Gum Wall in Seattle's Post Alley

Eric Fredericks • Monday June 30, 2008

I haven’t been posting much lately, but I want to start getting in the habit of doing so again. So, here’s a fun way to kick it off… with gum!

A friend of mine just returned from Seattle and showed me some photos of an alley covered in gum. I had visited the same alley before and shot these photos. It’s called Post Alley and it’s located right next to the famous Pike Place Market. It’s quite a site to see, so if you visit Pike Place, make sure you check out Post Alley—there’s more to see than just gum.

Of course, Seattle is an amazing city, and is probably in my top five most walkable cities in the US. Please check out my photos of the Gum Wall and other photos of Seattle (Note: I have hundreds of photos in this photo set that are not yet public, but will release more in addition to these over time).

 

Category: Culture •• Region: Seattle •• Comments [1]

ETE: On DANISH Ability to Alter Travel Behavior...

Lauren Hilliard • Friday September 1, 2006

I suppose this title may not be completely accurate, but I wanted to analyze my dear friends here in Copenhagen a bit. The family I am staying with here moved from Seattle last summer for a job opportunity with the World Health Organization. It has been fun staying in this nice neighborhood filled with embassy employees and ambassadors, and just five train stops away from the city centre.

I am always curious about how people’s travel behavior changes when their environment is altered, so I thought it would be fun to document some of my observations and quotes from the family. I think the Merchants are a fine example of how an American family can completely change their travel habits when placed in a new community with great integrated transport. Just like many Americans – they are a family of five, juggle sports and activities schedules among the three kids, like to travel on the weekends, saw the need to have two cars and a motorcycle to get around Tacoma, and have more Starbucks mugs that anyone I know (even one with the original mermaid logo). And now this family is living in Copenhagen with no private car and a garage filled with bicycles!

Perhaps it is Denmark’s 180% tax on car purchases that deterred them from getting a car here; or maybe it wasn’t worth the hassle to ship their cars oversees; but it seems to be that they simply didn’t see the need to have a private automobile.

I found this fascinating and asked each member of the family their thoughts on living car-free:

Robb (parent) – Hated being so dependent on their cars in Tacoma but felt that it was too difficult to do things like grocery shopping without one. Says if they move back to America that living somewhere where they don’t need a car would be a priority.

Julie (parent) – Loves the fact that all the walking she does as part of her daily routine keeps her in great shape! Walking Julian to school and walking to the grocery store are just two things that she does car-free now.

Garrett (15 years old) – Despite the freedom of mobility that the trains give him, he wishes they did have a car so that he could haul around large objects instead of walking with them. Though his mother says he never complains about it – and since you can’t get your license until age 18, all of his peers also ride the train everywhere.

Nicole (13 years old) – Really enjoys not owning a family car. Not having a bike in Tacoma, she loves toting around Cupid (her pug) in the front basket of her new, metallic-pink bicycle.

Julian (7 years old) – While sitting on the S-Tog tonight with Julian I asked him if he missed having a car to which he replied, “I like riding the train.� I am going as a supervisor on his class field trip to Dyrehavn tomorrow, and all the kids will be boarding the train to get there.

I think the Merchants are a great success story for transportation and land use planners!

This article is part of the Exploring Transportation in Europe series.

 

Category: Culture •• Region: Denmark •• comments

ETE: On SWISS Marketing...

Lauren Hilliard • Friday July 28, 2006

Slow Up

I went to the grocery store the other day to purchase WAY too many bars of Swiss chocolate and the paper bag available for bagging had people bicycling and skating on it. After asking my new friend for a translation, she told me that there was a list of different Swiss cities down the side with dates next to them. The dates were to inform people of when each city’s “car-less” day was for the summer months. I don’t think it’s completely ‘car-free’ but these are days when there are big awareness events related to bicycling, skating, and walking.

Perhaps Sacramento could have a “car-less” day, since a “car-free” day would never actually happen.

Coolest paper bag I’ve ever picked up!

This article is part of the Exploring Transportation in Europe series.

 

Category: Culture •• Region: Switzerland •• Comments

ETE: On SWISS Walkability...

Lauren Hilliard • Thursday July 27, 2006

There’s lovely walking paths everywhere here…this is one of our neighborhood paths separated by hedges. I spent hours walking around the Lake of Zurich last night on a wonderful path next to the water. Zurich is currently in the process of closing down many of their city centre roads for new trams, and expanding their walking paths.

There’s a different mentality here about letting your kids walk 500 yards. Lynne was expressing her disbelief that American moms drive their kids 500 yards to their school bus stops instead of walking them or letting them go themselves.

Children also are required by national law to come home for a 12-1:45pm lunch break — the main meal in Switzerland. Perhaps between the walking to school or bus stop, and access to healthier food at lunchtime, explains why Swiss children aren’t known for high obesity rates.

This article is part of the Exploring Transportation in Europe series.

 

Category: Culture •• Region: Switzerland •• Comments

ETE: On SWISS Culture...

Lauren Hilliard • Thursday July 27, 2006

My friend was commenting at the train station that the Swiss (at least in the cities) tend to stay to themselves and aren’t particularly that friendly on transit. I found this funny, since I’ve heard comments that the American mentality of personal independence is partly why so many of us drive alone instead of getting on public transit. Perhaps it doesn’t have to do with culture?

This article is part of the Exploring Transportation in Europe series.

 

Category: Culture •• Region: Switzerland •• Comments

Exploring Transportation in Europe

Lauren Hilliard • Thursday July 27, 2006

What makes a community walkable?

Whether a student, professor, or professional in the field of transportation or urban design, we have all tried to wrap our hands around this question. We’ve also all heard at some point that those Europeans seem to walk around their cities and neighborhoods quite a bit! I would also say that I’ve come across ‘the culture’ argument more than once – perhaps an efficient transit system and numerous bicycle/pedestrian paths make no difference. Would people still be walking their streets if their communities were designed differently? While this may be partly true, I am not completely convinced this is the case.

It has been fascinating in so many ways staying with a family this past week in Uster, Switzerland. So much of their lifestyle includes transporting themselves, just as in America of course, only it seems to be a much more ‘active transport.’ Walking or bicycling down the wanderweg to the lake for a swim or to watch the sunset is just something everyone does. Commuting on the bus and train from Uster into Zurich on workday mornings is just the way you get to work. And one thing I think that is important to remember: it’s still perfectly acceptable to drive – though I should note that this family of 6 only has one vehicle that they share.

I also find it interesting that the idea of funding public transportation and advocating pedestrian rights is entirely independent of people’s political views. Whether liberal or conservative in personal perspective, everyone seems to agree that transit should be affordable, efficient, and accessible to everyone. Perhaps putting politics aside contributes to walkable communities…

I have been documenting my experiences on Swiss transport and community design on a blog called www.movingeurope.blogspot.com and if you are interested in seeing pictures of what I am writing about, I encourage you to visit the site.

Tschuess!

Lauren Hilliard

Student 'in transit' to Professional

Update: Here is a list of the articles that I wrote as a part of this series:
Exploring Transportation in Europe
On SWISS Culture…
On SWISS Walkability…
On SWISS Smart Growth…
On SWISS Marketing…
On SWISS Bicycling…
On FRENCH Bike Paths…
On GERMAN Women and Transport…
Fahrrader in Freiburg
On GERMAN Pedestrian Zones…
On GERMAN High-Speed Rail…
On GERMAN City Bicycles…
On GERMAN Traffic Lights…
On GERMAN Hauptbahnhofen…
On DANISH Ability to Alter Travel Behavior…
On DANISH Bicycling Attire…
On DANISH Trains…
On DANISH City Bikes…

 

Category: Culture •• Region: General •• Comments

www.flickr.com

Visit our Photo Gallery

Post a Job!
$25 for 45 days