YES, that would be the very same Jan Gehl mentioned in a post last week! At this lecture he will propose an inspiring vision for New York City’s future, based on his 30-year international career “making neighborhoods lively, diverse and safe”. He also has a great sense of humor!
For starters, Gehl posits that “Half of Manhattan Trips Could Be Done By Bike”::
REPORTER: Jan Gehl is an urban designer, also from Copenhagen, who advises the city’s Department of Transportation. Like his friend and mentor, the late Jane Jacobs, Gehl speaks of the ‘humanization’ of the city’s streets, which he thinks have become ‘infested’ by cars. But Gehl thinks Manhattan, given its density and flatness, is perfectly positioned for a wide-scale conversion.
GEHL: It would be a piece of cake to have a really high class bicycle system which could take care of half of the commuting in Manhattan.
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In Europe increasingly we are trying to make the cities so that they are wonderful places, where you like to go out and sit and have meals and watch your fellow citizens, talk with them in spaces which are not completely filled with noise.
photo: Transportation Alternatives
Here are the event details (admission is free, but RSVP is required)… if you can’t make it, look for a report on Gehl’s presentation here later in the week.
I thought that you and the people that visit your site might like to read this article in the NY Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/us/05bike.html?em&ex=1194498000&en=38f13eaa3cc58eff&ei=5087
It’s titled “In Portland, Cultivating a Culture of Two Wheels”. It a nice article about the businesses that have grown up with friendly bike culture in Portland, OR.
Brooklyn is ripe for a “Portland†type bike culture and could show Manhattan the way.
thanks john! i actually read that article and enjoyed it a lot. it was the most emailed article yesterday, so someone is paying attention!