Click here to view the embedded video.

On Earth Day 2022, Physical Education teacher Sam Balto - inspired by Barcelona's Bici Bus - decided to attempt to start his own at his school in Alameda neighborhood of Portland.

The initial Wednesday effort was highly successful with about 75 riders. Realizing he tapped an incredible desire for kids and families to have a more fun, healthy and peaceful to get to school, it became a regular Wednesday event and inspired other neighborhoods in Portland and around the world. Some rides have come close to 200, with one-third of the school participating. I was in Portland but not there for the ride. Still I wanted to meet up with Sam to let him tell his story and thanks to Sam's footage and Bike Portland's incredible opening day video use, I was able to edit this great story celebrating one year!

Click here to view the embedded video.

So in an impromptu decision we decided to place my camera on top of post outside a school in the middle of a light drizzle and see if we had anything to say. And some of it was magic and cool. (Apologies for the perodic light taps of occasional basketballs in the background.) We talked a lot about the love of our careers to date. How they are both so unusual and sometimes hard to explain. Of course we talked (and you'll see via archival footage) some of the changes that have happened in both NYC and PDX.

But we also talk about our views of how social media has changed things and the next generation of media makers. And so much more, all for free, all right here!!! (As a personal aside, I used to feature myself on camera quite a lot in the first 5 years. But gradually grew to allow my subjects to tell the story and get out of the man-on-the-street mode. But of late I have been getting back in front for a few Streetfilms here or there. But I am happy this came out so well to feature Jonathan and me for nearly 20 minutes, only about 2 minutes were trimmed. I think I need to do this more often.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Listen to this group of a dozen speakers tell us how parking mandates directly harm the public and neighbors. It is far and reaching.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I've been meaning to get back to doing some counts of bike and micro-mobility users on some of New York's most popular bike lanes. 2nd Avenue is certainly one of those.

So I set up the camera to record for two half hours in separate locations yesterday and present a condensed video of my results. As usual despite many cranks & drivers stating that bikes barely ever use bike lanes, selective anecdotes are not facts. Every time I've done these during rush hours the results are even better than I expected. In fact during this 30 minute taping from 5-530pm on Monday, April 3rd a very shocking thing emerged I was unprepared for: not one rider in the video rides the wrong way. Not one! I'm a New Yorker of course, and even I admit to seeing a percentage of salmoning (that's going the wrong way in a bike lane) but to witness this result was cool.

I think I have a theory: in NYC the best and most popular bike lanes don't have many wrong-way riders, or very few. Why? They are busy. They are safe. And there are safe options nearby to travel. The pairs on 1st Ave and 2nd Ave are a perfect example. Among NYC's most crowded. At rush hours it's a constant steady stream. You don't want to face dodging a dozen bikes per block. It's dangerous. I actually did a taping near this spot almost in 2021. (See here: https://youtu.be/TMQxPyD36wc) In 21 minutes there were 171 bikes, 323 vehicles and 11 buses. And with bikes only having one lane versus the four for other vehicles (which includes a partial BUS ONLY lane) it proves that the bike lane not only is worth it - but we need to think about making them wider since they are getting real crowded in Manhattan!

You'll have to watch the video to find out, but it's a better count than 2021 and this time proportionally the results were even better for bikes. One note: the "range" for vehicle numbers is due to me having to do a manual count on paper due to the angle of the camera placement. Thus a paper count I got 545 vehicles (and 8 buses) versus later using just the straight video which I could only come up with 525, but the parked cars can shield a few here or there. So let's say I was even massively off and it was 600 - it still proves spatially bikes are a great deal for NYC.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This PSA is short and sweet. Find out the answer at the end. What did you guess?

Click here to view the embedded video.

It should never take this long, but persistance pays off!

Residents in Hell's Kitchen have been fighting a very long time to make their loud and dangerous streets safer, more livable and more equitable for the neighborhood. Led by community activist Christine Berthet they have accomplished some seemingly impossible changes to their chunk of Midtown Manhattan. But the cherry on top is now here: in the last few months NYC's Environmental Protection and the Design and Construction finished a decade long project replacing sewers & water mains on Ninth Avenue in Manhattan and so NYC DOT took the opportunity to expand pedestrian space 10 feet in the project's footprint and to also further harden the protected bike lane there and make it safer.

There are now only three lanes for moving traffic, righting a wrong many decades ago when Robert Moses halved the sidewalks to provide an additional lane to the Lincoln Tunnel. The most exciting announcement was that NYC DOT said it would be bringing this style of street geometery to other places (presumedly Manhatttan's Avenues) and other overly wide roads throughout the city. Check out our amazing Streetfilm, the second half of which goes deeply into the history of the movement and energy behind the Hell's Kitchen folks making it happen since 2005 (and Streetfilms was there!)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Last week our first-annual Open Plans Public Space Awards was an inspirational crowd-pleaser attended by many in the transportation world. At the event we also debuted our brand new Open Plans PSA explaining our core mission. We’re calling it “Maps Can Be Redrawn” which features nearly 90 shots of the streets of the city. It was scripted by Open Plans’ Events Associate Eric Parker and voiced by Yael Rizowy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

During this summer while making some Streetfilms in Paris I was very lucky to get to chat with Professor Carlos Moreno and Catherine Gall about some of the great strides the city has taken around bicycling, pedestrianization and general livability. At one point Prof Moreno, who is an advisor to Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, about the concept of the 15 Minute City.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I recently discovered a good deal of footage from 2011 and 2017 of the loud, chaotic speedway our neighborhood NYC open street used to be.

I was gonna use this in a recent film about 34th Ave design but decided to hold it for this separate bonus short look (and listen!) As you check out these archives, be aware that nearly every before shot is directly contrasted with a recent shot absent the din of what the street ambience is versus the remarkable 2011 footage of how much the constant drone of cars is present (and we're not even talking about honking or cars playing music loudly).

Most of these shots were filmed on the exact same block 12 years ago. One of the major arguments of people that are against open streets is how much "louder" the street has become. Of course any reasonable person knows that's folly. When the constant noise of motors and road tire friction is removed, what's left are sounds of humans that would naturally be there walking, talking, playing, etc. on sidewalks. This irks some people. (The exception I will admit is that on some open streets there are occasional events where there might be music played or a protest or cultural event. Those certainly will have some elevated noise levels. But they are not daily and still would argue if you had a decibel meter out there might not even reach the levels of most car noise.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

In NYC at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Mayor Bill de Blasio set aside a small number of streets throughout NYC as open streets. None was as popular or as successful as Queens' 34th Avenue, it started as six blocks but was eventually expanded to 1.3 miles.

Through the next year the program was made permanent with the 34th Avenue Open Street Coalition putting out barriers daily. Eventually after community meetings, the NYC DOT allocated more funding and another group (Friends of 34th Avenue Linear Park) advocated for more permanence and better street design. Together the two groups working with community and elected leaders agreed that the street should have multiple style blocks with some around schools completely closed to cars (plaza blocks) while others should have various treatments to discourage thru travel by drivers.

In the Summer of 2022, the NYC DOT implemented a plan in which most of the 26 blocks were given just that using a unique series of closures, planters, chicanes, concrete blocks, diverters, bike lanes, neighborhood loading zones, flex posts, curb extensions and street textures to calm the street 24 hours a day, while still deploying barricades from the hours of 7am to 8pm daily.

In the late Fall, Streetfilms got the opportunity to walk some of the open street to ask Eric Beaton (Deputy Comm. for Transportation Planning & Management, NYC DOT) and Emily Weidenhof (Director of Public Space) to explain these treatments on camera and about future plans for the corridor. Please check it out!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Over the last year I've seen him more often as I never realized he was a big bike advocate in his community. So I recently met up with him to go for a ride and warned him I would have my camera with me just in case he wanted to talk about the newest bike and pedestrian facilities going in on Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Hell's Kitchen. Well we ended up talking quite a bit about how the lanes work and how they have supplanted older facilities which didn't work for either mode.

Charlie is also now a member of Manhattan's Community Board 4!

Click here to view the embedded video.

At Transportation Alternatives' Vision Zero Cites Conference in October, some session attendees opted to see some of the transformative progress going on just over the Hudson River in the cities of Hoboken & Jersey City. The bike tour drew am overflow crowd and what they got to see were ample treatments & policies in both cities - a few of which you will see here.

In Hoboken, now into its 5th year of no traffic deaths of any kind (pedestrian, bike or motorist), conference riders got to see the significantly safe streets - much of which is attributable to the process of daylighting, not allowing car parking at the intersections of streets to make people more visible.

New Jersey State Law prohibits parking in or on a crosswalk, between a safety zone for pedestrians and adjacent to the curb or within 20 feet of the safety zone’s end. 25 feet from an intersection.

In Jersey City (which Streetfilms has paid many visits to) they have continued to roll out protected bike lanes continued at a great pace since 2019 using various types of protection for riders. That not only includes armadillos and jersey barriers but in some instances concrete barrels. Both cities are also using a type of green paint product called endurablend which provides cyclists with more friction and lasts longer than traditional paint.

Please enjoy the filmed tour which comes with Streetfilms exclusive, dramatic BEFORE footage showing how much the streets have changed in spots.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Just a short one minute PSA showcasing how badly trash has taken over our sidewalks and one of the new solutions being pursued by NYC. Open Plans' Sara Lind met me in the Financial District to search for some huge garbage piles but since we both wanted to see the debut garbage bins in Union Square so we jumped on Citibikes to see it for ourselves. As you can see it removes lots of clutter from the sidewalk in a nice, handsome manner.

Click here to view the embedded video.

On Saturday Transportation Alternatives held a bike rally asking for protected bike lanes for the residents of Harlem, the neighborhood with the least amount of protected bike lanes in all of Manhattan.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Recently, Streetfilms returned to Pittsburgh for the first time since 2014 just to see what is going on and any cool stuff that has happened since. Didn't really plan anything out, just met up with a few folks to ride and did a lot of rolling on POGOH e-bike share for majority of the days.

Saw a lot in the span of 60 hours (and also flipped over the handlebars on a bike thanks to a badly placed parking concrete curb, healing up) Here's a list of some of the cool things you'll see in this Streetfilm!

- Celebration of Bike PGH 20 Year Anniversary

- Pittsburgh's Bigelow Blvd Might Be the Most Complete Street in the USA

- POGOH Bike Share Relaunches with E-bikes, Stations do the recharging

- Montage: Riding Most of Pittsburgh Downtown Bridges

- Serpentine Drive....Now ONLY for Bikes & Peds!

- Pittsburgh's "Steps": 800 Public Staircases

- Won't You Be My Neighborway? (Cool Bicycle Routes Through Alleys & Low-Traffic Streets the Mister Rogers would love)

- Asphalt Mural in Friendship Calms Traffic at 5-Way Intersection

- Hazelwood Green: Planning Bike Infrastructure for the Future

Click here to view the embedded video.

People have been visiting Paris for centuries for the food, the wine, the museums, the cheese and even the snails, but when New Yorkers head to the City of Light these days, all they see are the bike lanes.

That’s what a half-dozen envious Gothamites told Streetfilms upon their return from the French capital for his new movie, “Paris vs NYC: What It’s Like to Bike” Double-wide bike lanes! Contra-flow bike lanes! Bikes lanes on car-free streets! Bike lanes bike lanes bike lanes.

But when you see great bike lanes in Paris, you’re not just looking at good transport policy. You’re seeing the future. “They are building the city they want to see, not the city as it is now,” Kate Fillin-Yeh, a Harlem resident, told Clarence Eckerson in the viral video below. (Fillin-Yeh knows something about cities: She’s director of strategy at NACTO, the National Association of City Transportation Officials.) But Fillin-Yeh is hardly alone in wishing New York would stop designing the city to accommodate existing road users — 75 percent of all space for car drivers, for example, rather than the majority of space for bus riders, pedestrians and cyclists — rather than the mode share the city claims it is trying to achieve for its non-car-using majority.

Also appearing in the film is like a Streetsblog Hall of Fame of talking heads: Mike Lydon of Street Plans, New Third Avenue advocate Paul Krikler, Queens bike advocate (and Queen of Twitter) CJ Wojtkowski, and, Streetsblog Editor Gersh Kuntzman. Check it out below, and share it with Mayor Adams. (This text reprinted from StreetsblogNYC)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Just look around the world with the massive school streets movements in London, Paris and Barcelona, and it is easy to see that making the arrival environment outside safer for students to walk and bike is a popular idea.

Whether it is fully reconstructed streets with new curbs and sidewalks that physically prevent cars or open streets adjacent to the school or even just temporary closures for a few hours in am/pm during pick up and drop offs cities around the world are attempting strategies to calm traffic and create better uses for their streets then just throughways for cars. Even in NYC where the number of crashes and deaths near schools are much higher than other times when school is not in session, thanks to open streets we are seeing some promising projects near schools.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Just look around the world with the massive school streets movements in London, Paris and Barcelona, and it is easy to see that making the arrival environment outside safer for students to walk and bike is a popular idea.

Whether it is fully reconstructed streets with new curbs and sidewalks that physically prevent cars or open streets adjacent to the school or even just temporary closures for a few hours in am/pm during pick up and drop offs cities around the world are attempting strategies to calm traffic and create better uses for their streets then just throughways for cars.

Even in NYC where the number of crashes and deaths near schools are much higher than other times when school is not in session, thanks to open streets we are seeing some promising projects near schools. In this "School Streets" Streetfilm we take a look at a few of those and the push by neighborhoods to make this happen, including the many schools that run along the now legendary 34th Avenue open street in Queens.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In my fifth Streetfilm from my Paris trip, I was honored to bike ride around with author and Uber-advocate Stein Van Oosteren to see some of Paris’ best bike lanes and hear some of the background on each.

It was quite an epic journey of three hours, finishing just before the temps crested 90 degrees. Please check it out and be in awe of their wide wide bike infrastructure, you will be glad you did. Keep in mind, this was during the height of the summer and a holiday week and many people informed me that the cycling numbers were likely 25% lower than typical since many Parisians had left town.

As for Stein, feel free to check out his book (currently only in French) “Porquoi Pas le Velo?” (Why not the Bicycle?). And here are two more links to find out more about him!

TED TALK:
https://www.ted.com/talks/stein_van_oosteren_replacer_les_velos_dans_la_ville
HIS BOOK:
https://dutchcycling.nl/knowledge/blogs-by-experts/a-book-to-persuade-why-not-the-bicycle/