Cool Link: Metro Transportation Climate Impact Index

transportation climate impact index

The Transportation Climate Impact Indexmeasures how the 100 largest US metros rank in terms of climate impact from everything from walkability to vehicles miles.

Ohio cities don’t rank highly, unfortunately. Columbus clocks in at #85, with its worst ranking coming from how much its residents drive. Columbus’ bus system only goes so far, and without any other form of transit, much of the area is completely car-dependent.

Streetlight, which makes the rankings for the transportation climate impact index, gives an explanation on the methodology here: https://www.streetlightdata.com/2020-climate-index-methodology/



Cool Link: Columbus Short North Drone Flyover

Here’s a great video of High Street with a Short North drone flyove from 2018. It gives a fantastic view of all the new development built in the last decade along High Street between the Short North and Campus.

To see historic photos of how the Short North used to look, visit the
Short North Historic Buildings page to see all sorts of before and after historic photos of the neighborhood.

And for more videos around Columbus through history, the
Columbus Videos Through Time contains more than 50 different Columbus-specific videos on a wide-rage of topics.



Cool Link of the Day: Census Record Transcribing




http://usgwcensus.org/cenfiles/

Okay, so a link on Census record transcribing may not be the coolest I’ve put on this site, but it may be one of the most important. The US Census records go back all the way to the 1700s, and a lot of these records have either not been digitized at all, or only rough copies exist in many different formats. Due to age, use, insect and water damage, etc., some of these records are in danger of disappearing forever. Many others are difficult to use because of the varying formats. Because of this, transcribing them into a standardized digital form is critical.
This site allows anyone from the general public to choose individual records and volunteer to transcribe them digitally. No experience necessary! The site gives basic walkthroughs and other how-to information, so anyone can do it, and at their own speed in their free time. Just click on the state and area of your choice and go from there.

Cool Link of the Day: Urb-I Urban Ideas

I saw this site mentioned on the CityLab site awhile back and thought it was a very cool idea. The site highlights how cities are transforming public spaces and making car-centric areas much more pedestrian, bike and transit friendly. Since I found the site, I have been lucky enough to become a regular contributor working to help make the site even better. The great thing is that anyone can send in before and after photos from their own cities of public space transformations. Take a look: http://www.urb-i.com/ The site covers cities across the world.

Columbus has several examples that I have added, but the photos are not yet updated on the site’s map. Until they are, here is a sneak peek:

Civic Center Drive
Urb-I Urban Ideas

West Town Street

Columbus Commons



Cool Link Before and After Worldwide



Similar to other posts that show how Columbus has been changing, the link below from the site Urb-I has hundreds of before and after worldwide photos of streetscape changes. Columbus itself is not included, but perhaps that can be changed as the site allows anyone to submit images.

http://www.urb-i.com/#!before-after/ceh8