Streetfilms: A Streetside Chat With Jan Gehl

By Brad Aaron
Nov 24, 2008

In November 2006, Danish planner Jan Gehl met Streetsblog Publisher Mark Gorton in Times Square to reflect on the state of the city’s public spaces. In this Streetfilm by Clarence Eckerson, EIC Aaron Naparstek catches up with Gehl in the new Madison Square to talk about what has changed in the intervening two years, and what can still be done to make New York a world-class pedestrian city.

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Times Square Flashback: Revisit the Bad Old Days With Streetfilms

By Stephen Miller | Aug 21, 2015

New Yorkers might have forgotten just how bad the bad old days were in Times Square. Gridlock blocked crosswalks. Pedestrians were relegated to crush levels on the sidewalks. It wasn’t a pleasant place to be. Relive the nightmare with this Streetfilm from 2006, in which Streetsblog publisher Mark Gorton interviews Danish architect and public space expert […]

Jan Gehl on Sustainable Transport in Copenhagen and NYC

By Ben Fried | Dec 15, 2009

While in Copenhagen to film the Danish capital’s world-beating bike infrastructure, Streetfilms’ Elizabeth Press caught up with urban planner extraordinaire Jan Gehl for a brief, canal-side chat. In this clip, Gehl explains how cycling and transit fit within the city’s sustainability agenda, and why "unnecessary transportation" threatens the global climate. With Mayor Bloomberg in Copenhagen […]

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Talking Headways Podcast With Special Guest Jan Gehl

By Tanya Snyder | Feb 7, 2014

Danish architect and urban planner Jan Gehl, who led Copenhagen’s turn away from car-domination toward streets and public spaces for people, is on a U.S. tour. I got to sit down with him this week in Washington. Where traffic engineers count cars, Gehl and his colleagues count people. So instead of telling city officials to […]

The 12 Most Influential Streetfilms of All Time: Number 11

By Clarence Eckerson Jr. | Sep 2, 2016

With the 10-year benefit for Streetsblog and Streetfilms coming up on November 14 (get your tickets here!), we are counting down the 12 most influential Streetfilms of all-time, as determined by the impresario himself, Clarence Eckerson Jr. This week: Streetsblog publisher Mark Gorton sits down with Enrique Peñalosa, then-former and current mayor of Bogota. Mark […]

StreetFilms: Upper West Side Streets Renaissance With Jan Gehl

By Aaron Naparstek | Nov 7, 2007

A standing room-only crowd turned out for last night’s Upper West Side Streets Renaissance event with Danish urban designer Jan Gehl and DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. All in all, it was an inspiring night and we’ll have a more detailed write-up later today. Though Gehl wasn’t allowed to get too specific about the work he […]

Jan Gehl Joins Advocates to Talk Public Plazas in Low-Income Neighborhoods

By Stephen Miller | Feb 6, 2014

Ask a New Yorker about the city’s plazas, and they’re likely to first think of Times Square. While the city’s marquee pedestrian space gets most of the attention, there are dozens of neighborhood-scale plazas across the city, with dozens more in the works in communities requesting them from DOT. Not all local groups have the […]