Jason Varone
Jason Varone battles the streets everyday during a 9 mile commute on his bicycle from downtown Brooklyn to the Upper East Side. In addition to his efforts on Streetsblog, he is an artist making work related to the environment and technology. Examples of his work can be found at www.varonearts.org.
Recent Posts
How Much Potential Park(ing) Space is There Anyway?
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Writing for the Christian Science Monitor, Mark Clayton takes stock of the nation’s paved parking lots and asks "does America’s four-wheeled fleet really need all that extra elbow room?" This article comes on the heels of International Park(ing) Day, a one-day grassroots event in which urban dwellers all around the world transform metered, on-street parking […]
The Black Car Project: Filling the Autovoid
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Thinking of getting rid of your car? You could sell it, but that means somebody else is eventually going to drive it on our city’s streets, contributing to air pollution and congestion. The Black Car Collective has a better idea: entomb it in black stucco. The idea is instead of a functional art car we […]
Are East River Bridge Tolls the Better Way to Go?
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Writing for the Brooklyn Rail, Carolyn Konheim overviews the legacy of "Tammany-style" former Brooklyn Democratic leader Meade Esposito, and posits that the deceased "capo di tutti capi in New York politics" still exerts influence on city transportation policy. Konheim, who is a proponent of tolling the East River bridges, argues that Esposito’s record of protecting […]
World Cities Adding One Million People Every Week
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Syndicated columnist Neal Peirce asks whether our planet will be able to absorb the population "mega-surge" currently underway in Africa, Asia and Latin America. From Common Dreams: The problem is that the global population base has increased so radically that even seemingly modest birthrates can have momentous consequences. Joel Cohen (head of the Laboratory of […]
More Bike-Sharing Photos From Paris
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Luc Nadal of the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy snapped these photos of Parisians utilizing Velib, their city’s popular new bike-sharing service. As Eric Britton, founder of the Paris-based New Mobility Agenda notes in this video, the first half hour of bike rental is free.
Biking the Mean Streets of L.A.
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In Los Angeles County, bicycle-related accidents have increased in the past year. Road rage is an enormous problem, and as growing numbers of Angelinos choose bikes as transportation, clashes with motorists are on the rise. The Los Angeles Times reported in August: Scott Sing has had a tire iron hurled at him, a water bottle […]
Dude, Where’s My Bike Lane?
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Here is another clever video from San Francisco; this one chronicles the case of the missing bike lane. I think it is safe to say that gas stations and bike lanes don’t mix.
Japanese Automakers Settle Pollution Suit
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Companies have been routinely penalized for deceptive behavior regarding the safety of products like lead, asbestos and tobacco. The Japan Times reports on the latest public health menace to be challenged in courtrooms: The Tokyo High Court proposed Friday that seven automakers pay 1.2 billion yen to hundreds of asthma patients to settle a decade-long […]
Take the NYC Neighborhood Quality of Life Survey
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Citizens for NYC, whose mission is to stimulate and support self-help and civic action to improve the quality of life in New York City neighborhoods, invites you to participate in their new Neighborhood Quality of Life Survey. This is your chance to report on your neighborhood’s air quality, capacity for open spaces, its facilities for […]
A Few Minutes of Parking Permit Abuse With Andy Rooney
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60 Minutes curmudgeon Andy Rooney is grumpy about a lot of things but using an expired press placard to park an S.U.V. in front of a fire hydrant doesn’t seem to be one of them. It looks like Gawker scooped Uncivil Servants on this one: Over the weekend, a correspondent came across a white BMW […]
Brit’s Liberal Dems Want to Ban Cars Fueled By Gasoline
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Britain’s Liberal Democrat Party unveiled a detailed plan to tackle climate change which includes a ban on fossil fuel powered cars by 2040. The Guardian reports: The Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, and the party’s environment spokesman, Chris Huhne, unveiled the proposal today as part of a package of measures designed to make Britain […]
Video: The Velib Project
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More on the Vélib Project: this video shows the bicycles in action during the opening week. The Vélib was an instant success with Parisians clocking one million rides by the end of week two. The video is presented by Eric Britton, founder of the Paris-based New Mobility Agenda, who says "I have looked at more […]