John Seabrook, in a New Yorker article from a few years back called The Slow Lane, discusses the problem of traffic and its possible solutions. This article, which focuses on New York City, is bursting with some great information about traffic-engineering, and traffic in general. It includes discussions of congestion pricing, the history and science [...]
Category Archives: Ideas
Joel Kotkin on ‘Superstar’ Cities
The Wall Street Journal had an article yesterday called the Myth of the Superstar Cities. This op-ed piece, by Joel Kotkin, discusses the concept of American ‘superstar’ cities, such as New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Boston, and how they are generally considered ‘better’ in ways such as economic growth, trendiness and opportunities. [...]
Also posted in City Comments closed
Megapolisomancy
Now here’s an odd one: megapolisomancy is a fictional occult science that predicts and alters the future using large cities. The concept for megapolisomancy appears in Fritz Lieber‘s novella Our Lady of Darkness: At any particular time of history there have always been one or two cities of the monstrous sort — viz., Babel or Babylon, [...]
Also posted in Books Comments closed
NY Sun: Robert Moses
The New York Sun has a special feature devoted to Robert Moses and his impact on New York City. The piece that jumped out the most for me was Gary Shapiro’s Small Models for a Towering Builder, frankly because it is about models of New York, and I am a sucker for models and maps. [...]
Heat Island Effect
The Heat Island Effect is the elevation of the temperature around cities by up to 10°F, as compared to neighboring rural areas. These cities are then referred to as urban heat islands. From 1998 until 2003, the EPA created the Urban Heat Island Pilot Project to help work on heat reduction techniques for cities. The [...]
Gibrat’s Law
Gibrat’s Law states that the proportionate growth of a city (or corporation or other social entity) is independent of its size. Here’s an example from Economy Professor: If a company with sales of $10m doubles in size over a period of time, it is likely the same will happen for a company beginning with sales [...]
Also posted in Math Comments closed
1942 Time Magazine’s ‘Biology of Cities’
In 1942, Time Magazine had a brief piece entitled Biology of Cities, about the organic nature of cities. Cities, like organisms, can grow and die, and the architect Jose Luis Sert felt that the continuing life of a city is by no means a given. But he does not give up all hope: But Mr. [...]
Also posted in People Comments closed
New York and Lack of Urban Innovation
Robert Sullivan, in his NYT op-ed piece entitled The City that Never Walks, discusses how New York City has lost its vanguard position in terms of urban innovation. Sullivan focuses on its pedestrian friendliness (or lack thereof), and shows how other cities have been eclipsing New York in their new ideas and approaches to urban [...]
Also posted in City Comments closed
Visual Complexity: complex system visualizations
Visual Complexity is a collection and clearinghouse for hundreds of depictions of complex networks, from all over the Internet. Among the many categories, there is one devoted entirely to transportation networks. Here is the goal of the site, in their own words: VisualComplexity.com intends to be a unified resource space for anyone interested in the [...]
Also posted in Maps Comments closed
Lego City of the Future
The citizens of Oslo were asked to build the City of the Future using Lego bricks. It’s incredible what can emerge from a group with no specialized Lego expertise (no Lego Master Builders, as far as I can tell). Quite the wisdom of the crowds.
Also posted in Photos Comments closed