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Using your phone, you can take pictures of cars parked illegally and submit them. Parking Mobility shares this information with your city and they send a ticket to the owner of the car. A portion of the ticket collected by your city is shared with charities as chosen by you. You make your city more accessible and support your favorite charity at the same time!
Here's how:
- Download the application to your iPhone, Blackberry or Android phone.
- When you see a car parked illegally in a disabled parking spot, launch the application to take the following 3 photos of the car. Then submit. It takes less than 2 minutes.
- License plate
- Front windshield (showing no placard)
- The parking spot (showing the car and disabled parking sign)
- Parking Mobility then shares combines this information with your city.
- The city takes this evidence and issues a ticket to the owner of the car.
- When the city is paid for the ticket, a portion of the ticket is given to the charity you choose.
- You can review your submitted reports and change your selected charity at any time in Settings.
Bert Morris and Laurianne Krid have published a valuable guide on parking permits and reciprocity ruls for their use between countries.
My name is Bert Morris and I am a disability consultant working in the UK and Brussels. I have recently completed a project on parking cards / permits issued to disabled persons. Theinformation for around 130 countries / federal states worldwide is shown in the FIA Guide for the disabled traveller that is on-line atwww.fiadisabledtravellers.comThe Guide explains the parking rules for parking card / permit holders, and whether or not the parking card / permit of a visit tor can be used (reciprocity)
The project was supported by the FIA Foundation and the FIA European Bureau in Brussels. Along with my colleagues Laurianne Krid and Caroline Ofoegbu at the FIA European Bureau, we are now refining and improving the FIA Guide, and raising awareness that it is freely available on-line.We welcome comments on the Guide, particularly in respect of the accuracy of the information it contains. We can be contacted atfiaguide@fiabrussels.comI would be grateful if you would circulate details of the FIA Guide for the disabled traveller to your readership.Many thanks and best wishesBert MorrisFIA Disability ConsultantBert Morris Consultancy Services
It is not without awareness of the tremendous disaster that has struck Japan that I offer the following story on the "Complete Street." As post -disaster planning eventually occurs the measure of cultural achievement will be the implementation of Universal Design. Fortunately Japan has an experts at their disposal in this regard. Among them is Satoshi Kose of Hamamatsu.
According to "Re:STREETS," a new project focused on "inclusive design for the public realm," streets occupy more than thirty percent of all public spaces in cities. Over the coming decades, billions will be spent at the local level on their design and development. To ensure this massive investment in streets enables equal access for all users, a new universal street design is needed to balance the needs of pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders, and car riders of all ages and abilities.
Re:STREETS is taking a stab at creating an easy-to-download and plug-in green "Complete Street" template (see earlier post). The end goal of the project is a "comprehensive manual demonstrating design tools for building streets that promote healthy living, social interaction and commerce, as well as the movement of people and goods, while regenerating the ecosystem."
The group says guidelines will be developed during a working conference hosted at the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design in July. At the conference, attendees will cover issues like green infrastructure; "smart technology;" play and recreation; signage, wayfinding, and interpretation; urban agriculture and food production; and commerce. Before the conference starts, conference participants will get a technical manual and working group assignment, and will be tasked with creating solutions for specific problems. The manual will come out of the working conference reports, and will be available both in book format and online. The idea is to have the manual function as a "toolkit for implementing the Complete Streets policies that are being adopted throughout the United States."
Private and public-sector professionals are invited to attend. Re:STREETS says "interested professionals from a wide range of disciplines are encouraged to participate, including urban planning and design, landscape architecture, architecture, civil engineering, traffic engineering, disability advocacy, public health, pedestrian advocacy, bicycle advocacy, transit, housing, economics, ecological sustainability, parks and recreation, maintenance, social services, materials manufacturers, and fire, police and safety."
Re:STREETS will be held at the UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design, July 21-23, 2011. The conference costs $250 to attend. Re:STREETS is funded in part by The National Endowment for the Arts and is being developed by PLAE, Inc., in partnership with the urban planning and design firm MIG. Project supporters include The National Complete Streets Coalition, America Walks and UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design's Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning.
Learn how to apply to attend the conference. For more information, also contact Kirsten Negus at kirstenn@migcom.com.
From the AIA blog:
2011 YAF/COD IDEAS COMPETITION: UNIVERSAL DESIGN
The AIA Young Architects Forum (YAF) and the AIA Committee on Design (COD) invites architects, students, and allied design professionals to submit sketches to the international 2011 YAF/COD Ideas Competition. Visit the competition website.
In this unique sketch competition, submitters are asked to explore the concept of Universal Design as well as their overlap with values of social and environmental sustainability.
Winners will be announced and will have their work exhibited at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2011 National Convention and Design Exposition in New Orleans, Louisiana, May 12-14, 2011. Selected entries will be displayed on the AIA website.
• For Complete Submission Details, Download the 2011 Ideas Competition Call for Entries (PDF)
• View the complete Submission Site Walk Through (PDF)
• Visit the Submission Site to Submit Now!
DESIGN PROBLEM
Over the past decade, the planning and operation of the Olympic and Paralympic Games has been fundamentally re-defined, guided by an emphasis on inclusion, as well as social and environmental sustainability.
In 2009, the City of Tokyo, Japan was one of several cities selected as a finalist to become the Host City for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic games. The International Olympic and Paralympic committees ultimately awarded the Games to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - but Tokyo again is in the process of compiling a bid for the 2020 Games.
Inspired by the recent trajectory of thought and action exhibited by the IOC and IPC, the American Institute of Architects invites designers to participate in a design competition intended to build upon the efforts of the past decade by proposing a vision for Tokyo's bid for the 2020 Games that is guided not only by socially- and environmentally-sustainable principles, but also by the concept of Universal Design.
Universal Design has been defined as "the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design." This definition was developed by the architect Ron Mace, FAIA, an architect and the founder of the Center for Universal Design at N.C. State University. In recent years, architects and designers in the US and abroad have come to recognize significant and growing overlaps between Universal Design principles and emerging values of social and environmental sustainability.
This year's design problem, to create a master plan for the Olympic Village and a design for a representative mixed-use building that includes athlete housing, will provide entrants with the opportunity to explore these overlaps. Successful solutions will demonstrate a commitment to Universal Design, as well as social and environmental sustainability, throughout the Village during its Olympic, Paralympic, and Legacy modes by creating designs that will allow the Village to play a vital role in the ongoing development of the City of Tokyo - not only for the short-term as athletes' housing during the Games, but also for the long-term as a catalyst for infrastructural revitalization once the Games have closed.
SUBMISSION DETAILS
The following section outlines the submission requirements, registration fees, eligibility details, and judging criteria. For more information, please contact AIA Honors & Awards at kcawards@aia.org.
Entries may be submitted anytime between January 14, 2011 and March 14, 2011
Visit the competition website.
Image via Wikipedia
In the United States, designated bike lanes and a growing bike culture have started to garner mainstream attention. And bicyclists now have a giant ally--Google.
At the 10th Annual American Bike Summit in Washington, D.C. last week, Google announced their maps feature will include bike routes for 150 U.S. cities. The feature includes 15,000 miles of off-street bike trails gathered by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that has collected trail info for its website since 2007.
Google made the decision after receiving a petition with more than 50,000 signatures for bike routes to be added to its maps. Google Maps introduced driving directions in 2005, and in 2007 the site added transit routes. Pedestrian navigation followed a year later. Now, it's the bikers' turn.
Source:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/03/ebg031710.html
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Deficiente visual vai de Brasília a Paraty de bicicleta
Adauto Belli pedalou 1,6 mil km em bicicleta dupla, com o parceiro guiando.
Ciclistas fizeram trajeto da Estrada Real em 18 dias; aventura virou livro.
Adauto Belli, deficiente visual, viajou 1,6 mil km guiado por Weimar Pettengill
O convite partiu de um desconhecido. Quando o empresário Weimar
Pettengill, 37 anos, ligou para o deficiente visual Adauto Belli
chamando-o para uma viagem de bicicleta de Brasília a Paraty, se
surpreendeu com a resposta. "Partimos quando? Amanhã? Hoje não dá.
Estou ocupado", disse Adauto, 38 anos, adestrador de cães. Na bicicleta
de dois lugares (modelo conhecido como 'tandem') a dupla seguiu para
Minas Gerais e, de lá, rumo a Paraty, no Rio de Janeiro. Completaram o
trajeto em 18 dias, a maior parte feita em estrada de terra.
Adauto, deficiente visual desde o nascimento, tem apenas 35% da
visão. "A confiança ali é tudo. Eu pedalo tendo certeza de que, se for
bater, ele (Weimar, o ciclista que vai guiando) vai bater no macio, se
cair, ele vai tentar fazer com que eu me machuque menos", conta.
"Quando a gente está em uma descida no cascalho a 110 km/h, tem que ter
muita confiança. Se fosse com uma pessoa que vê perfeitamente, a viagem
não teria dado certo", afirma Weimar.
Entre as experiências registradas no trajeto, Adauto lembra das
vezes em que sua pouca visão o enganaram. "Você acaba vendo o que quer
ver. A gente ia descendo perto de um vale e eu dizia 'Nossa, é um lago
muito bonito', e o Weimar começava a rir e dizia 'que nada, isso aí é
uma favela!'", conta.
Foram pouco mais de 1,6 mil km cruzados em 18 dias, de 29 de janeiro
a 16 de fevereiro. A aventura rendeu até livro. Na última quinta-feira
(21), Weimar Pettengill lançou em Brasília o resultado de suas memórias
da viagem, entitulado 'Brasília-Paraty - Somando pernas para dividir
impressões' (editora Thesaurus). "Quero agora fazer o áudio-book, pra
que o Adauto possa 'ler' e dizer se está tudo certo", brinca o autor. A
obra também será lançada em Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro e São Paulo.
Antes de partirem em cima da bicicleta, os dois eram praticamente
desconhecidos. Haviam se encontrado cinco vezes, apenas duas delas com
a bicicleta para fazer testes. Weimar já planejava pedalar o trajeto da
Estrada Real -rota histórica de povoamento e exploração do interior do
Brasil, criada no século XVII-, e decidiu incluir uma companhia no
desafio. "Lembrei da bicicleta tandem e resolvi ir com um DV
(deficiente visual) para compartilhar a experiência", conta o
empresário. Ele chegou a Adauto através de amigos do projeto 'DV na
trilha', que promove a inclusão social de cegos através de bicicletas
duplas em Brasília.
Adauto sempre gostou de praticar esportes, e não pensa na
deficiência como um obstáculo. Pelo contrário. "Muitas vezes é até uma
vantagem, porque eu tenho que ficar mais concentrado", diz. Ele pratica
o ciclismo desde 2007, mas seu esporte mesmo é a corrida. "Depois que
eu o arrastei pra esse desafio, ele já arrumou o próximo, agora
correndo. Vamos fazer a travessia dos Andes no final do ano", afirma
Weimar.
Fonte:
The Highway Safety Research Center has funding available for up to ten communities or neighborhoods to pilot test the use of "A Resident's Guide for Creating Safe and Walkable Communities", a newly developed guidebook that details ways to improve pedestrian safety and the walkability of local neighborhoods.
Each selected pilot site will be provided $2,000 as well as technical assistance from pedestrian safety experts.
Only government agencies and other not-for-profit organizations and neighborhood groups (e.g., PTAs, homeowner's associations, advocacy groups, etc.) are eligible to apply. Project funds will not be awarded to individuals.
The complete Request for Proposals is available at the program's Web site.
Contact:
Link to Complete RFP
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Starting on November 3, 2008, accessible taxicabs will receive priority when
being dispatched at JFK Airport. The Port Authority of NY and NJ will
sponsor this pilot program as an incentive to encourage taxicab drivers to
provide service to people with disabilities.
Accessible taxicabs must have the new, blue accessible logo on the front
hood of their cars to participate in this program. For more information on
the logo, please visit the TLC website at:
Regina Canada has an opportunity. With its aging population it can reorient its economy to that market. Organizations like Smart Silvers Alliance specialize in ferreting out the business opportunities in this market. First, it seems, Regina must reconsider its infrastructure:
From January to the end of September, [Regina] Paratransit completed 134,341 trips, averaging roughly 15,000 trips per month.However, during that same time period, 13,021 trips were refused due to a lack of capacity, an average of 1,447 per month. That is a considerable jump from a total of 5,279 unaccommodated trips during the same time period in 2007.
"We've always had more of a demand than we can accommodate. We just have an aging population, for example, that requires the service as well. We haven't had as many accessible taxicabs available so I think that things like that can also contribute as well," Griffin said.
The service runs at absolute capacity. While staff do all they can to carry as many passengers as possible, Griffin admitted the service is "maxed out."
Read the full story here.
Segway is a great little vehicle for getting around if you can use it. Several cities rent them for tourists. There is a zippy lower-tech mode of transportation that also has some potential.
Craig Grimes down in Nicaragua (Accessible Nicaragua) brought to my attention GoCarTours in Spain as another powered mode of city touring. Have a look at their spunky little cars in Miami, Barcelona, and beyond. Or watch the crew at AttitudeTV hop out of their wheelchairs and cruise San Francisco in one section of this video:
This news item by Matt Kersten apears in the Greymouth Star. It follows th story of Shirley and Roy Dyer whop were trapped for 11 hours on a Tranz Alpine train in New Zealand:
The owner of the Tranz Alpine passenger train has promised to better accommodate disabled people in the future — if and when it introduces new carriages on the Christchurch-Greymouth service. Taylorville man David Brooks filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission in February after his cousins — Shirley and Roy Dyer, from Rolleston — were left on the Tranz Alpine train for 11 hours because there was no facility for them to disembark at Greymouth.
According to this article in the Epoch Times:
New Jersey-based Megabus.com offers affordable, fuel-efficient travel and handles its reservations strictly via the Internet. On Tuesday the company announced on its website its latest upgrade: double-decker buses. These vehicles, produced by Belgian company Van Hool, are the first double-decker buses in the United States used for intercity travel....The double-decker buses are equipped with free Wi-Fi, video, reclining seats, and seatbelts for safety. They are also readily wheelchair-accessible. Space is economized, as luggage is stored at the rear of the vehicle.
Since 2002 the Indian non-profit organization Samarthyam has been working to improve New Dehli's transit accessibility. On April 1, 2008 their work will see the light of day with the launch of a new Bus Rapid Transit System corridor from Ambedkar Nagar to Moolchand. Recently Anjilee Agarwal and Sanjeev Sachdeva of non-government Samarthyam demonstrated the system at a press conference.
Convidamos V.Sas. para participar da Reunião de Análise da Consulta Nacional do Projeto 00:001.64-001 - Transporte - Especificações técnicas para fabricação de veículos de características urbanas para transporte coletivo de passageiros, da ABNT/CEE-00: 001.64 - Comissão de Estudo Especial Temporária de Fabricação de Veículo Acessível, a ser realizada conforme programação a seguir:
Data: 11 e 12 de fevereiro de 2008
Horário: das 9:00 às 17:00
Local: Av. Paulista, 726 - 10º andar - São Paulo - SP
Pauta: - Projeto 00:001.64-001 - Transporte - Especificações técnicas para fabricação de veículos de características urbanas para transporte coletivo de passageiros - Análise da Consulta Nacional
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