Saturday, April 30, 2011

Congestion



Last night I went to the REI center in Seattle (huge store!) to catch "Cascade presents: Clarence Eckerson Jr of Streetfilms". I joined the Cascade Bicycle club a couple of months ago to be able to get some discounts and participate in events, and this was something interesting that popped up. The films Eckerson and others have been creating at streetfilms.org are very informative and useful for helping communities to work towards transportation infrastructure changes (and they are free to use since they are Creative Commons licensed). If you have any interest in public transit, city planning, and especially bicycling (the Coppenhagen film is impressive) then you should peruse the hundreds of films they have at streetfilms.org


I suppose I've gotten more interested in street planning since I moved here, I suspect because I was fascinated by the bicycle lanes and infrastructure in and around Seattle, and I am impressed with how well the automobile drivers and cyclists cooperate in this city, compared to every other place I've lived.

I keep realizing that it would be difficult to have something really close to the transit system of Copenhagen or Amsterdam in a city like this, due to current design of most of the city, and the obscene amount of hills and general wetness, but it is very interesting to see the developments in other flatter cities like L.A., New York, Denver, and Portland.

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Spring Forward

I just realized how long it's been since a post. I don't have much to say other than Happy Spring! My first year in the NorthWest has taught me a little something about my grumble limits and being able to just push through as the weather up here tries to keep you down. May is almost here, and with it is the promise of realizing again why I liked it up here when we first moved.

Here are some pictures you might find pleasing.

One of the many breweries in Seattle


One of the episodes of Jump City: Seattle, a parkour show on G4TV was filmed here at Freeway Park in downtown Seattle









Harrison Hot Springs, Canada


Harrison Hot Springs, Canada - Yeti craves the 'Za!