MIT Media Lab's Bill Mitchell Interviewed

Here's a great video interview of Bill Mitchell, the Smart Cities Director at MIT's Media Lab. They are developing ideas like the cars in the photo above, rethinking the entire concept of cars from technology to the transport systems in which they operate.

I was especially interested in his description of the 'future of mobility' where he talks about the need for sophisticated management algorithms helping to make more efficient use of existing resources (11:15 into the interview). This is exactly the idea behind the Bus Meister concept for using Web 2.0 applications to help provide priority for public transport.

Psycho (Social) Networker

My newest music video on the perils of on line social networking. Hope you like it.

Signs and Wayfinding from Slate

From my flickr London photos set.

Julia Turner has a great series of articles on signs and wayfinding in Slate. The first article describes the importance of signs in general. The second article takes us on a tour through Penn Station in New York looking at how well (or badly) the signs work in helping us get from an entrance to the Amtrak trains. It reminds me of an experience I had in the Paris Metro Châtelet - Les Halles station in 2008.

The third article is on urban wayfinding, which Turner describes as completely different from wayfinding in transport stations or other controlled environments (e.g. Penn Station). She uses the example of Transport for London's Legible London project to describe the concept. This is a really excellent article filled with lots of good information.

The photo at the right is another solution: people at the Copenhagen Airport who help guide visitors (the other signs there are pretty good too).

The fourth article describes research on the hand-made maps made by normal people. The fifth article describes the 'war over exit signs' which includes a nice summary of the idea behind pictograms and their use on signs. The sixth article is forthcoming, but I am sure it will be good.

I have always been fascinated by signs. Here is a link to my flickr set signs and here is a link to my flickr set WC Signs ... I find wc signs to be especially interesting because they give businesses and people the ability to be creative about how they use graphics. As they say, "You can tell a lot about a place by their WC signs" ... well, at least that's what I always say.

Finally, my restaurant review of the Hallwylerhof restaurant in Zurich. They have a wonderful graphics and signage design used consistently throughout the restaurant, and the food is great too.

City Models and Miniatures

Wien Museum model of Vienna in about 1900 from my flickr photos.

Here's a great post from the Web Urbanist on 22 miniature cities ... different physical and virtual models of cities (I learned about it from Planetizen). I especially loved the film by Sam O'Hara "The Sandpit" at the end of the article.
Here are some more examples of physical models for the list:

• San Francisco - when I studied at the UC Berkeley City and Regional Planning Department Professor Bosselmann had a laboratory with a miniature San Francisco; it was used to model how new buildings fit into the visual environment;
• San Francisco - there is an old model of the city that used to be in the Powell Street BART station ... but I have not seen it in a while.
• Zürich - the planning department has a large model of Zürich today (German) cut into sections mounted on wheels so you can move the sections (they are on tracks) and then walk through a cross section to find yourself in the middle of any neighborhood;
• Zürich - the Zurich city archives museum has a nice model of Zürich around the year 1800, the museum is a delightful place for history buffs and is located on a wonderful square in the old city (try the Neumarkt Restaurant across the street for a nice lunch or dinner). 

• Munich - the Munich city museum has a model of the city in 1570 and a nice brochure (available in English) about city development (Munich as Planned). The model (shown in photo) is a copy of another model that is in the Bavarian National Museum. The Munich city museum is well worth a visit (have lunch at the Vitualmarkt - one of the greatest urban spaces in the world! - in good weather, try Der Pschorr at night and if the weather is bad).

• Vienna - the Wien Museum (the city history museum) has two models at about the same scale (one on the second floor and one on the third) showing the city in about 1800 and in about 1900 (overview shown above and detail shown at the right). The Wien Museum is well worth a visit, here's a link to my Wien Museum flickr photos set.

Add more in the comments!

Lund Sweden Recommendations

The first in a series of blog postings on nice places I have stumbled upon on my travels.

I have been to Lund twice in the past two years reviewing an interesting transport research project. The first visit was in June 2008 when the city was in the midst of their university graduation celebrations. Great fun with lots of noise. The second visit was last week (early March 2010).

One of the cool things for a transportation planner about Lund is that from Vienna you get there via Copenhagen (Denmark) airport. There is a train station directly under the airport and trains leave every 20 minutes on the about 45 minute trip to Lund (trains will be even faster next year when the tunnel under Malmo opens). The train drops you off in the center of Lund.

I stayed at the Grand Hotel on both my trips. The first time I was sent their by the hotel I had a reservation with because they were full (normally I would not stay in a place called "Grand Hotel" but boy was I wrong!). It was great, not cheap, but a wonderful old hotel (high ceilings, nice rooms, not so hermetically sealed windows, a great open staircase with art nouveau  stained glass - why take the elevator? - etc.).


The Grand Hotel has a very nice restaurant with a large selection of wines by the glass and the bar seems to be a favorite place for locals to gather. Breakfast is great, they even have fresh passion fruit! It's not cheap, but a great experience.

The old town in Lund is very nice to walk around. Lots of interesting buildings and crooked streets (many for pedestrians and bikes only). The cathedral is quite beautiful, don't forget to go downstairs to the crypt. There are nice parks to sit and relax: the weather was great in June, but I had less desire to sit outside in March.


On my first trip we had a very nice dinner at a restaurant called Stortorget, first we had a beer outside watching the graduation parade and activity on the square. Then we went indoors for a very nice dinner, somewhat French bistro style. I had venison and my colleagues had steak. We also shared a nice bottle of Italian wine.

On my second trip we had dinner in the Grand Hotel restaurant. I had an appetizer of smoked tuna with a cold bean salad, then the Swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes (what can I say, I wanted comfort food!). I had a dessert that combined chile with passion fruit ... two of my favorite tastes.

The next night I went to dinner at Klostergatans Fisk, a combination fish market and restaurant. It was perfect. I was eating alone and the waitress remembered me from making a reservation. She showed me to probably the best table in the restaurant for someone eating along (in a warm corner, away from the door, with a view out of the window and the whole dining room). When was the last time you ate dinner alone and had such a nice table?

I started with an amuse bouche a small piece of smoked fish, fabulous. Then a superb Jerusalem artichoke soup with fish roe toast served with a great glass of French Chardonnay. My main course (photo above) was a steamed fish covered with fresh horseradish on a combination of boiled potatoes and beets served with an Alsatian Riesling (one of my favorite places and wines!). I ended the evening with a glass of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, a nice dessert.

I probably would never have gone to Lund if it had not been for the research project, but I would certainly go back to enjoy a peaceful day or two if I am ever in Southern Sweden or Denmark again. Here's a link to my google map of Lund Recommendations.

Games as a platform for city-scale collaboration

Here is an extremely interesting slide show by Jane McGonigal from AvantGame about the role of computer games in helping solve urban and social problems.

The BusMeister game I am developing has a similar goal, but what McGonigal is doing is fantastic. The slideshow gives a nice background on the idea.

Also check out AventGame's new game EVOKE - it's really well done.

Games as a platform for city-scale collaboration

View more presentations from avantgame.

Books about maps

Bus map from Scoul Switzerland from my flickr photos.

I just read a review in the NY Times (The World as Their Canvas by Stephen Heller) surveying several books about maps and graphic design. Great survey article, I want all the books!