New Thinking on Urban Transportation
IT’S TIME TO CHANGE. It was time to re-imagine the way people move through a city. Time to rethink our culture of cars and take back the streets for pedestrians, bicyclists and nature. Time to go—in a healthier, more earth-friendly and beautiful way. Re:Route went looking for ideas to make traveling through an urban city block a more moving experience. We went looking for a revolutionary plan for going from point A to point B, in a more green way.You can move people with your ideas. And Re:Route is out to prove it.
The Panel of judges
David Baker
FAIA, LEED APDavid Baker Architects
Vicki Vlachakis
General MotorsGlobal Advance Design Studio
Ron Gremban
California Cars Initiative
themes that emerged
Arriving Someplace Inventive
How can people and things move through a city block, safely, sustainably, equitably and beautifully? That was the question we posed with Re:Route, our second international competition.
The results were, unsurprisingly, very moving. But what was surprising to our panel of expert judges was the depth of well-executed and visionary plans that emerged—plans that went beyond “personal flying helicopters” and took a more feasible, sophisticated approach.
The solutions were varied and diverse, but some interesting trends our experts noticed included:
• Reclaiming the typical city block back for children—and away from the automobile
• Integration of bicycles and mass transit
• Use of technology and social networking to foster community
• Tiny, aggregated sources of human powered energy production to propel mass transit
Although each Re:Route entrant took a different path, each arrived someplace that addressed the real issues surrounding urban transit.Our winners especially found deployable solutions for urban transportation that can be successful today.
Do we have far to go to find better alternatives to move to and through city blocks? If Re:Route has shown us anything, it’s that a little imagination and innovation can take us all a long way.