Clarence Eckerson Jr.
Recent Posts
Buenos Aires: Building a People-Friendly City
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Buenos Aires is fast becoming one of the most admired cities in the world when it comes to reinventing streets and transportation. Just over a year ago, the city launched MetroBus BRT (constructed in less than seven months) on 9 de Julio Avenue, which may be the world’s widest street. The transformation of four general […]
William H. Whyte in His Own Words: “The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces”
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When I first got started making NYC bike advocacy and car-free streets videos back in the late-1990s on cable TV, I didn’t know who William “Holly” Whyte was or just how much influence his work and research had on New York City. A few years later I met Fred and Ethan Kent at Project for Public Spaces. I got a copy of […]
Parking: Searching for the Good Life in the City
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Streetfilms is proud to partner with ITDP to bring you this fun animation that’s sort of a cross between those catchy Schoolhouse Rock shorts and the credit sequence for a 1960s-style Saul Bass film. For too long cities tried to make parking a core feature of the urban fabric, only to discover that yielding to parking demand […]
Parking Craters: Scourge of American Downtowns
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Streetsblog’s Angie Schmitt popularized the term “parking crater,” defined simply as “a depression in the middle of an urban area formed by the absence of buildings.” Various types of “meteors” left behind parking craters in the 20th century — sprawl subsidies, highway building, the erosion of manufacturing. Whatever the cause, parking craters destroy sections of downtowns and make the environment inhospitable and […]
“The Better Block” Celebrates Four Years of Re-imagining Streets
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Streetfilms has wanted to profile Jason Roberts and the amazing work of The Better Block for a long time. So it felt like destiny when, a few weeks ago, we were able to sync up and chronicle the fourth anniversary of The Better Block in Oak Cliff, Texas. This temporary pedestrian plaza is right next to […]
Hal Grades Your Bike Locking 2014
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It’s hard to believe, but it’s been nearly five years since we last went traipsing around SoHo grading people’s bike locking with Hal Ruzal from Bicycle Habitat. So it was time for the next chapter with the mechanic who wears pink-purple socks, admonishing you about how to lock your wheels, frame, and seat correctly. The process is […]
The Rise of Open Streets
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Streetfilms has been documenting the open streets movement for over seven years, beginning with our landmark film in 2007 on Bogota’s Ciclovia, currently the most viewed Streetfilm of all time. The next year, Mike Lydon of The Street Plans Collaborative decided to get an open streets event going in Miami, which led to his research for The Open Streets […]
The Metamorphosis of NYC Streets
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There’s nothing more dramatic than looking back five or ten years at Streetfilms footage to see how much the streets of New York City have changed. In this wonderful montage, check out the incredible changes at Times Square, Herald Square, the Brooklyn waterfront, and many other places that outgoing NYC DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and […]
Riding the Bike Share Boom
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Without a doubt, 2013 has been a banner year for bike-share in the United States. Major systems were implemented in New York City and Chicago, and many others debuted or expanded in other cities. In fact, Citi Bike users have biked over 10 million miles and the system is closing in on 100,000 annual members! The Institute for Transportation & Development […]
Portland’s Multi-Modal Nexus, Featuring the Largest Bike Valet in America
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Portland’s South Waterfront is developing into one of the best new walkable urban neighborhoods in America. From one spot, you can grab the Portland Streetcar, ride the Portland Aerial Tram to Oregon Health and Science University, walk across abrand new pedestrian bridge, bike on a protected bikeway, or park your bike at the largest daily valet bike parking […]
Bicycle Anecdotes From Amsterdam
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Here we present our final — and most informative — Streetfilm from Amsterdam. It provides a nice cross-section of commentary on life in the City of Bikes. If you’d like to skip directly to a certain section, use this table of contents: 0:17 Rejecting the Automobile 2:15 A bike system that works for everyone 4:05 There’s a science to […]
More From The Netherlands: Bike From Assen to Groningen
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If you haven’t seen the latest Streetfilm, Groningen: The World’s Cycling City, you should check it out. Like, now! It has broken every single Streetfilms viewing record — nearly 40,000 plays in just the first week. One of the folks featured in that video is David Hembrow, who has been reporting on cycling in the Netherlands for many years […]