Every time it snows, vast sections of city streets remain covered by snow long after plows and moving cars have cleared the travel lanes. These leftover spaces are called “sneckdowns, ” and they show where sidewalks or medians could replace roads without any loss to car drivers.

A DC sneckdown from the 2009 snow storm. Original photo by Rudi Riet on flickr.

The term sneckdown is a portmanteau of “snow” and “neckdown, ” the latter being another term for sidewalk curb extensions. So it literally means a sidewalk extension created by snow.

Following the recent snow storm in New York, Streetsblog put out a call for photos of sneckdowns in the wild. They received plenty of responses.

Next time it snows here, be on the lookout.

 Cross-posted at Greater Greater Washington.
 
 
 

American bikesharing boomed in 2013 like never before. Led by huge new systems in New York and Chicago, the total number of bikesharing stations in the US more than doubled, from 835 at the end of 2012 to 1, 925 in 2013.

After three straight years at the top of the chart, Washington’s Capital Bikeshare slipped to second place. CaBi’s 305 stations barely edge out Chicago’s 300, but are behind New York’s 330. Those three cities make up a clear first tier nationwide, with no other systems cracking 200 stations.

Overall, 13 new bikesharing systems opened nationwide, bringing the total to 40. In addition to New York and Chicago, other noteworthy additions include San Francisco, Fort Worth, and Columbus.

At this point, it’s fair to say we’re no longer in the pioneering period. Any city that still doesn’t have bikesharing is beginning to fall behind.

It’s not just the big coastal cities where bikesharing is becoming popular. There are some unexpected hotspots, where groups of nearby cities have independently launched small systems. Four Texas cities have bikesharing, plus two more in Oklahoma. Small systems are also popular in the southeast, with 6 systems in close proximity in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Tennessee.

Oddly, the only area of the country that seems particularly underrepresented is the west coast. San Francisco’s Bay Area Bikeshare finally became the first large west coast system this year, but it’s still the only one. Portland, Seattle, and Los Angeles continue to lag.

Here’s the complete list. New systems in 2013 are in bold. Previous years are available for comparison.

Notes: Systems covering multiple jurisdictions are counted either together or separately depending on how they choose to represent themselves. Thus Bay Area Bikeshare is counted as a single system, while Denver B-Cycle and Boulder B-Cycle are counted separately.

 Cross-posted at Greater Greater Washington.
 
 
 

Happy 2014!

I take a lot of pictures. Some of them are bound to be good, by luck alone. Enjoy 10 of my favorites from the BeyondDC flickr stream, taken in 2013. And if you’re interested in seeing more, another 65 or so are displayed on the SkyscraperPage photography forum.

All photos by BeyondDC.