Clarence Eckerson Jr.
Clarence Eckerson Jr. is the Director of Video Production for NYCSR's StreetFilms and producer of bikeTV. He loves the color purple, chocolate chip cookies, and enjoys walking, biking, and taking transit. He has never owned a driver's license.
Recent Posts
Governor Cuomo Won’t Ride the Subway, But Cardboard Cut-Out Cuomo Will
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The advocates at the Riders Alliance have been campaigning for many months to get Governor Andrew Cuomo to ride the NYC subways. The governor’s office has refused to answer any of their inquiries. So on Thursday, they did the next best thing: They brought along a cardboard cut-out of his likeness to see how straphangers would react. […]
It’s Smart to Be Dense
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As the world’s population continues to urbanize, our cities have two options for growth: densify or sprawl. To accommodate a more populous and more prosperous world, the spread-out, car-dependent model of the 20th century must change. In this video, the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) and Streetfilms team up to bring you the most important reasons for building […]
Watch 18 Years of Car-Free Parks Advocacy and Progress in NYC
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The exciting news about the big expansion of car-free zones in Central Park and Prospect Park is a milestone in a very long campaign. The movement for car-free parks goes back nearly 50 years — much farther than the videos I’ve posted here. But it wasn’t that long ago that car-free hours in these parks were the exception, rather than the […]
London’s First Open Streets
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Five years ago, David Love experienced Summer Streets in NYC and was so captured by the warmth and excitement he decided to bring open streets to London. The starter event was held in the borough of Southwark, on Great Suffolk Street, and featured music, dancing, food, art and, most important, activities for children and families […]
The Cambridgeshire Guided Busway
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Just when you think you’ve seen everything in the transportation world, you encounter something different. That happened to me on an infrastructure tour in Cambridge, England, when my guides showed be this guided busway. The video only shows a short segment of The Busway, but it’s fascinating. The wheels of the bus run between grooved concrete slabs along an old […]
Varick Street Gets a Granite Bike Path
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As any bicyclist can tell you, a bumpy ride on cobblestones is no fun. In NYC, the DOT has implemented its first granite bikeway on one block of Varick Street to make it easier for cyclists and to keep them off the sidewalks. You will almost never see me on a sidewalk in NYC for any reason, […]
The Philadelphia Bike Story
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Of U.S. cities with more than a million residents, the one where people bike the most is Philadelphia. In 2012, the U.S. Census estimated Philadelphia’s bicycle commute rate at 2.3 percent [PDF], higher than Chicago (1.6 percent) and New York (1.0 percent). It’s just about always been that way. That comes as a surprise to […]
Freeways Without Futures: I-345 in Dallas
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In this Streetfilm, Patrick Kennedy, founder of A New Dallas, talks about the movement to replace Interstate 345 in downtown Dallas with connected streets and walkable development. Shot at the “Freeways Without Futures” session at the Congress for New Urbanism’s recent conference in Dallas, the piece provides views of I-345 from heights most people never get to see. Kennedy was joined […]
Bike-Share Comes to Philly With the Launch of Indego
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On Thursday, Philadelphia’s long wait for a bike-share system came to an end with the launch of the 60-station, 600-bike Indego system, which is set to expand in the near future. At the kickoff, volunteers and officials — including Mayor Michael Nutter — rode about half of those bikes to their docking stations. I got […]
Right of Way Memorializes Victims of Traffic Violence
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On Saturday, Right of Way posted silhouettes along a Kent Avenue construction fence representing all 264 people known to have lost their lives to traffic violence in NYC in 2014. Each image was identical, save for victims’ names and crash dates. Smaller silhouettes were posted to represent children killed by drivers. It was a very emotional scene as members of Families […]
Exploring the Streets of Stockholm
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In 2014, I got the chance to visit Stockholm near the end of an incredibly hot summer. It’s a charming and walkable place with a downtown buzzing with people. There’s an easygoing rhythm to the city. After dark the pedestrian streets fill with both residents and tourists out for a walk, even after most stores and restaurants close. I met up with a great mix of […]
National Bike Summit 2015: Talking “Bikes Plus”
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The theme of this year’s National Bike Summit in Washington, DC, is “Bikes+” or, as the League of American Bicyclists puts it, “how bikes can add value to other movements and how our movement can expand to serve broader interests.” We decided to have some fun with the theme and ask attendees what they would […]