Showing posts with label boston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label boston. Show all posts
Sunday, May 3, 2009

boston by bike

photos from three trips i took between apr 18-25.








Tuesday, April 21, 2009

boston marathon slideshow



Boston Marathon on Apr. 20. Photos taken in and around Coolidge Corner and along Beacon Street in Brookline.
Sunday, February 8, 2009

Car-free in Beantown? Not soon enough

Enrique Peñalosa knows happiness. And he knows it doesn't come in traffic jams, parallel parking or pedestrians sprinting across streets to avoid being hit by cars.

Peñalosa, former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, at his talk at Bikes Not Bombs Saturday brought up ways our happiness is tied to where we live: the city. Peñalosa says parks, bigger sidewalks, recognized bike lanes (ahem, Mass. Ave. drivers) and convenient public transit contribute to urban happiness.

His solutions in Bogotá correspond to issues that our City Hall could easily remedy if Bostonians banded together. The car-free day implemented in Bogotá and later in New York City would only take a decree from Mayor Menino. Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of a mayor doing it for us, so we have to do it ourselves. If grassroots groups like Bikes Not Bombs, MassBike and Livable Streets could get city's Boston Bikes on board, a car-free day could happen this summer.

NYC's car-free days
were only in the morning, 7a-1p, and on only one street, a six-mile stretch of Park Avenue. Boston could easily incorporate this into a summer ritual, like NYC and Seattle did last year, or a yearly event, like Bogotá every February.

Storrow Drive free of traffic on a warm Sunday afternoon? Now that's happiness.

Photo courtesy: Boston Globe