Streetfilms

Cycling in New York City endured an unprecedented media bombardment in 2011. But New Yorkers kept on riding and the public opinion polls kept on showing that despite the political and press attacks, bike lanes enjoy broad support. To celebrate a year of resilience, we figured we'd show a montage of New Yorkers out on their bikes, Streetfilms style.

Walking and bicycling in Guadalajara, Mexico can be dangerous in many parts of the city, but there's a movement afoot among many citizens to change that. GDL en Bici is a group of local advocates who have been organizing regular bike rides for years, and nothing is more impressive than their ride on the first Thursday of the month - the Paseo de Todos - which regularly draws up to 5,000 riders to celebrate and demand safer cycling conditions.

We are back with another installment of our hit series, "My NYC Biking Story." Recently Streetfilms spent the afternoon with Dr. Janice Turner in the South Bronx, and we toured some of her favorite waterfront trails. As a recreational cyclist for forty-plus years and a board member of Sustainable South Bronx, Dr. Turner believes that biking can be part of active lifestyles and reduce rates of asthma, diabetes, and obesity.

In the Dutch city of Utrecht, kids start learning about traffic safety long before they prepare for a driver's license. And they pick up a lot more than just "look both ways before you cross the street."

Wednesday was International Walk to School Day. Among the 3,784 U.S. schools participating this year was P.S. 197 in East Harlem, where kids were joined on their regular commute by Grover of "Sesame Street" fame, along with other guests. Robin Urban Smith of Streetfilms was there.

We've got a late addition to the calendar for our Boston-area readers. Streetsblog founding editor Aaron Naparstek, currently a Loeb Fellow at Harvard's Graduate School of Design, will re-unite with Clarence Eckerson tonight for an evening of Streetfilms screenings and discussion. An hour of Streetfilms will be followed by a Q&A with Clarence and Aaron led by GSD Professor of Urban Planning Michael Hooper.

Three years ago Streetfilms brought you a comprehensive look at Bogotá, Colombia's TransMilenio, the world's most advanced Bus Rapid Transit system. TransMilenio changed the way Bogotá residents think about public transportation, becoming indispensable to the 1.7 million people who use the system daily. If anything, the bus network became a victim of its own success, handling more passengers and crowding than its planners anticipated. Today, ten years after TransMilenio launched, we revisit this groundbreaking transit system and examine how it must improve as it matures.