Mathilde Piard

Saudi bicycle ban lifted: Women can now bike, with certain restrictions

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 10:13:00 -0400

Saudi bicycle ban lifted: Women can now bike, with certain restrictions:

“Saudi women can now legally bike in public, under certain conditions. On Monday, Saudi Arabia’s Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice overturned a previous ban on cycling and motorbiking for women. The ruling stipulates that women must wear a full-body abaya, be accompanied by a male relative, and stay within certain areas. They are allowed to bike for recreational purposes only, not as a primary mode of transportation.”

Via Al Jazeera English

Actor Wendell Pierce Opens Grocery Stores in New Orleans Food Deserts

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 10:09:57 -0400

Actor Wendell Pierce Opens Grocery Stores in New Orleans Food Deserts:

The stores offer fresh and healthy food, and offer rides home if you spend more than $50.

I’m not sure how I missed this awesome Kickstarter until...

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:39:00 -0400

I’m not sure how I missed this awesome Kickstarter until now (granted, it’s only 10 days old, but apparently it’s been featured all over online): it’s a GPS tracker for your bicycle, with an open API, tamper detection and automatic crash reporting. “The BikeSpike is backed by the world’s smallest GPS chipset with a built-in antenna, an on-board accelerometer, and a connection to a global cellular network.” What this means is that you can digitally “lock” your bike (geofencing) and get notified if your bike moves from its spot, monitor its location on a map using a computer or phone (native iOS and android app included) and share said location with law enforcement or friends - a feature you can also do use for fun, when racing etc, or to monitor your children and get notified when they ride out of their safe zone.

But here’s the best part: it’s going to have an open API!

This solves about half a dozen bike problems I’ve brainstormed with others at various hackathons and unconferences, like RHoK and TransportationCamp. The collision detection system & police report creation (I wonder how folks like Bike Safe Boston and Bike Safe Nation could leverage this), being able to share your bike’s location (oh, the possibilities! Like social bike commuting apps for bike trains. Or initiatives like Cycle Atlanta or CycleTracks in San Francisco and a bunch of other cities), road quality reporting, fitness apps (although, aren’t there already plenty enough of those?) etc etc.

Only thing I’m wondering, regarding the bike theft & recover aspect of the product: I know they say it’s got tamper detection, but it seems like it wouldn’t be that difficult to remove the device from the bike when you’re stealing it… right? Especially if you’re already stealing a bike anyway.

NPR story about kids' need to exercise ends up being about biking, traffic, and urban planning

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:44:00 -0500

Today NPR’s Morning Edition had another installment in their series On the Run: How Families Struggle to Eat Well and Exercise,

What I found really interesting is that this story, which was supposed to be about how parents struggle to make sure their kids get enough exercise, ended up being about biking, traffic, and urban planning. One mother talked about how she spends her afternoons in Los Angeles traffic, ferrying her two boys from one sporting activity to another. She explained that her eldest can’t really just bike around in her neighborhood because it’s not bike-friendly enough. The story also profiled two other moms, both in Portland, and I especially loved how both talked about the choices we make for ourselves, for our families, for our cities (emphasis is mine)

Fahrner and her family bike, walk or take public transportation everywhere. For them, exercise is something that happens as they live their daily lives, not something they schedule. Fahrner doesn’t even own a car.

“We basically mapped out where the schools are, where hospitals are, where places to shop are, and so we very conscientiously picked a neighborhood where we can walk to all these things,” she says

So when Fahrner is scheduling activities for her 10-year-old son, she looks at what’s available in her neighborhood, choosing sports at local parks and community centers.

She and her husband used to work 70-hour weeks in the high-tech industry in California, but when their son was born they decided to simplify their lives and moved to Portland.

“It’s a choice you have to make, and, yes, it’s hard obviously,” she says. “You need to look where your job is. But if you cut down your commute from two hours to one hour, you are much happier because you have more time for yourself … and your kids.”

Janelle McAvoy and her family are making the same kind of choices. She bikes to the grocery store with her 4-year-old daughter, Clover, in a trailer and sons Jack, 6, and Everett, 8, on their bikes.

[…]

And while she acknowledges that Portland is particularly pedestrian- and biker-friendly, McAvoy believes it’s because of the choices people here are making.

“If people drive more, there’s going to be the bigger parking lot and more space on the roads. If people walk more and ride their bikes more, [there will be] more bike racks because that’s what the people want,” she says.

Wow. When I saw this, at first I was like, beautiful...

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 21:09:00 -0500

Wow. When I saw this, at first I was like, beautiful visualization & animation. Then I was like, cool, I can segment the data by gun, victim’s ethnicity, gender, age, location etc. And then I accidentally hovered over a line and I was like, WOAH, each line provides details for each of the nearly 10,000 people killed by guns in 2010 in the US, including their age, gender, race, relationship to killer, and more.

Two thoughts:

Filter the data for women and hover over the lines. Almost all of them were shot by their husband, boyfriend, or exes. I’ve heard the stats about how violence against women is almost always perpetrated by someone the victim knows, but to see it like this, and to this extent… just, wow. Seriously, can we talk/do something more about domestic violence pls?
According to my inbox, I first heard and starred an email about visual.ly 18 months ago, when it opened for public beta. Man, I really need to get better at getting around to those emails, bookmarkets etc. How have I not checked this out more by now?? Also, thanks to this visualization, I also found out about Periscopic, a “socially-conscious data visualization firm that helps companies and organizations promote information transparency and public awareness.” With all the reading I do on Upworthy, how had I not heard about these guys yet?? Or have I but I wasn’t paying attention? Either way, *swoon*

tl;dr: Check out the visualization above, filter by women, hover over the lines. Check out visual.ly and Periscopic.

3 events this Thursday of interest to nerds about cities, and Atlanta in particular

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 18:15:00 -0500

That would be Thursday, February 7th, 2013:

First Atlanta Studies Meet Up. These quarterly meetings will showcase 2 Atlanta focused projects and bring together a group of folks interested in our city.

Hannah Palmer will present a mapping project created from her research on places destroyed by Atlanta’s airport. Her book, “I’m From Here,” is about going home again, or what’s left of it. Many of the locations explored and documented in the book have been nearly erased from existence, so she created a map. An Atlanta native, Hannah Palmer is an artist and writer who is interested in the intersection of southern stories and urban landscapes.

Michael Page and Randy Gue will present on a project at Emory’s Digital Scholarship Commons (DiSC) to create an application similar to Google Maps for Atlanta from the late 1920s through the early 1950s. Users will ultimately be able to add layers and tag attributes to a series of addresses in the historic city. This combination of GIS technology and unique datasets will change the way Jim Crow Atlanta is studied by allowing researchers to visualize social changes over time.

Open House / Community Meeting to discuss Ponce De Leon Avenue makeover

Over the next few years, Atlanta’s Ponce De Leon Avenue is slated for several road improvement projects which will enhance roadway efficiency and expand mobility options for pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles on the facility. Proposed improvements include roadway resurfacing, lane reconfiguration, ADA accessibility upgrades, connectivity to the Beltline and improved access to existing public transportation service. Improvements will be concentrated between Juniper Street and Briarcliff Road/Moreland Ave with street resurfacing extending beyond this scope. The City of Atlanta and Atlanta BeltLine are partnering with the Georgia Department of Transportation to coordinate these projects.

BeltLine Run Club (happen about once/month - the February run will mark the one year anniversary of the run club!)

Join us for a 4 mile run as we head down the Eastside trail toward Irwin Street and back towards Park Tavern for some light appetizers, beer and fun! The Run/Walk will leave at 6:30pm and we will be meeting in the meadow behind Park Tavern.

ATL Urbanist: Visualizing data from CycleAtlanta app

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 17:15:35 -0500

ATL Urbanist: Visualizing data from CycleAtlanta app:

atlurbanist:

Poster dedwards8 shared some excellent maps of cycle routes via Reddit. According to the post, these are maps that are created from “data entered by people using the CycleAtlanta app.”

The maps are a product of the “Transit Day Hack-a-Thon at Georgia Tech last week.”

Read more about the…

"Despite this summer’s failure of the regional T-SPLOST referendum, there’s still one place where big..."

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 11:24:17 -0500

“Despite this summer’s failure of the regional T-SPLOST referendum, there’s still one place where big new mass transit plans are cooking: the city of Atlanta”

- After T-SPLOST defeat, transit plans slowed, but not stopped
Street car line under construction, private funding eyed for other projects
ajc.com, 01/03/2013

The 2012 election resulted in some big changes on Capitol Hill. Who are the major players for biking and walking in the 113th Congress?

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 11:09:00 -0500

The 2012 election resulted in some big changes on Capitol Hill. Who are the major players for biking and walking in the 113th Congress?

Is that a full bike rack at the Medical Center MARTA station in...

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 11:43:58 -0500

Is that a full bike rack at the Medical Center MARTA station in Sandy Springs? Why yes it is!

After over two years of living in Midtown, I finally got to see...

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 17:04:45 -0500

After over two years of living in Midtown, I finally got to see #ATL’s Baton Bob! (at Piedmont Park)

On friends, bike accidents, anti-cycling mentalities and intresting reads

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 13:46:00 -0500

On Facebook for his birthday yesterday, fellow Atlanta cyclist Jason Spruill shared with his friends stories about Dave Martin, his best friend who died 10 years ago after being hit by a drunk driver. Coincidentally, a week ago marked the one-year anniversary of when my friend Mary Bowers was hit by a truck on her way to work in London. A year later, she remains in hospital in a rehabilitation unit, and doctors have described her condition as “minimally conscious,” with only a fleeting awareness and little ability to communicate. Back in February, The Times (where she worked) launched its “Cities fit for Cycling” campaign for safer cycling in the UK, and in September, Times reporters joined Bike to Bestival to raise money for Cancer Research UK, and awareness about the campaign (they put together this great video, which I can’t embed here, but is worth watching (I’m not sure how to describe what it’s like seeing video of Mary from the festival last year)

On the one-year anniversary of the accident, Mary’s friend and colleague Kaya Burgess wrote this article. One of the quotes that stuck with me was this one: “So far in 2012, 101 cyclists have died in Britain. The two youngest victims were 8 years old. The oldest was 80.” – a little ironic, given the mission of 8-80 Cities, a non-profit that aims to create cities in which both 8-year-olds and 80-year-olds can move about safely and enjoyably.

Anyway, I was curious to figure out how many cyclists are killed in the US per year, and in the googling process I found this great Gothamist post from two months ago on the “anti-cycling mentality that the media willfully exploits,” with examples like Gawker’s “First, Kill All The Cyclists” traffic-whoring headline, or how coverage of the Prospect Park West bike lane in New York City was manipulated. Oddly enough, I was running a 5k in Prospect Park just 10 days ago to raise money after Hurricane Sandy and I noticed and even took photos (see below) of the awesome bike lanes – technically called cycle tracks - totally oblivious to the fact they supposedly caused a huge controversy (cause there’s nothing the media loves like a “huge controversy” — the Living Walls murals in Atlanta come to mind)

Anyway, after much searching, it looks like there are around 700 cyclists killed every year in the US – which I think is pretty equivalent to the UK’s when compared to overall population size, but I don’t know how they stack up relatively to each country’s cyclist population specifically. This really makes me wonder why it seems to be an issue that receives so much more attention across the Atlantic than here in the US. Is it really that it takes losing one of your own to spur people, in this case journalists, into action? In any case, I wasn’t able to easily find out how many so far in 2012 have been killed, but I did find this project by the League of American Bicyclists, everybicyclistcounts.org, a website attempting to track on a map all U.S. cycling deaths since January 1, 2012. Each victim has their own page with their name, age, date of accident, news source (including a rating of whether the coverage was positive, negative or neutral), accident data, and legal status. Pretty impressive and definitely worth a look.

Cycle tracks in Prospect Park! Parked cars protecting cyclists from traffic rather than cyclists protecting parked cars from traffic.

First time I’ve ever biked to a conference #gbs12 (at...

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 08:28:42 -0400

First time I’ve ever biked to a conference #gbs12 (at Augusta State University)

"Over the long term I also think we’re going to make more money per amount of time that people are..."

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 15:37:05 -0400

“Over the long term I also think we’re going to make more money per amount of time that people are spending on mobile, because it has this focus as a device. It’s more like TV, where you’re doing one thing at a time. The advertising and monetizing has to be integrated in, whereas on desktop we kind of reached this equilibrium where there’s the content and then the ads off to the side of it. So I’m really optimistic about that.”

- Mark Zuckerberg, in an interview with Business Week on the occasion of Facebook’s billionth user, talks about the focus on making the company worth as much as possible over the long term and the various bets Facebook is making, a lot of which “is going to come down to mobile.”

Zuckerberg also talks about other aspects of Facebook’s big picture strategy, like how “the whole vision around News Feed was it should be like a newspaper and shouldn’t just be a list of posts your friends are making,” and how after media, games, music, TV, and video, the next frontier is commerce.

One last good quote: “At some point, that will start to be a better map of how you navigate the Web than the traditional link structure of the Web.”

Great read. Go read it.

This is pretty rad: a world trans-continental passenger railway...

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 08:34:34 -0400

This is pretty rad: a world trans-continental passenger railway map (not to scale, only select rail services represented)

I took this photo Friday morning on the Paris subway just after...

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 17:01:00 -0400

I took this photo Friday morning on the Paris subway just after I arrived for a highschool friend’s wedding. It’s a map of the RER, the public rapid transit system that extends into the suburbs, as opposed to the Metro, which only serves Paris “intra muros” as we say (like Atlanta ITP). Think of it as, the RER is like BART, where as the Metro is like Muni.

Anyway, the point is, it’s pretty extraordinary how awesome and how far the RER goes. Paris itself, ITP if you will, and how far you can get on the Metro, is just the first light grey circle in the middle. There are still 6 other zones beyond Paris. There are roughly 2.2 million people who live “intra muros,” and an total of 11.7 million in the Paris area.

That having been said, they could really work on their user experience. I got on the RER at the Charles de Gaulle Airport station, and the turnstyles were the regular teeny tiny kind that can barely fit luggage through. Then past the turnstyles, to get to the platform there was only one escalator, going up, which I guess is better than none at all, but come on, at the airport where people are gonna have luggage, you should really have elevators or escalators going both ways. Oh yeah, and since there were no signs about some trains being “fast” ones (they stop at fewer stations on their way into Paris) and others being regular ones (which apparantly take 40 mins to get into town), I would have never known not to take the slow train if it hadn’t been for a guy on it who asked where I was heading and suggested I take the fast one instead. Where were the designers & planners when all of this was done? Hmm.

PS the photo above isn’t great, if you’re curious and want more detail, here’s an online version of the map.

This seem pretty cool. Kind of reminds me of PostSecret, which I...

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 15:30:20 -0400

This seem pretty cool. Kind of reminds me of PostSecret, which I used to religiously check every Sunday back in the day.

Remember my post about the world’s 1st all-female street...

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:58:58 -0400

Remember my post about the world’s 1st all-female street art conf in Atlanta? HuffPo has writeup and awesome photos (mostly of existing murals)

For more photos of the murals currently underway by all 26 female artists, check out Living Wall’s photos on Facebook and on Instagram. So awesome!

Living Walls: World's first all-female street art conference

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 09:14:19 -0400

Living Walls: World's first all-female street art conference:

So, we might have voted against the transportation referendum, and it’s hard not to think about what Honey Boo Boo Child does for Georgia’s image… BUT, Atlanta is also hosting the world’s first all-female street art conference: Living Walls Conference 2012. Public art projects throughout the city? Lectures on urbanization and gender? YES PLEASE.

(Here’s a link to the Facebook event if the one above expires - can’t find a permalink for the events on the website)

This kind of stuff will hopefully restore my faith in the ATL little by little.

My thoughts the morning after ATL's Transportation Referendum

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 11:18:20 -0400

I was going to say this: That while I’m incredibly sad about the results of the transportation referedum, I’m too smart to be proud, and love Atlanta too much to just sulk and give up on it and PTFO. Because worse than my views (the “Yes” vote) losing, it would suck exponentially more to end up being “right” if what I feared from a “No” vote happens, and if Atlanta ends up declining as a city and just falls into decay, and to end up a few years from now a bitter person about how it could have been and about how much hope I had poured into this city up until now. I was going to say that I was gonna role up my sleeves and get involved however I could with helping to craft a Plan B that would hopefully involve more transit, not less, than what T-SPLOST already offered. However, this article below on how Governor Nathan Deal intends to step into transportation vacuum seems to crush even that hope. From the sounds of it, the likes of the Sierra Club etc won’t get that chance (to work on a plan B)?

The Plan B that staggered out of the governor’s office will be its polar opposite: Dramatically smaller, paid for with shrinking funds, and highly centralized. Projects will be hand-picked by a governor who intends to squeeze every penny available. And no matter what others might say today, don’t look for a sequel to the TSPLOST referendum. A second vote has no place in the governor’s Plan B. Instead, Chris Riley, the governor’s chief of staff, said traffic planners in regions across the state will be quickly asked to resubmit lists of road and rail proposals that require state and federal funding – figuring in an 8 percent decrease in federal funding. The governor has veto power over each list. Riley said that Deal intends to use that authority to direct cash to absolutely essential projects in metro Atlanta and elsewhere. “The state’s top transportation priority is the Ga. 400 and I-285 interchange,” Riley said.

Here’s a recap you can read about the campaigns for and against the transportation referendum and results from the election: “Distrustful of government and riven by differences, metro Atlanta voters on Tuesday rejected a $7.2 billion transportation plan that business leaders have called an essential bulwark against regional decline.”

Oh yeah. And it sounds like this is being considered a victory for the Tea Party. I don’t see much mention of it being a victory for people who didn’t think the plan included enough transit.