Urban Repair Squad Article On Treehugger

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/05/the-ultimate-diy-urban-repair-squad.php
Urban Repair Squad Traffic Calming Installation - Pottery Road - Spring 2011.

Ghost bike Francisco Jander Martins in São Paulo

Ciclistas protestam após morte de colega em São Paulo, a photo by marcel maia on Flickr.

Ghost bike Francisco Jander Martins, a photo by marcel maia on Flickr.

Slow Down. Lives at stake!
Sao Paulo

Blackout Anniversary 2011

by Lisa Logan

Schmatta Square Design

8th Anniversary Blackout Party

Augmented Reality Advertising Takeover (AR | AD)

Traverse City Michigan

8th Street "Share the Road", a photo by MyWheelsareTurning on Flickr.

8th Street "Share the Road" DIY Sharrows after city refuses to accommodate cyclists with a bike lane.

With Love From Anchorage, Alaska

DIY bike lane, a photo by bikesunite on Flickr.

With Love from Montreal

Photo By Hamish Wilson

Urban Repair Squads Worldwide

Coletivo Camina, Haz Ciudad (Walk, Make Your City Collective)

COLECTIVO CAMINA, HAZ CIUDAD in Mexico City, DF decided that this roadway needed safer access for pedestrians. So they installed it. Although their work was painted over, the city agreed with their vision and installed a separated space for pedestrians and cyclists. Great work. More of their excellent work can be found here: http://hazciudad.blogspot.com (in Spanish) Via Sustainable Cities

200 Billboards Replaced With Art In Montreal

Installation by Justseeds

See all the amazing art here

Street Lego

Toronto, Bloor and Lansdowne May 1, 2011

Painting A DIY Bike Lane Mexican Style

More info: Translation (via Google): 3. April 2011
male citizen bicycle paths
Mexico's middle class organized sichper Twitter, umVerkehrspolitik and change society
.................................................. ................................
In Mexico, citizens create
on your own bike paths. It
is not just about security, they
also set a sign against
the authoritarian authorities.
.................................................. ................................
Matt Knecht, Guadalajara
9 Clock 40: The civil disobedience be-
begins to country of late,
rested for it. Joy Nu ~ no, 27, Video
designer, is now site manager
in Mexico's second largest city, Guadalajara
Lajara: "The road is 9 meters wide.
Right and left, we zwacken each 1.20
Meters for the bikes off to a length
of three kilometers, "he exclaims.
The 30-member troupe invites the
Material for the "bourgeois-Velo
away from, "as they call their project.
Huge template in the form of
Bikes, paint buckets and homemade
Street signs. The group includes
Students as well as employees and
Self-employed. Each raises so much money in
his hat as he can to the vice-
charged 600 francs material costs
. Cover Together they finally lift-
Lich an adventurous companions of
the loading area, a supercharged
and gun-tipped loads
velo. In the sweaty three-
Man operation can thus be an almost
straight line on the road spray.
More deaths than in the drug war
10 Clock 05: The main working unit
Jesus Soto, 26 - a Blackberry.
The computer specialist is now com-
munikationschef. He sent first
Photos about Twitter and Facebook. Re-
porter of local and national media
, hurry. "This action is completely
illegal, "Soto dictated into the microphone.
"I am involved because our authorities
the incapable. We make it
in the pillory. "Mexico's road
transport more than 17 000 persons die
. NEN That's more deaths than in Dro-
genkrieg. It hits the poor most,
the foot or by bicycle to move-
gene, because otherwise afford
can. Mexican cities are only
Cars built, the city of Guadalajara
jara. "Our cities are a mirror
of Mexico's inequality, "laments Soto.
10 Clock 30: The activists impose
The new speed limit. "30 km / h»
is now in huge letters on
the roadway. Felipe Madrigal, 36;
Main job is playing medic, police officer
and directs the traffic to its
brush be around friends. In his
Spare time he is white bikes at Gua-
dalajaras street lamps, each a
Memorial for a transport-geto
ended cyclists. Since August 2009
Madrigal has 49 white-on bikes
hanged. "Welcome to the Third
World, "says the medic with cynicism.
"If you have a car, are you who.
If not, you're worth nothing. "Ge-
build the bike trail for the poor.
But those who build it to include
Mexico's increasingly self-conscious
Educated middle class. Many of them
have studied in foreign countries.In Canada
or in Europe, they have seen that
the bike is not just for poor wretch
is. But in Mexico, they are faced with
an authoritarian policy face
referring in particular to the rich upper-
layer of the country-oriented. The
Fight for bike paths, they look so
as a struggle for more Bürgerbeteili-
tion."The debate is only the traffic
Pretext, "says one."The issue is
the democratization of Mexico, our
Weapons are Facebook and Twitter. "
11 Clock 10: Twitter is over 60 re-
actions received.Most for-
Biking trails but also outside her house.
In Guadalajara, the congestion around the
brush activists always be chaotic
shear.But the state can not be
look.There are only two possibilities for him
possibilities: either in front of the Ka-
mera with police violence against the activi-
Visten proceed.Or action to
. Accept
Presence of the Minister
12 Clock 10: Diego Monraz, transport
Ministers of the member state of Jalisco, he-
appears to be an obviously designed for
procured this performance cycle.He is
for transport planning in Guadalajara
jara responsible.Monraz shows up as
foxy politicians and praises the
"Exceptional civic commit-
management ".The Minister promised the
Bike trail to legalize retroactively,
three days later what he does.
13 clock: the tweets go to
Hundreds.For all of Mexico meet
Congratulations to the political he-
successful one.Citizens in three cities to ask
for technical assistance, and they want
a bourgeois construct bike trail.
The strategist of the action muses:
"We can mitregieren.The Politi-
ker it increasingly difficult for us to
. Pass »
But the joy over the success
lasts briefly.The next day comes
in Guadalajara, another cyclist
killed.A bus rolled over a
31-year-old man when turning.About
Facebook ambulance calls his Madrigal
To friends to him by hanging
the next white bikes to accom-
ten. It is the fiftieth.

Installed Jan 26, 2009 - Still There May 4, 2011

May 4, 2011 Photo

The Bike-Friendly TTC Signage designed by URS at Spadina Station. 

2009 Installation at 70 TTC Subway stations.

Radical cyclists peddle sharrow agenda in Victoria

Posted By: Simon Nattrass

04/13/2011 12:00 AM

In the middle of the night, with no warning at all, pedestrian infrastructure was savagely attacked by a gang of bike riding anarchists known to authorities only as the Other Urban Repair Squad (OURS). Shunning reason and civilization, these brutes painted another round in the series of sharrows marring our streets since 2009.

Or not.

Maybe a group of concerned citizens got together and decided to take up arms (read: paint) in the name of improving local cycling amenities. You figure it out.

Sharrows are road markings indicating a shared-use lane where roads are too narrow to incorporate a bike lane. OURS has been painting these markings around the capital since 2009, focusing on high-traffic areas with little existing bicycle infrastructure.

Yukon Duit, spokesperson for OURS says the group is painting sharrows to highlight the gap between car and bike infrastructure upgrading and maintenance in the capital.

“We’re talking about bike lanes that just disappear into the ether in the middle of a route. Imagine if these were vehicle routes — we would never do that to cars.”

According to councillor John Luton, due process — meaning engineers, studies, and consultation — is still what’s needed. OURS, in contrast, is undemocratic and unsafe. “I want this decision made by professionals, not by the self-appointed vanguard of cyclist’s interests,” Luton says.

Or maybe not.

“This is exactly what democracy looks like. It’s engaged citizens helping to shape the public sphere,” says Duit. “The City of Victoria collapsed its one formal group for cyclists to have their voice, so there’s no longer a direct route for cyclists to communicate our needs to the city.” As far as Duit is concerned, OURS is filling that void.

While the group doesn’t necessarily adhere to Transportation Authority guidelines when applying sharrows, Duit says that’s not the idea.

“Our point is not that we’re using the exact materials and spacing,” Duit says. “Our point is that the city should be doing it. This is the next best thing while we wait for the city and the region to take action. Of course the city is going to do a better job — that’s the whole point.”

In the end, while the goals of activists, radicals and officials (in this case, anyway) appear to coincide, debate over method may still doom future sharrows to less-than-legal status. M

Urban Repair Squad In Good Magazine

http://www.good.is/post/diy-urban-design-from-guerrilla-gardening-to-yarn-bombing/

Yarn Bombing Toronto

Urban Repair Squad at CCA Actions Exhibtion in 2010

Archive Page From The Canadian Centre For Architecture

MaSAT - Madrid Street Advertising Takeover

This original action was later expanded to liberate 106 billboards in Madrid on March 30th, 2011. http://www.publicadcampaign.com/masat/