Bathtub With Wood Moulding

Turin, New York Giant

To continue with the American experience, I was also struck in New York traffic is not as chaotic as you can imagine.

As I said in my previous post on NYC, the difference between the north-south avenues and east-west streets are clear. The streets are quiet, green and narrow. In the case of trafficking also note the difference. On one side are wide, tree-lined sidewalks and secondly, the amount of traffic, perhaps evolving into low and slow traffic (bicycles).

In fact, the bicycle traffic is improving a lot, mainly in Manhattan, with bike lanes, information, and help pages online. Jan Gehl already told the conference that I was a few months ago. This plane with aid for cyclists is in all places where there are bike rentals, the same system Villo in Brussels or Vélib 'in Paris .

In addition to the streets, bike paths and pedestrian areas, sidewalks are very well executed ... but not everyone agrees with the theory that asphalt sidewalks are better (quick implementation, uniformity, flatness .. .). But rtante impossible is that being wide, pedestrian them sit quietly in front of a traffic eminently "trucks" whether the garbage (which appear to tanks), the loading and unloading and the cars themselves, many s on 4x4.

But that said, to despite the "trucks" across the street is easy: all are one-way streets, the pedestrian always know where they might come across cars and quiet. For cyclist, the information is not needed.

Far from all this bustle, though ordered, we found an oasis that plan so ber our heads: the High Line . This oasis is actually a park built on a former railway line that was used for the transportation of goods to Chelsea and Meatpacking district, butchers enterprise zone. We talked about this park article I wrote for This is a plaza listing examples of performance and local control.

what else I can say about this park that has not been said already ... So soon I will tell you that it was the locals who fought for 7 years to recover the tracks ( then converted on a big plot with grass) instead of demolished, to make a place of public interest. A great vision, a great example and a very interesting park.

is not yet completed, was opened in June 2009 , but only the first part. few weeks ago, almost birthday the first piece, was granted permission to retrieve the next piece . I'll come back to see the rest ...