Tag Archives: urban planning

Game Space

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Can urban environments be classified according to the types of games they facilitate? Roger Caillois created a typology of games titled Man, Play and Games. I learned about this from my recent reading of Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Games are an important way to facilitate what Mihaly calls “optimal experience” – a condition that he describes:

The optimal state of experience is one in which there is order in consciousness. This happens when psychic energy – or attention – is invested in realistic goals and when skills match the opportunities for action. (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990)

Play and games provide a shortcut to flow experiences by illustrating clear goals, immediate feedback and the conditions to develop skills. Caillois defined four types of games.

  • Agon, or competition
  • Alea, or chance
  • Mimicry, or role-playing
  • Ilinx, or vertigo

Do certain types of built environments support or discourage types of games? If so, can this knowledge help us to design and arrange spaces to increase the likelihood of optimal experiences?

I doubt that even the best physical conditions can generate true flow as Mihaly defines it. While Disney World can play with perception in a pleasant and subtle way, it is a personal decision to generate fulfilling experiences.

In the following weeks I plan to explore this question from a variety of angles to see if there are unifying factors that we can use to organize the built environment.

Snow Patrol – The failure of code enforcement for snow removal

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What good is a public transit system if its users find themselves at the mercy of snow covered sidewalks? This morning I crossed a busy road in Dublin, Ohio to reach a breakfast restaurant in a strip mall. All the pedestrian paths were covered by approximately three inches of snow even though many stores were open.

Municipal codes in snowy cities typically outline the requirements placed on property owners for clearing sidewalks and the penalties for ignoring hazardous conditions (Ann Arbor and Chicago are two good examples). But few towns have the resources to monitor the vast network of sidewalks inside their boundaries – as witnessed by a recent snow storm in Buffalo. Instead, code enforcers respond to complains from unhappy walkers – but these are few and infrequent. After all, who wants to talke the time to report a minor civil infraction when the evidence may melt away in a matter of hours and there is no incentive to notify anybody?

At this rate, snow-affected cities might be better off lending snow shoes to transit riders so they can overcome the risks of walking.

How can code enforcement be transformed into an activity that benefits pedestrians in this regard?

Perhaps community members need a better way to communicate timely information about property conditions. There is a danger that this method would encourage a “tattletale” element in society – vindictive people may use such a system to spite neighbors or competitors. A more ideal approach would help code enforcement officials identify the highest priorities for their limited attention – the un-shoveled walkways that affect the most pedestrians and transit riders. Communication from code enforcement to the reporters of information is also critical – if there is no feedback about the status of a complaint, then reporters will lose efficacy in their city officials.

 

Recharging our Cities – One Solar Parking Canopy at a Time

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At the intersection of I-96 and  the East Beltline in Grand Rapids there  a low profile, barely noticeable parking canopy uses solar power to energize highway lighting. I found this unique piece of parking technology tucked in between a chain hotel, bank, and some other highway-style developments. Two south-facing permanent awnings protect a 45 cars from sun and snow while also generating clean, renewable energy from the sun.

According to the official project page, MDOT spent $650,000 on the system which will produce 106,000 kWh annually. This energy savings will lead to $13,500 in reduced operating costs for lighting alone. You can see all the stats on this project on the helpful info-graphic (PDF). (Strangely, the one figure I can’t seem to find is the overall system size in kilowatts – a common way to get apples-to-apples comparisons across solar installations.)

The design of the canopy is spartan and utilitarian. The solar panels do not have an underlayment or sheathing – the panels themselves act as the only protection from the elements. In addition, the canopy has a low angle. The typical rule of thumb for solar panel installation is that they should be installed at roughly the same angle as your latitude. That said, there are optimal summer and winter tilt angles – however the panels installed at this site are far below the 42º recommended by solar energy system designers.  Continue reading →

Mapping Settlements to Shift the Balance of Power

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David Kilcullen creates maps to empower disenfranchised people in un-mapped places around the world. By combining social science and technology his firm solves tough problems in uncharted African communities.

Mapping as a social justice tool – this was not the path that the founder of Caerus Associates had in mind when he joined the Australian military 25 years ago. After working under David Petraeus through the Iraq war, David Kilcullen realized that collaborative relationships were necessary to get a real understanding of development patterns in remote locations. His company now uses crowdsourcing to map development patterns in Nigeria, Libya, and other nations where war or internal conflicts have stymied efforts to track settlement.

This firm has empowered communities in hostile areas by allowing them to stand up to over-reaching governments and multinational corporations. Before Caerus Associates, these communities were literally not on the map.

This bold company chooses to make many of its findings publicly available and not to carry weapons into dangerous environments. Kilcullen describes it as “two-thirds tech, one-third social science, with a dash of special operations.” The ultimate impact of intrepid start-ups like Caerus Associates is still an open question. Without strong civic infrastructure to continue tracking demographic patterns, will these efforts be in vain?

Hat tip to Metafilter for the link.

PS- this is post #100 for Macrospectra!

PPS – thanks to Planetizen for picking up this story.

One Stop Shopping for Urban Communication and Vehicle Charging

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V-Pole

Illustration of a V-Pole, Mathew Bulford

The clutter of wireless communication infrastructure that currently litters modern urban areas might soon be replaced with sleek, integrated and adaptable technology hubs. The idea behind the V-Pole in Vancouver, B.C. combines mobile phone coverage and wi-fi capability into a single piece of municipal infrastructure. Douglas Coupland, Canadian author and artist, teamed up with Vancouver’s mayor to present the V-Pole concept to the New Cities Summit.

As it stands, every new wireless communication protocol and carrier brings with it a new host of devices to propagate its frequency. These devices are mounted onto buildings, towers, and other pieces of infrastructure. The V-Pole flips the equation on its head: instead of the wireless technology as a nuisance and eyesore, it’s highlighted as an amenity and seamlessly built into the urban fabric.

In addition to the benefits resulting from consolidated communication infrastructure, the V-Pole can integrate with LED street lighting and electric vehicle charging stations. The aesthetic and functional improvements to public, urban spaces that could be achieved through the V-Pole are very fascinating. The one thing that seems to be missing (from the diagram) is a bike rack.

Strangely enough, this isn’t the first time that urban areas have been nearly buried by communications devices. The National Post (Vancouver) related the story of Thomas Edison’s invention of the Quadruplex Telegraph, which allowed multiple telegraph operators to use the same lines – thus preventing ”dense urban jungles of telegraph wires that came close to blocking out the sun.”

Douglas Coupland released the idea of the V-Pole as an open source platform. He says he has no intention of using this concept for financial gain. It is unclear what the next step will be for the V-Pole. It may be possible for municipalities to incentivize this technology platform over other conventional methods that wireless carriers are currently using, but that would likely take some serious commitment from city leadership.

Download the V-Pole fact sheet [pdf].

Hat tip to Planetizen.

Lucky to Walk Away

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The intersection where it happened.

No slamming or screetching or other impact noises alerted the other drivers that I had been hit by a car. The beige sedan practically glided through stopped just after the accident scene where my bike’s back wheel spun idly on Hill street.

The difference of six inches might have put the impact on my left leg instead of my front wheel. Our combined speeds were relatively low, and thankfully (due to an athletic jump away from my wrecked bike) I walked away from the bike unscathed.

I promise, I didn’t intend for this to be a series. If you’ve been tracking my twitter account then you know that I was in a bike/car accident today. It was 5:15 and I was in the bike lane on Packard (pictured above). A car turned right in front of me to head west on Hill. My front wheel bent irrepariably upon the impact with the quarterpanel of his Chevy.

Front wheel broken beyond repair. Fork twisted out of alignment.

As an urban planner, this incident raises compelling questions about the feasability of non-motorized transit. Can we really expect cars and bikes to co-habitate in a city? How should bike commuting be encouraged when there are serious safety risks?  What human factors considerations should be considered when designing “complete streets“?

The Ann Arbor Police arrived quickly (only to witness another car-on-car accident at this intersection). The officer did not know how to address the situation either. It’s not clear who has the right of way between the bike lane and the car lane when both are traveling in the same direction.

See also: Challenging the Commuters

America Minus Seventy Two Years

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Map showing the 1940 census tracts of eastern ...

Map showing the 1940 census tracts of eastern Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The US Census released a cache of raw information about the nation’s population in 1940. Due to massive advancements in information technology, the actual census forms filled out by Americans 72 years ago will be available for individuals to search and download onto their personal computers.

By one estimate, 87 percent of US citizens have a relative who was counted in the 1940 census. This data offers a wealth of information to researchers of ancestry, genealogy, and ethnographers.  In fact, Ancestry.com posted a count down clock on its homepage to mark the minute of the data’s availability.

Unexpectedly high interest in the records caused the servers of the US archives to crash- blacking out the website for much of April 2nd. However, as of this writing, the website appears to be working fine.

Unlike previous censuses, the enumerators collected information about home value, income, and the parents’ place of birth in 1940. Researchers of immigration, demographics, and human settlement will be able to apply this information to questions about America between the great depression and the second world war.

It’s no accident that these records were released 72 years after their creation. The National Archives are required by law to wait this period of time before making these files public. Dedicated genealogists have already marked their calendars for the release of the 1950 census data which should happen in 2022.

As a student of urban planning, I sat through many lectures on the census. Luckily, I studied at a time when the government started to make records available online. Still, the byzantine ways of the US Census website meant that it was used mostly for professional purposes (in other words: you had better get paid if you’re going to slog through data on Census.gov).

The announcement that paper records from 1940 are now available for download seems to have closed the circle. What was once the domain of bureaucrats, consultants, and statisticians is now openly available for anybody with access to a computer. The enumerators filling out forms in 1940 could barely imagine the world into which they would be released seven decades later.