Streets

Project Sidewalk creates big data for pedestrian accessibility

Project Sidewalk, gathers data on inaccessible sidewalks via Google Street View to create new applications around accessibility for local governments and communities.  ...
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Project Sidewalk creates big data for pedestrian accessibility

Project Sidewalk, gathers data on inaccessible sidewalks via Google Street View to create new applications around accessibility for local governments and communities.  ...
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What would a truly disabled-accessible city look like?

Most cities are utterly unfriendly to people with disabilities – but with almost one billion estimated to be urban-dwellers by 2050, a few cities are undergoing a remarkable shift ...
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Protected Bike Lanes that Work for Everyone

Protected bike lanes and intersections are important for bike and pedestrian safety, but what about people who have physical challenges or visual impairments? ...
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Why Good Transit is the Key To a Disability-Friendly City

At yesterday’s Mayor’s Pedestrian Advisory Council meeting there was a discussion of the Metropolitan Planning Council’s Toward Universal Mobility study of accessibility gaps in the regional transit network ...
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Road engineers experience crossing the street in a wheelchair

As we design street improvements & prioritize pedestrian safety, it’s important to do our best to understand how people with different abilities use our sidewalks & street crossings ...
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Why Do Some Crosswalks Make a Machine Gun Sound?

Whether you realize it or not, you’ve almost certainly interacted with an accessible pedestrian signal or APS. These are the crosswalk systems designed with sonic and tactile cues to help ...
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THIS STREETSCAPE WAS DESIGNED BY A DEAF PERSON FOR DEAF PEOPLE

Universal design isn’t just for interiors. Alexa Vaughn, a deaf landscape architect, is advocating for universal streets too ...
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Editorial: It’s been a bumpy ride for scooters here

Scooters might be a hip fad, but they have also cluttered sidewalks and raised issues about ADA compliance ...
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As cities embrace new modes of transit, gaps in accessibility remain

How we get from one place to another can have a big impact on our lives. Conjure up the feeling of sitting in a hot car, stuck in gridlock, and compare it ...
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To make a more accessible city, turn to the sidewalk

Universities, advocacy organizations and startups are all exploring how to bring "big data to accessibility" in order to transform mobility for disabled communities ...
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Bike Summit Panel Forecasts ‘Disruptive Change’ For Streets

Street designs will need to undergo more “holistic” change in order to accommodate growing needs for both curb and travel space for ride-hailing service vehicles, transit buses, bicycles, scooters, and ...
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Ask An Expert: Here’s what it’s like to get around Seattle for some people who use a wheelchair

Earlier this year, as the Washington state Legislature considered a bill that would allow Seattle to use traffic cameras to enforce bus-only lanes and crosswalks ...
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Geospatial Tech & Universal Design: Creating Access for All

In this article, we’ll look at a sample of case studies that demonstrate how geospatial technology and universal design work together to make the world more accessible to everyone ...
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The District’s streets are dangerous, and unjust, by design

On March 13 and 14 road safety advocates and leaders gathered to discuss the District's progress on Vision Zero, its commitment to eliminating road deaths and serious injuries by 2024 ...
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Monday’s Google Doodle Celebrates The Work Of Seiichi Miyake

Today's Google Doodle honors inventor Seiichi Miyake, who developed the tactile pavement that helps visually impaired people navigate street crossings and transit stations ...
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London tests LED crosswalk that responds to real-time conditions

A "smart crossing" prototype that uses cameras, sensors, computer programming and a large LED screen installed in the ground — dubbed "Starling Crossing" — has been revealed in London ...
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Designing a More Inclusive City

Over the years, public seating has been removed from virtually the entire city. While this anti-homelessness strategy has given way a little with the emergence of the city’s many parklets, ...
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Sidewalks and the “last mile” problem

We forget that walking can be a part of our public transit system too ...
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Smart cities work for people with disabilities

Smart cities, so named because they boast technology and design that make them work better for their residents, are getting a lot of attention — and government funding — in ...
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The Tools: 13 Short-Range Livability Projects

Local leaders, planners, engineers and visionaries of all kinds use a range of innovative and tested techniques to make a community more livable and walkable ...
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How design can help inclusive growth

This week the Inclusive Growth Commission published their final findings and recommendation after an independent enquiry into how the UK can achieve inclusive growth ...
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Japan’s Adoption of Universal Design Ahead of Tokyo Paralympic Games 2020

TOKYO: In a meeting with Japan’s Prime Minister Abe on Wednesday afternoon (22 February) in Tokyo, International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Sir Philip Craven praised the Japanese government for the ...
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How One Florida City Is Reinventing Itself With UX Design

Make Gainesville the best place to live and work, courtesy of human-centered design ...
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The Future of Retirement Communities: Walkable and Urban

FEW people in America walk to work. Most of us drive to the supermarket. But more older people these days are looking for a community where they can enjoy a ...
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Project Sidewalk

Despite comprehensive civil rights legislation for Americans with disabilities, many city streets, sidewalks, and businesses in the US remain inaccessible. The problem is not just that sidewalk accessibility fundamentally affects ...
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More Trees, Fewer Cars for the Central Squares of Paris

Last year, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo promised to makeover seven major Parisian squares. This March, following a public consultation, Paris City Hall came up with the goods, providing detailed plans ...
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“Smart City” Gives Wings to Ranchi’s Urban Dreams

Ranchi, capital of Jharkand- one of India’s youngest states, is taking incredible strides to transform itself into a livable, healthy, and sustainable city in a very short span of time ...
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Sydney launches ‘world’s largest’ braille and tactile network for vision-impaired pedestrians

The world's most comprehensive network of braille and tactile signs to help visually impaired pedestrians has been rolled out across Sydney ...
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Enabled by design: A way finding system that considers the disabled

A More Inclusive Pedestrian Wayfinding System builds on the existing "Legible London" system to create an enhanced and more user-friendly navigation system ...
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Mexico City from a wheelchair: ‘There’s no second chance on these streets’

Abraham Plaza is on a mission to break down the countless barriers – physical, mental and social – that make daily life in Mexico City so tough for people with ...
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New App Is Mapping the Accessible City

For Steve Lewis, board president of the Alliance of People with disAbilities, navigating downtown Seattle is an awful experience. He uses a wheelchair, and Seattle’s steep hills can be a ...
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German town introduces in-ground traffic lights for pedestrians glued to their phones

A small city in southern Germany may be the first place in the world to introduce in-ground traffic lights. The move by authorities in Augsburg comes in response to distracted smartphone ...
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Cambridge Is Working on an Inclusive City Road Map

When a city is drafting a new master plan, putting up some posters suggesting citizens come to a public meeting just isn’t enough. Relying on the input from only those ...
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The Next Frontier for Compact Walkability? It’s gotta be the burbs

This weekend in Miami, the Congress for the New Urbanism is staging one of the periodic Councils it uses to focus perspectives and best practices on topics of growing concern ...
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A Walkable, Bikeable Future? Hartford Has It

Earlier this month, Hartford unanimously approved its first major zoning overhaul since 1969. The initiative, known as ZoneHartford, has been in the works for two years, and its formal adoption marks a shift ...
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The inequality of sidewalks

Pedestrian deaths are much more common in poor neighborhoods in urban America than in wealthier ones, a disparity Governing magazine covered in depth back in 2014. That result stems from a brutal collision of bad ...
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Complete Streets Language Part of Winter 2016 Growth Management Project Amendments

This is a major paradigm shift, a fundamental change in the way problems are defined and potential solutions evaluated, from automobile-oriented to multimodal. Complete Streets planning has been widely embraced ...
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Some of the Biggest Problems Sometimes Have the Simplest Solutions

In environmental public health, we often get caught up in looking for complex answers to complex problems. Sometimes we get lucky, though, and a simple solution will serve. The U.S ...
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UB IDeA Center receives $4.6 million federal grant

The University at Buffalo’s Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDeA Center) has received a fourth round of federal funding to continue its work on a wide range of ...
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Mayor Walsh Says Bike-Inclusive ‘Complete Streets’ Will Be Boston’s Default Design

In a speech outlining his desire to see Boston “thinking bigger ideas” and “making bolder plans,” Walsh said he would sign an executive order making Complete Streets—an approach stressing the peaceful coexistence between cars, ...
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Designing a City for the Deaf

Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., the nation’s leading institution for the deaf and hard of hearing, has published a report outlining what they call DeafSpace Guidelines that help design practitioners ...
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Complete Streets in Broward

A Complete Street is a street that is inclusive of all users’ needs – no matter their ability, age, or mode of transportation. Complete Streets create more livable communities and ...
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Quirks & Quarks BlogSparkPhoto Galleries ‘Responsive street furniture’ in cities could boost accessibility

Designer Ross Atkin thinks smart urban fixtures could make life easier for people with disabilities. Blind or disabled people are often required to adapt to the world around them, using aids ...
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Complete streets with inclusive design: What it’s like to navigate the city in a wheelchair

Strong towns must also be inclusive towns, communities that welcome everyone. Places where people of all abilities can live, work, and get around. Rights of way that are safe and ...
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North Lauderdale explores complete-streets concept

North Lauderdale has joined a growing list of cities that have realized that a right of way should be designed for more than just vehicular traffic. At a recent workshop, ...
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The Amazing Village in The Netherlands Just for People with Dementia

Located in The Netherlands town of Weesp is a special gated village called Hogeweyk. It is notable because it has been designed specifically as a pioneering care facility for elderly ...
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What France Can Teach U.S. Cities About Transit Design

It will be a long time until Americans are comfortable enough with sexual innuendo to appropriate that term. But there's an awful lot that U.S. cities should learn as soon ...
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person walking in a hallway with others siting the background
Recreation: A younger gentleman walking with an older man in the park
Public Buildings: aerial view of city buildings
Streets: people crossing an intersection
Housing: exterior view of a suburban house
Transportation: close up of dangling handles on a bus