• writing
• photography
• nicomedia
• about
• home

Library of Congress, on Flickr

Search within any Flickr user’s account, then click the Slideshow icon/link in the top right to create your own. Grab the embed codes from the Share link (once you’re looking at your slideshow).

U.N. launches World Digital Library

Last week, the United Nations launched the World Digital Library, featuring historic books, maps, recordings and other artifacts from many of the great institutions around the globe. The WDL draws on the resources of the Library of Congress, UNESCO, and other cultural institutions.

For example, below is a digitized film from 1899, shot by Thomas Edison (yes, that Thomas Edison), of the NYPD bike patrol.

Description
The film shows members of “New York’s Finest” parading at a crowded Union Square. Seen are members of the Bicycle Squad, mounted horses, and two regimental marching bands. At the time of filming, the New York City Police Department was still recovering from the corruption scandals of the early 1890’s that had severely tarnished the reputation of the department. A State-Senate-appointed group known as the Lexow Committee investigated the department and issued a scathing report that detailed serious criminal activity within the department. In 1895, public opinion was so low that the annual parade was not held. That same year, Theodore Roosevelt was appointed president of the Police Board, and he is credited with initiating strict and effective reform measures that helped restore the public’s confidence in the police.
Date Created
June 1, 1899

maps

The Independent’s cover story is a look at how digital technology is enhancing maps, and how maps have historically enhanced our understanding of and interactions with our environment. The article identifies anchors in the Triangle’s mapping community, people who share a desire to critique the world through spatially arranged lines and icons that, in sum, represent the world as we see it. Or don’t see it. Or think it should be.

It’s an excellent article, not the least of which because it features Gary’s Endangered Durham… go read it.

When I was on Durham’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission, the most frequently asked questions from the public (besides, “can you put a bike lane in front of my house?”) concerned bike maps. “Why don’t you have better bike maps?” “Is there a map that shows safe places to ride?” “Is there a bike map for Durham, you know, one that shows the bike trails and the bike shops?”

I have to confess that I have mixed feelings about bike maps per se. When someone asks “where are the bike trails in Durham,” I want to point to the nearest road and say, “right there.” North Carolina law makes it clear that neither cities nor counties can do anything to restrict cyclists from riding on roads (with the exception of Interstates and freeways, like 147). All roads, whether neighborhood cul-de-sacs or state highways, are bike-ways.

Folks ask for maps of bike trails, though, for many reasons.Some want quiet, bucolic surroundings in which they may lose themselves in thought. Some want smooth surfaces with low traffic-volume to teach children the art of balancing on two wheels. Some adults want space to gain their own confidence with shifting, braking, and pedaling before adding signaling turns to the mix. After talking with hundreds of people about cycling in Durham, I think most just want to ride in a space where bicycling is clearly sanctioned. For the same reason we go to parks to play, to rivers to canoe, or to mountains to hike, we go to greenways to ride. It’s what you do there.

My frustration with the question about bike maps is layered. It has something to do with the implied syllogism that bike maps show bike trails, that bike trails are where one rides a bike, so therefore bike maps show where one rides a bike. And since bike maps (at least ones I have seen in the past) usually highlight greenways or roadie routes though the countryside, the latent syllogism reinforces the perception that cycling is just for recreation.

Containing bicycles to linear parks, such as the American Tobacco Trail, or pastoral secondary roads on weekends is a kind of social relegation that is also reinforced every time someone sighs despondently about how dangerous the roads are. Yes, roads are dangerous places where collisions (some of which are accidents) kill and maim every day. It’s my belief, however, that drivers have an inflated sense of both their safety and cyclists’ danger. Habitually commanding with just your touch two-thousand pounds of steel and glass caging will do that, I suppose.

The perception that roads are unsafe has something to do with the fact that roads are one of the few places left in our daily lives where we do not choose, we do not even know, with whom we interact.

Riding a bike on a greenway is no doubt one of the best ways to spend a Saturday afternoon. It is also my favorite way to grocery shop, to commute to work, or to explore a new city while on vacation. Given the number of people who showed up to last week’s Bike to Work events, I’m not alone in thinking that roads exist to serve more modes of transportation than just the automotive variety.

Any bike map that’s worth its salt needs to reflect the various ways that people ride bikes. I continue to invite you, then, to help map Durham (or the other areas of the Triangle, if you’re not lucky enough to live in the Bull City) through the eyes of a cyclist. Like Gary says in the Independent article, Jack Edinger and I originally conceived of this map as something that’s community driven, something that “allow[s] for freer exchange and collaboration.” These maps (Durham’s below and the other cities’ behind the link) are currently based on Google Maps so that they can be collaborative, so that any number of people can design, edit, and create them. While I’m still not entirely convinced that bike maps are necessary, it has been fun to see what others add to the maps. And, in some small way, colluding with other Durham cyclists is a way of challenging the recreation-dominant model of cycling that the broader driving public swallows uncritically.

Portions of this also appeared at Op-Ed News. View Larger Map

Ride of Silence, tonight

from the Herald Sun’s website:

Ride of Silence set tonight

RALEIGH — As part of National Bicycle Safety Month, the N.C. Bicycle Committee has endorsed tonight’s nationwide Ride of Silence, a slow-paced bicycle ride to honor those who have been injured or killed in bicycle-motor vehicle collisions and raise awareness of bicycle safety.

“Bicyclists share the road with motorists every day, and this ride is a way to not only recognize those who have been injured or killed, but to also remind the public of bicyclists’ presence and the importance of their safety,” said Tom Norman, director of the N.C. Department of Transportation’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Division.

More than 250 Rides of Silence will be held nationwide tonight, including one in Carrboro and another in Research Triangle Park.

The first is an 8.76-mile run through Carrboro. The ride starts at Wilson Park at 6:30 p.m. Pre-ride starts at 6 p.m. Parking will be difficult. Participants are asked to take that into account in their planning.

Visit www.rideofsilence.org for more information on the Carrboro event.

The second is the fourth annual Ride of Silence in Research Triangle Park. It’s a 5-mile run with a maximum speed of 12 mph. Communication in the silent event will be limited to hand signals. Helmets are required and lights are recommended. It begins at 7 p.m. at Triangle Life Science Center, 86 T.W. Alexander Drive — the intersection of Alexander Drive and N.C. 54 — in Research Triangle Park.

Visit www.msfits.org for more information.