Posts Tagged ‘London’
Contested Streets: Breaking NY City Gridlock
Posted in Movements, Research by Kate Archdeacon on July 20th, 2011
Source: Streetfilms via Going Solar
From “Contested Streets: Breaking New York City Gridlock” by Clarence Eckerson, Jr:
Produced in 2006 as part of the New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign, Contested Streets explores the history and culture of New York City streets from pre-automobile times to present. This examination allows for an understanding of how the city — though the most well served by mass transit in the United States — has slowly relinquished what was a rich, multi-dimensional conception of the street as a public space to a mindset that prioritizes the rapid movement of cars and trucks over all other functions.
Central to the story is a comparison of New York to what is experienced in London, Paris and Copenhagen. Interviews and footage shot in these cities showcase how limiting automobile use is in recent years has improved air quality, minimized noise pollution and enriched commercial, recreational and community interaction. London’s congestion pricing scheme, Paris’ BRT and Copenhagen’s bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure are all examined in depth.
New York City, though to many the most vibrant and dynamic city on Earth, still has lessons to learn from Old Europe.
Watch the film on Vimeo
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Chromaroma: Public Transport Game for London
Posted in Models, Tools by Kate Archdeacon on May 26th, 2011
Via Springwise
Chromaroma is a game that shows you your movements and location as you swipe your Oyster Card in and out of the Tube (Bus, Tram and Boat coming soon). It connects communities of people who cross paths and routes on a regular basis, and encourages people to make new journeys and use public transport in a different way by exploring new areas and potentially using different modes of public transport.
At its simplest, Chromaroma is about amassing the most points possible. By watching your own travel details you can investigate interesting new ways to travel and exciting new destinations in order to get more points. Grab “multipliers” and bonus points by working with a team, building up connections with fellow passengers and discovering mysteries that are attached to locations on your routes.
Beyond competition and conquest, Chromaroma’s gameplay opens up the beauty in the city’s transport flows and reveals to its most persistent players some of the mysteries of travel, and even the strange characters travelling through the tunnels in the centre of the system, who may hold the secrets to your city.
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I don’t totally understand this game, but mixing up social networking with real-time information and alternative transport use is something we’re pretty interested in at VEIL. Check out Chromaroma on Vimeo to find out (a little) more. KA
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Greening My Office Blog: First Success!
Posted in Movements by Kate Archdeacon on July 21st, 2010
Source: Greening My Office via The Ecologist
From I got them to switch the heating off! by Sylvia Sunshine:
My office is over 70 square foot in size, but only half of the space is ever being used at one time. The other half lies empty. The organisation that pays my wage rents a large office space and sublets out to two other companies. However, my company has been unable to sublet the remaining space on the floor. According to research by the property agent NB Real Estate, there is now over 10 million square foot of office space lying empty in London alone, up from 7.8 million in 2008. The capital has been left with over 10 per cent of its offices empty, with the situation at its most drastic in the West End (where I’m based). And of course, with this waste comes the predictable onslaught of environmental damage.
Because there are so few people in the space I’m in, it takes more energy to heat, in both real and relative terms. Furthermore, in the empty office adjacent to my office, we heat the entire space day and night, even though it lies vacant (and has done for nearly a year).
The next morning I approach the company head honcho about the empty space in our office. ‘No one wants to buy at the moment,’ he says. ‘We’ve tried to lower to price too, but nothing seems to work’.
‘Can we switch off the heating in there?’ I murmur, head hanging low over a bowl of organic museli. My boss looks at me carefully. I can see the cogs turning as he remembers previous conversations. As time stands still I think he’s about to upbraid me for being too much of a goody (non-leather) two shoes. But instead of attacking me – as has become par for the course – he glances over to Jill and squawks: ‘Can we get building services to switch off the heating in the other offices? Rooms 2a and 2b? They’re not being used at the moment, are they?’
‘Sure,’ Jill shouts back across the empty office, ‘I’ll email the landlord now’.
‘Wow,’ I think. No qualms, no questions and no awkward silences. Just action. Maybe my technique is improving? Or maybe some kind of sea change is underway?
Read more about Sylvia Sunshine’s efforts.
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An Urban Dream Farm for London?
Posted in Models by Devin Maeztri on May 14th, 2009
The first community project in the metropolis to recycle food wastes into energy and fertilizer by anaerobic digestion Sam Burcher.
The organic muesli producer who keeps making history.
Alex Smith has been made a London Leader of Sustainability for 2009 by the London Development Agency (LDA). This appointment by the Mayor of London’s office is a far cry from thirty years ago when Alex was a squatter and started his food company Alara with two £1 notes he found in the street. Alara now produces up to one hundred tonnes of organic muesli each week, some sixty percent of UK’s total muesli production.