cricket-lover, foodie, transport urbanist and general academic-y type person - interested in urban development, regeneration, liveability and sustainability
Leeds/Manchester/Durham
Joined May 2013
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Kit Allwinter retweeted
Just to be clear your driving habit is heavily subsidised. This is especially true for the 46% of London households and the 22% of UK households who don’t own a car
In summary for every mile a motorist drives, taxpayers subsidise 21p outside London, up to ÂŁ1 inside.
Kit Allwinter retweeted
this was my entire masters thesis at berkeley, “the supply and demand of human-scale neighborhoods in america”
the data absolutely supports this. if we don’t build more walkable neighborhoods, the few that we have become luxury items—not because they are any more expensive to build or maintain (the opposite, in fact) but because they are artificially scarce and highly desirable
I think a lot of rural folks don't get why the whole "it's illegal to build this type of walkable dense urbanism" thing ultimately impacts rural places.
If our few walkable dense city areas are "museumized" by regs that make it illegal to build new ones, they become luxury items. Living in Chelsea is a global luxury product partially because you can't build a new Chelsea-shaped neighborhood anywhere in the US. If STL, Albany, and Bakersfield had similar neighborhoods, Chelsea would only be the best of many. But because they don't, it's simply the best the US has to offer.
Consequently, you have people clamoring to get there because it is the most objectively desirable iteration of urban life ever created in North America.
If Peoria had a "Chelsea-style" neighborhood, maybe Peoria's brightest kids wouldn't run off to NYC or whatever. The market very clearly wants more walkable dense urbanism, but because it's illegal to build now, people flock to the few places where such urban design is now grandfathered in. This is one major factor in rural and small-city "brain drain" if I were to guess.
Furthermore, if the cost of desirable urban neighborhoods goes up, people get priced out. What do they do? They often wind up living in less-desirable parts of cities, barely hanging on -- until they say "screw it" and go for the next-best-thing after Chelsea: Walkable dense "quaint country towns." If you can't afford Chelsea, Montpelier ain't so bad, and Boulder CO will do.
I.e. if cities like Des Moines could have a truly dense, walkable portion of the city that was pleasant and beautiful, maybe Vermont wouldn't have turned into a giant yuppie haven where you the median home price is $300k.
Kit Allwinter retweeted
I love cars so much I wish they were much larger and carried like 50 people and went on a set route every few minutes.
Kit Allwinter retweeted
"Elevated railways with a capacity of 40,000 people per hour are being torn down while elevated highways with a capacity of 6,000 per hour are being erected" -Transit Journal, 1935
Kit Allwinter retweeted
After eleven years, it's time to update my London Underground concentric-circles-and-spokes map. Completely redrawn from centre to edges, it's so much better than before, and more geographically accurate than the official map.
Kit Allwinter retweeted
The best way to remake a city is through transport.
By changing how people move, Montréal is changing the spaces they use; transitioning from hostile, asphalt- and car-dominated places to ones that are more vibrant, welcoming, and resilient to the challenges of the 21st century.
ALT A man in casual summer attire rides a shared bicycle along a cycle path running through a park with a colourful swing in Montreal.
ALT A group of people in casual summer attire congregate around tables, chairs and umbrellas in a public plaza in Downtown Montreal.
ALT A temporary mini-golf course surrounded by benches, planters, and colourful street art on a disused industrial site in Montreal.
ALT People walk, sit, and converse along a pedestrianized shopping street lined with trees, furniture, art, and planters in Montreal.
Kit Allwinter retweeted
Hear me out.
We could simply make traffic-free routes accessible..
ALT Recumbent trike trying to squeeze through an a-frame barrier on a walking, wheeling and cycling path.
Kit Allwinter retweeted
You NEVER forget your first bollard.
#WorldBollardAssociation
Kit Allwinter retweeted
Your periodic reminder that town planning used to be an Olympic event.
John Hughes won gold for Team GB in 1932.
Kit Allwinter retweeted
Jennifer Lopez is the perfect advocate for normalising cycling.
Glamour magazine claims J.Lo’s outfits are not practical for cycling, but with a comfortable step through bike, chain guard and mudguards, you can very easily dress for the destination, not the journey.
ALT Jennifer Lopez on a white bicycle
ALT Jennifer Lopez on a white bicycle
ALT Jennifer Lopez cycling with friends
ALT Glamour: Jennifer Lopez Has a Wildly Impractical but Adorable Bike Riding Outfit
Kit Allwinter retweeted
1/12 Exciting news: I have been appointed Professor of Transport Data Science @ITSLeeds Absolutely stoked, honoured and inspired. A small change in job title but a big step in my career 🎉🙏🚀
Kit Allwinter retweeted
6. This wasn't just 'nice to have' by taking these moves expert transport modellers @ITPtweet found this would mean
🚶‍♂️9,300 more walking and cycling trips
đźš—Less congestion on local roads with 12,000 fewer vehicle trips
🌳Resulting in 2,000 tonnes less of CO2 being emitted
Kit Allwinter retweeted
🧵With targets to build 1.5m new homes @createstreets today call for a new approach to planning new town extensions
For too long we've defaulted to concreting over the countryside with sprawling housing estates driven by prediction-led transport planning
thetimes.co.uk/article/we-mu…
Kit Allwinter retweeted
Stadiums may be the single the best showcase for the space inefficiency of cars versus people.
Look how much space is dedicated to car parking vs how much space the people in the stands actually occupy. – at St Louis, MO
ALT An aerial photo of dodger Stadium showing the stands being packed in the parking lot full, and the footprint of the parking lot being significantly larger than out of the stadium itself
Kit Allwinter retweeted
Not long ago, the street outside Valencia’s Cabanyal public market was an absolute dumping ground for cars. Now it’s an inviting public square. Change is possible!
ALT Google street view. Cars double parked.
ALT Photo taken by me. Sunny day with trees and parked bikes.
Kit Allwinter retweeted
Athens by night. Do you think the shop & restaurant owners would make more money if they let the cars back in? What your eyes and what common sense tells you is true, is. If…
Kit Allwinter retweeted
đź’¨ In large cities, in advanced economies poor air quality costs the equivalent of approximately 2% of GDP.
For Paris that’s 19.6 billion USD.
These costs show up in taxes, life expectancy, productivity, everything.
It’s well worth improving. 🚲
Air pollution is the transportation elephant in the room, and beyond the bitter fights to curb motor traffic in Paris, one essential fact remains:
Nitrogen dioxide levels have been steadily declining across the city; reducing rates of premature mortality and respiratory disease.
ALT A display from an exhibition at Paris City Hall that documents the various city-building projects Mayor Anne Hidalgo has undertaken in the past decade.