I wrote three whitepapers on different aspects of the urban environment, and how it interacts with and can be enhanced by technology, for a startup Soofa. I worked at Soofa closer to full time for almost a year, and have done freelance writing projects for them for the last few years.
Introduction:
“What is public art? Memorials? Parks? Gardens? Public reworks? Places of worship? Libraries? Lights? Buildings? Billboards? Advertisements? When organized by the outcomes and interactions that characterize public art, many aspects of public space qualify as public art. Most often, public art refers to pieces of art in public space, but the design of public spaces, parks, buildings, and aesthetics we encounter around the city, like advertisements, are another dimension of public art. Public art is one of the most effective mediums for addressing the challenges of changing cities, breaking down barriers, and bringing people together.
It’s not as simple as throwing some art in a plaza with a hashtag; the most effective uses of public art deeply consider the space, the story being told, the perspectives represented, and most importantly, community relationships. This paper illustrates a wide variety of ways public art has been used, including to create a sense of identity and community, reclaim inhospitable spaces, transform forgotten towns, and make the ordinary delightful. Throughout these stories it becomes clear that art is the welcoming medium, opening minds and hearts to the possible, offering catharsis in representation, and breaking down the invisible walls in public space.
Despite all the benefits of public art, art does not receive secure support or prioritization without advocacy and attention. A great deal of the public artwork and spaces we see today are thanks to city legislation, funding requirements, and developer incentives. Government incentives like “Percent for Art” programs, originally used by the Works Progress Administration of the 1930s and made into law in New York City in 1982, designate a portion of funding from new construction to go towards public artwork. Today over half of states have Percent for Art initiatives of some kind, these and other government incentives
have facilitated the construction of thousands of works of public art across America. Reading the stories of how notable works got to be installed, it is clear that art does not just appear thanks to a love of sculptures: it thrives when encouraged to grow through funding and the clearing of space (giving arts a seat at the planning table). This seat at the table is how the National Endowment for the Arts de nes “creative placemaking”; including the arts in planning and development processes as a central consideration.
The issues common today in public art and space—including exclusion and trying to encourage pro t-minded institutions to invest in art have been in discussion for decades, even centuries. Fredrick Law Olmstead, famed creator of parks from Central Park in NYC to the “Emerald Necklace” in Boston, believed parks should be a public meeting ground for humankind, representing an important democratic development. Modern urban sociologist Richard Sennett echoes this, stressing the importance public spaces have in creating “social friction,” or interaction between groups of people who would otherwise not meet. (2 - MIT DUSP)
One of the challenges of the present day is creating meaning for people. Large families living together are no longer the norm and in cities, especially those dominated by cars, people rarely interact with others from the public. In the 1970s, about 30% of Americans frequently spent time with neighbors, and only 20% had no interactions with them. Today, these numbers are reversed. (3 - City Observatory) Amongst the social frustration of loneliness and a search for purpose in work, public art and local community have room for more impact than ever. Relationship to the local is still under developed, in that despite the plethora of new digital technology, tools for connecting people to their surroundings and neighbors are in their infancy. Technology companies recognize these issues, and have been experimenting with ways technology can augment the city experience, like the Soofa Sign and Nextdoor.com, the social network for your neighborhood. Developers are also changing, in effect becoming lifestyle brands as they respond to increased demand for experiential spaces, strong community management, and branded aesthetics and entertainment.
None of these shifts in cities are completely aligned with “public art," however; looking at effective improvements to a wide variety of city issues, from dramatic revitalizations and rebrandings to temporary installations, public art is one of the most delightful and successful catalysts for connection and change. Organizations like the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, which has commissioned over 3,800 murals in over three decades of work, is a testament to the transformative community- shaping power public art has, especially when undertaken as a shared endeavor. This paper covers notable and inspiring instances of public art with the hope of illustrating its many uses, formats, challenges, and opportunities.”
Smart Transit (2017) - click for full paper
“As city budgets have tightened and infrastructure spending been overlooked, transit systems have struggled to address the complaints of riders. It can feel impossible to improve legacy systems, with installations of new infrastructure running into the millions of dollars. Many people are stuck riding public transit, with no access to other options, and many more people chose not to ride transit due to unreliability, wait times, and longer transit time.
Conventional logic holds that transit agencies can reduce wait times by increasing the frequency and reliability of service. This is correct, but how should a city improve wait times if they don’t have the resources to create separated bus lanes or funds to run more buses? In lieu of major overhauls, what if cities instead improved their communication? According to a survey of 13,000 users by Moovit, a leading transit-planning app, transit users’ primary complaint is a lack of information regarding arrival times. If cities simply convey accurate arrival times through flexible signage and an API, they can dramatically improve rider satisfaction and service efficiency.
The dual solution is critical, because mobile information can help people plan when to leave home, and above-ground signage at bus and train stops allows smartphone-less riders to receive the same information. With an awareness of transit arrival, people can go get a coffee or grab some food instead of fruitlessly waiting. Even if wait time is not utilized to do anything, the mere shift to accurate time arrivals makes the wait feel shorter to riders. Individuals receiving arrival information perceived the wait time as equal to the actual wait.
In what is known as the time-drag phenomenon, individuals waiting for transit without arrival information perceive the wait time to be double or more the actual length.
Transit agencies must keep in mind that all time is not equal. Passengers view wait times as more onerous and longer than time spent on the bus or train. Wait times are perceived as dramatically longer by women waiting in areas they view as insecure. The presence of benches, shelters, and most importantly, arrival times together almost eliminate additional perceived wait time due to time drag.
By offering arrival information at transit sites and via smartphone, cities can save huge amounts of riders’ time, increase satisfaction with transit, and help encourage others to make the switch to public transit. This whitepaper will further explore the evidence behind the need for transit arrival information, elaborate on user perception of time, calculate the value of time spent waiting, and cover the many positive second- order effects that signage can have.
Public transit ridership was at a 57-year high in 2013, and the portion of the global population living in cities is rising rapidly with no signs of abatement. Transit systems are more used than ever, and will become more overloaded each year. Transit is indispensable to many, and provides a lovely solution to rising carbon emissions and city tra c. Increasing perceived reliability will help further increase ridership and improve existing rider satisfaction. In an era of infrastructure cost constraints, transit agencies must look for creative and flexible solutions to improve their services. These improvements are neither expensive nor unwieldy; agile signage and mobile information can be implemented rapidly and begin improving transit right away. Large overhauls can seem like the only option for improving transit, but there are lesser- known options that create a serious impact.
At Soofa, we believe that bigger is not always better, and that small interventions can make big waves. We present our research on transit information with the hope that cities can use this information to improve transit experiences and advocate for funding.
