National Links: Footpaths to the Future!

Each week we write a piece with the most interesting articles of the week for Greater Greater Washington and syndicate it to Urban Milwaukee and Streets.mn.  We take the most clicked posts of the week from The Overhead Wire daily and write about the most interesting ones.  Follow beyond the crease to read up on some of this week’s most interesting pieces.

Regulating bike share in Seattle: After becoming the first testing ground for dockless bike share, the Seattle Department of Transportation has been looking at other cities seeking to write appropriate regulations. Figuring out parking location, operations fees, and enforcement will be key to ensuring sustainability of the mode and the program. (David Gutman | Seattle Times)

Distilling down street networks: Geographer Geoff Boeing has taken street networks from cities around the world and distilled them into a simple histogram where they can be compared to each other. They are super fun to look at and compare, and provide a bit of history of the cities. (Henry Grabar | Slate)

The footpath of the future: Footpaths are super low tech, but face the same pressures from disruption as other transportation modes. Often cluttered with utility poles and other obstacles, the advent of lower-speed electric mobility devices and innovations such as delivery robots are making these spaces complicated — and endangered. (David Levinson | Foreground)

The space beneath our cities: Under our cities are utilities, tunnels, and other items of importance. But who owns the spaces above and below the land? In the United States and England, it’s owned by the land holder unless separated and sold. In many countries the answer isn’t so simple. Programs to map out what can’t be seen are underway. (Bradley L. Garrett | Guardian Cities)

California emissions lowered: In California, climate pollutants have fallen to levels not seen since 1990. The goal of the state’s ambitious AB32 was to get below 1990 levels by 2030. This seems possible now, but there’s still a lot of work to do. The next big target is transportation emissions which make up 41% of all emissions and increased 2% in 2016. (California Air Resources Board)

Quote of the Week

“There are more than 100 students on my [architecture] course, and only three of us are black. Initially, it was a shock to feel so under-represented. I grew up in London, where three in 10 people aren’t white.”

English architect Helen Taiwo discussing diverty in the profession. (Karen Glaser | Guardian)