning a car :0) I guess there’s hope for everyone.
- Joel Stitzlein
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Where the Pathway Ends: Tigard, Oregon.
Wouldn’t it be funny to have a sign like this for motorists? Please stop your car and push it for 1/4 mile, then resume your commute.
Photo: Jonathan Maus
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Ghost Bike installed for Merrill Cassell, killed while riding a bicycle in White Plains, NY.
“It seems like such a non event to those in power. They want to make believe the incident never happened, they want to move on. We’re not going to let them move on.”
- David McKay, Co-Chair
Westchester Putnam Bike Walk Alliance
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Though few issues touch New Yorkers lives more personally on a more regular basis, transportation was a third-tier issue at City Hall and in the local press.
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My year as a woman in a city of bikes →
Less discussed is the experience that women have not just as individuals riding, but participating — and in leadership roles — in the broader world of bicycling: as employees or customers in shops, at races, in the industry, in advocacy, and in conversations on the road, on the internet, and over coffee and beer.
But this past year as a blog writer and editor covering the bike world I’ve had plenty of opportunities to reflect on the parallel between two systems where ingrained entitlement leads people to not simply be unaware of their power but to exercise it at the expense of others.
I’ve learned that nobody likes to be called out. Especially by a woman.
-Elly Blue
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Intersection 911 is a project of BOZZmedia
