The United States needs fewer bus stops
https://worksinprogress.co/issue/the-united-states-needs-fewer-bus-stops/
#HackerNews #busStops #publicTransport #urbanPlanning #transportationPolicy
Alex Akselrod
and 1 other
boosted
Denmark is painting the town red—for the bats. In a world-first initiative, the municipality of Gladsaxe has switched to red LED streetlights along key roadways to protect local nocturnal wildlife, particularly bat species sensitive to artificial light.
The core scientific insight is that traditional white and blue light spectrums disrupt bats' echolocation and feeding patterns. Red light, however, offers a safe, sustainable alternative that maintains public safety while preserving the local ecosystem.
This isn't just a quirky experiment; it's a smart blueprint for eco-conscious urban planning. The shift reduces light pollution and energy consumption, demonstrating how city infrastructure can meet global sustainability goals (like the UN SDGs) and successfully coexist with nature.
#RedLights #Bats #LightPollution #SustainableCities #UrbanPlanning #Biodiversity #WildlifeConservation #Denmark #GreenTech #SmartCity #Environment #EcoFriendly #LEDlights
Denmark is painting the town red—for the bats. In a world-first initiative, the municipality of Gladsaxe has switched to red LED streetlights along key roadways to protect local nocturnal wildlife, particularly bat species sensitive to artificial light.
The core scientific insight is that traditional white and blue light spectrums disrupt bats' echolocation and feeding patterns. Red light, however, offers a safe, sustainable alternative that maintains public safety while preserving the local ecosystem.
This isn't just a quirky experiment; it's a smart blueprint for eco-conscious urban planning. The shift reduces light pollution and energy consumption, demonstrating how city infrastructure can meet global sustainability goals (like the UN SDGs) and successfully coexist with nature.
#RedLights #Bats #LightPollution #SustainableCities #UrbanPlanning #Biodiversity #WildlifeConservation #Denmark #GreenTech #SmartCity #Environment #EcoFriendly #LEDlights
There's more in the Sydney Morning Herald. It sounds like an absolute nightmare!
"Residents of the Somerset apartment complex in Carlingford faced a horrifying situation: their building, constructed by notorious developer Dyldam, was left with a string of defects and no functioning fire safety system. And the responsibility to organise the fix landed with Result Strata Management, which would soon become the only strata firm to be permanently banned from practising in the state.
"Owners of the hundreds of units and the building’s commercial space have spent about $800,000 fixing the problems, and by the end of this month will have fully completed all known fire safety issues with the building, said Mark Cowell, the licensee in charge of Compass Strata, which runs the building management committee.
...
"But they are still grappling with the trail of destruction left by two of the industry’s most storied figures.
"“I’ve been a strata manager for 25 years, and I’ve very rarely ever seen a building in this sort of situation,” Cowell said. “It only happens when builders and developers are not held accountable early enough in the process, or are able to do a runner, to escape the consequences of their misdeeds.”
"Fire and Rescue NSW inspected the property over two days in October. The agency found the essential fire safety measures installed “were not being maintained and were not capable of operating to the standard” required by law, according to communications between Fire and Rescue and the City of Parramatta Council.
...
"During the inspection, Fire and Rescue staff reported nine faults across the fire detection system: the mains power supply for the evacuation system – linked to the sound and intercom systems – had been shut off, and the system was marked “offline”.
Staff also reported a tank for two water pumps was only half full, and a relay pump was three-quarters full. “FRNSW believes that there are inadequate provisions for fire safety within the building.”
"The letter to the council expressed concern about whether the building contained combustible cladding, but it could not verify if it did. The owner’s corporation had applied for the removal of cladding under Project Remediate, but then withdrew the application, it said.
"That was a good result. The owners had already fixed almost every fire door in the property and paid for a litany of other fixes for defects.
...
"The Herald revealed Dyldam to have built defective buildings across Sydney before its collapse on New Year’s Eve 2020. The company was co-founded by Sam Fayad, who is bankrupt, owing personal debts of more than $2.8 billion – believed to be the largest bankruptcy in Australia. On Monday, it was revealed he was the “Australian businessman” named in a corruption inquiry in Hong Kong. He did not respond to a request for comment.
"Dyldam is also responsible for Observatory Place, the 24-storey abandoned orange apartment block in the heart of Parramatta that was deemed so dangerous Building Commission issued a stop-work order. It is now being rectified.
"Cowell said it is difficult to know how the Carlingford building’s fire safety systems were not updated for so long because Result Strata’s record-keeping was so poor. It provided only about 12 documents to the new strata body when there should have been hundreds, he said.
"Result Strata’s Michael Lee was exposed in a Four Corners report of running an AGM of another building with security guards – reportedly paid for using owners’ funds – to control the meeting.
"Last year, Fair Trading cancelled the licences of both Result Strata and Lee after its investigation found the company had “consistently failed to appropriately disclose conflicts of interest, consistently breached the rules of conduct … charged fees for services not rendered [and] failed to ensure properties under management complied with critical fire and safety obligations”, among other things."
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-trail-of-destruction-left-by-two-of-sydney-s-most-infamous-property-figures-20260209-p5o0uh.html
Worth noting the bankrupt property developers behind the Carlingford buildings, Dyldam, are different to the bankrupt property developers being investigated by ICAC for trying to bribe Parramatta city councillors:
https://gts.sadauskas.id.au/@aj/statuses/01KG1M5SJWMNC6190XKZ3AJ8EB
These developers, in turn, are different to Aland, which built the infamous Mascot Towers building in Sydney that was evacuated after cracking: https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/mascot-towers-owners-settle-with-developer-as-founder-buys-20-million-vaucluse-home-20220711-p5b0s6.html
They're also different to the developers of the infamous Opal Towers in Olympic Park, which also had cracks. That was done by a firm called ICON: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-04/opal-tower-builder-launches-new-30m-crossclaim/11765280
They're also.different to Mehris, a property developer that put up a building in Auburn that the then-Building Commissioner called the worst he'd ever seen, and another in Parramatta that needed rectification: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/developer-forced-to-fix-serious-defects-in-two-parramatta-apartment-towers-20210630-p585km.html
But Dyldam is affiliated with another development company called Ellerson, that's responsible for a string of dodgy apartment buildings:
"Former Dyldam bosses Fayad Fayad, Remon Fayad, and their father Sam Fayad are behind apartment blocks in Rosebery, Parramatta and Baulkham Hills, all of which have been slapped with sanctions from the NSW Building Commissioner.
"An ABC investigation has revealed the Fayads' property management company, Ellerson Property, has led the development and sale of dozens of new apartments across Sydney, despite the collapse of their family company Dyldam and looming bankruptcy proceedings.
"One unit block, The Laneways Rosebery in Sydney's inner south, is facing two rectification orders issued by Building Commissioner David Chandler, detailing serious defects which have prevented unit owners from moving in for more than two years.
...
"Ellerson Property's website promotes Observatory Place in Parramatta as an "elegant 24-storey building" still under construction.
"Despite developers claiming on social media the building would be finished in early 2022, the units which were being sold off-the-plan are now off the market as the NSW Department of Fair Trading investigates defective building work.
...
"Another development belonging to the family's now-defunct business Dyldam was sanctioned two years ago for posing a "hazard to human to life".
"In October 2021, government inspectors found waterproofing issues and an awning at risk of collapsing at Modena, a 15-storey apartment block in Baulkham Hills in north-west Sydney.
"The Dyldam subsidiary company, Hills Shoppingtown Pty Ltd, that owned the block, was placed into receivership in 2021 along with 22 Dyldam subsidiaries, leaving receivers McGrathNicol to fulfil a government order to fix the building."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-04/apartments-linked-to-fayad-property-companies-sanctioned/102549750
#auspol #nswpol #planning #UrbanPlanning #cities #apartment #apartments #business #property #capitalism #nsw #australia
Urix Turing
boosted
joene 🏴🍉
and 2 others
boosted
Some food for thought for comrades abroad
#netherlands #bicycle #bike #bikelanes #cycling #activism #activisme #fietsen #politiek #politics #nederland #traffic #urbanplanning
Some food for thought for comrades abroad
#netherlands #bicycle #bike #bikelanes #cycling #activism #activisme #fietsen #politiek #politics #nederland #traffic #urbanplanning
Mre. Dartigen [maker mode]
boosted
Authorities in Kolkata trying to shutdown India's last tram network to make more space for cars.
Authorities in Kolkata trying to shutdown India's last tram network to make more space for cars.
New maps reveal post-flood migration patterns across the US
#HackerNews #postfloodmigration #USmaps #climatechange #realestate #urbanplanning #FEMA
Billy Smith
boosted
This is just glorious. It's @notjustbikes utterly, comprehensively destroying John Forrester's arguments for vehicular cycling.
It included reading through Forrester's books, going to the 1970s studies Forrester cited, and finding he fraudulently claimed the studies said the opposite to what they actually did.
(For the unfamiliar, John opposed bike lanes and protected bike infrastructure in the US because he wanted to promote a macho masculine MAMIL cycling culture where cyclists ride like cars in mixed traffic on busy main roads. Then he whined that few people wanted to cycle, and that cycling was a niche activity few people engaged with.)
Apparently Forrester also claimed to be a cycling expert yet never actually visited The Netherlands.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRPduRHBhHI
#cycling #Bicycle #bike #Urbanism #vehicularcycling #bicycling #UrbanPlanning
This is just glorious. It's @notjustbikes utterly, comprehensively destroying John Forrester's arguments for vehicular cycling.
It included reading through Forrester's books, going to the 1970s studies Forrester cited, and finding he fraudulently claimed the studies said the opposite to what they actually did.
(For the unfamiliar, John opposed bike lanes and protected bike infrastructure in the US because he wanted to promote a macho masculine MAMIL cycling culture where cyclists ride like cars in mixed traffic on busy main roads. Then he whined that few people wanted to cycle, and that cycling was a niche activity few people engaged with.)
Apparently Forrester also claimed to be a cycling expert yet never actually visited The Netherlands.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRPduRHBhHI
#cycling #Bicycle #bike #Urbanism #vehicularcycling #bicycling #UrbanPlanning
hypebot
and 1 other
boosted
Come work with me as a project planner! You get to coordinate cutting-edge #research and #stakeholder interactions on using #VirtualReality in #UrbanPlanning focusing specifically on #mobility and #cycling.
So if you are based in #Helsinki, #Espoo, #Vantaa or anywhere nearby the Finnish capital region and looking for a #job #work #työpaikka, please apply!