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From an outsider's perspective, Paris seems well positioned for this. It's a dense city, cars don't feel like first class citizens outside of the large boulevar

From an outsider's perspective, Paris seems well positioned for this. It's a dense city, cars don't feel like first class citizens outside of the large boulevards, the Vélib [1] bike sharing system is well implanted (and that's not even considering all of the shared/kick/electrical scooters..!) Montréal is having a mini cycling renaissance as well. Our mayor didn't let the pandemic crisis go to waste and transformed one of the city's main streets by adding two semi-protected bike lanes [2]. The whole area is stunningly different than what it was before. A telling (Canadian newspaper) editorial on the subject: "Is the war against bike lanes finally over?" [3] Finally, I personally just joined a group of volunteers (as a tech/developer) that are using DALL-E/AI to generate visions of improved streets in the US! If you're curious / want to join (fullstack and especially css developers are always needed), check out https://transformyour.city/ https://transformyour.city/ and the twitter account [4]. The goal is to be a "change.org for urban transformation". Feel free to email me as well. Cyclists/urban idealists unite :-) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9lib%27 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A9lib%27 [2] https://montreal.ca/en/articles/rev-express-bike-network-4666 https://montreal.ca/en/articles/rev-express-bike-network-466... [3] https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-is-the-war-against-bike-lanes-finally-over/ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-i... [4] https://twitter.com/betterstreetsai https://twitter.com/betterstreetsai

nicbou 4y ago
Berlin has improved a lot too. I spent the whole summer on my bicycle, even with the 9€ monthly public transit pass. The bike routes are just nicer. They added wide cycling path all the way to the edge of the city, and there are increasingly aggressive plans to keep cars out of the city. At the same time I see more and more ebikes on the roads. I'm truly impressed. Things are changing fast.
doublerebel 4y ago
Great to see Better Streets here! Thanks for this eye opening use of image style transfer. I found your Twitter through The Urbanist.
kungito 4y ago
I wish I saw more nature in your generated pictures. Replacing one piece of concrete with another is not enough for me
- zachkatz 4y ago
  Hi, founder/creator here. You’re totally right, more nature is better. We try to include as much greenery as possible, but it usually has to be grass/plants/flowers. Trees would be ideal, but due to the constraints of inpainting with DALL-E (the AI we use), it’s nearly impossible to add trees without dramatically changing the appearance of the buildings, too, which greatly diminishes the before-and-after effect. Hopefully in future updates it’ll be possible to generate elements that can be “smart overlaid” on top of the existing image.

nicbou 4y ago

Berlin has improved a lot too. I spent the whole summer on my bicycle, even with the 9€ monthly public transit pass. The bike routes are just nicer. They added wide cycling path all the way to the edge of the city, and there are increasingly aggressive plans to keep cars out of the city. At the same time I see more and more ebikes on the roads. I'm truly impressed. Things are changing fast.

doublerebel 4y ago

Great to see Better Streets here! Thanks for this eye opening use of image style transfer. I found your Twitter through The Urbanist.

kungito 4y ago

I wish I saw more nature in your generated pictures. Replacing one piece of concrete with another is not enough for me

zachkatz 4y ago
Hi, founder/creator here. You’re totally right, more nature is better. We try to include as much greenery as possible, but it usually has to be grass/plants/flowers. Trees would be ideal, but due to the constraints of inpainting with DALL-E (the AI we use), it’s nearly impossible to add trees without dramatically changing the appearance of the buildings, too, which greatly diminishes the before-and-after effect. Hopefully in future updates it’ll be possible to generate elements that can be “smart overlaid” on top of the existing image.