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
The Rise of Open Streets
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Streetfilms has been documenting the open streets movement for over seven years, beginning with our landmark film in 2007 on Bogota’s Ciclovia, currently the most viewed Streetfilm of all time. The next year, Mike Lydon of The Street Plans Collaborative decided to get an open streets event going in Miami, which led to his research […]
In Portland, Every Day Is Walk and Bike to School Day
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In many areas of the country the statistics are bleak — only a small fraction of children bike or walk to school. But Portland has bucked the trend: The number of kids using their feet to get to school is up 25 percent since 2006! Portland makes it happen through a unique blend of infrastructure, […]
Groningen: The World’s Cycling City
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It’s no secret that just about anywhere you go in the Netherlands is an incredible place to bicycle. And in Groningen, a northern city with a population of 190,000 and a bike mode share of 50 percent, the cycling is as comfortable as in any city on Earth. The sheer number of people riding at […]
A Look at Pittsburgh’s Bike Parking and Presumptive New Mayor
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The future looks bright for Pittsburgh for 2014. As they prepare to host the Pro Walk Pro Bike Pro Place conference next September, last week Project for Public Spaces held a one-day summit in advance of next year’s big event. One thing Pittsburgh is doing is creating some innovative and fun bike parking facilities. As […]
Experience Montreal’s Car-free Rue St. Catherine & Bustling Bike Rush Hour
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While spending a week in Montreal, my wife and I stayed right along the Rue Sainte Catherine, which we discovered is closed to motor vehicles from May 15 through September 6 in two main sections. The first, a mile-long stretch that’s been car-free in the summer since 2008, has a lot of restaurants and is […]
Strong Towns’ Chuck Marohn: Why Suburban Growth Is a Ponzi Scheme
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Chuck Marohn cofounded the non-profit Strong Towns in 2009. Since then he has steadily built an audience for his message about the financial folly of car-centric planning and growth. The suburban development pattern that has prevailed since the end of World War II has resulted in what Marohn calls “the growth Ponzi scheme” — a system that […]
Salt Lake City: A Red State Capital Builds Ambitious Transit
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According to Congress for New Urbanism President John Norquist, the Salt Lake City area has the fastest growing rail system in America. And as Streetsblog’s Angie Schmitt pointed out last month, “It’s the only city in the country building light rail, bus rapid transit, streetcars and commuter rail at the same time.” Since the late 1990s, SLC […]
GOP Mayor Greg Ballard: Making Bicycling a Priority in Indianapolis
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Across the nation, many big-city mayors of both political parties are embracing bikes and livable streets. As you’ll see, Indianapolis’ Mayor Greg Ballard, a Republican, believes that making city cycling safer and more enjoyable will attract young people and families and benefit business. Ballard has expanded the number of miles of bike lanes from one (in […]
Streetfacts: Roads Are a Money Losing Proposition
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The majority of the roads and highways built in America are simply bad investments. Continuing this pattern will only ensure that wasteful projects consume larger chunks of our federal, state, and local budgets, without addressing the real need for transportation options. This Streetfacts chapter has a bit more math than usual, but we think we’ve made an […]
Streetfacts: Americans Are Driving Less
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We continue our Streetfacts series by looking at the data on driving in the U.S. Per-capita driving has declined every year since 2005. That’s not a blip, it’s now an 8-year trend. The reason? Neither the state of the economy nor changes in gas prices offer a satisfactory explanation. Social preferences and demographic shifts seem to […]
Streetfacts: Bike Lanes Aren’t Just for Big Cities
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Welcome to the first of five shorts we’re calling Streetfacts. With Streetfacts, we’ll be highlighting developing trends affecting transportation and planning policy, as well as addressing the cost of “bad practices” that prevent us from shifting to a more balanced transportation network that supports more livable places. As Streetfilms viewers know, many of the big […]
Voices From the National Women’s Bicycling Forum
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For the second year running, the Women’s Bicycling Forum kicked off the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC. About 300 people attended, and Streetfilms got to take their pulse on the state of bicycling for women and collect some suggestions about how to grow the number of women who ride. Here’s a sampling of what […]