About Steven can plan

“Steven can plan” is a personal blog I started for my class at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC): UPP202, Planning Great Cities, in 2007. The semester ended and my blog kind of fell to the wayside. This blog is about urban planning, cities, and transportation.

About me

I’m Steven Vance from Chicago, Illinois. This is my objective: “Obtain a transportation planning position with an organization that recognizes the importance of accommodating and providing service for all transportation system users, including transit, motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians, and freight.”

My sites

• stevevance.net – My personal homepage (personally mine since 2001)
• Nishiki Bicycle History – A wiki about Japanese Nishiki bicycles.
• Odd and ends – Posts that don’t belong here. I collect my webdesign tips on this blog. If you want to know how I design “Steven can plan,” visit Odds and ends.
• Bridgeport – Promoting local businesses in my neighborhood.
• Wiki – A wiki is great for free-form and inform writing and record keeping. I record details of my hobbies and DIY projects.

Web applications

• Chicago Bike Parking
• Chicago Bike Laws
• Chicago Bicycle Program – Video Browser
• Can I bring my bike on Metra right now?

Social networking

• Flickr (photos)
• Twitter
• LiveJournal (personal blog before blogging became popular – this wasn’t even called a blog back then)
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

All content is my own except where otherwise noted. The views and opinions I express on my blog are my own and do not represent those of my employers, past or present.

I use Google Reader (and the compatible Mac client NetNewsWire) to read other blogs. You can see the biking bundle, a collection of all the bicycling-related blogs and news I read.

My issues

• HOV and HOT lanes, tolls and equity, toll revenue distribution
• Access to airports, alternatives to SOV driving there
• Bicycling: Separated infrastructure, bike parking

Consulting

I consult on a variety of technology, bicycle, and geographic information systems topics. I’ve consulted on search engine optimization, Google Earth, geocoding, incorporating APIs, and data analysis with QGIS.

Why I have ads

I embed advertisements on my websites quite simply to help pay for my hobbies. I have a lot of them – if you look at my wiki you’ll see I spend a lot of time, money, and energy on my hobbies. I consider blogging a hobby, as well as learning to fix my own bicycles, and building neat things like cat litter bucket panniers, or bicycle-mounted speaker systems.

Contact me

If you need help, have a question, or desire a professional consultant, please use the form below or email me.

*Note: If your message relates to topics I write about, I may use your question or comment in an article, but I will never personally identify you unless I need to credit your wonderful idea.

Plugins I use

• Twitter Widget Pro – Grabs my Twitter statuses.
• Clean Links SV – Modification of built-in Links widget I created.
• FlickrTag – Automatically inserts photos into Posts and Pages using simple code and syntax.
• flickrRSS – Displays my Flickr photos in a widget. I specify that it only grabs photos from a certain Set.
• Related Posts (YARPP) – Browses through your posts to pick ones that are related.
• ShareThis – Gives visitors quick links to share the blog post on social networks.
• Tweet Old Post – Based on an algorithm you help define, posts old tweets to your Twitter to keep your site always on your followers’ feeds.
• WP-Cache – Caches the homepage and posts for faster loading.
• WP Widget Cache – Caches the sidebar widgets for faster loading.
• WP -> Twitter – Sends a tweet to Twitter with a link to your newest blog post.
• WP Thread Comment – Allows visitors to reply to others’ comments
• XML Sitemap – Creates a Sitemap for search engine crawlers.
• Simply Exclude – I use this plugin to exclude from the homepage posts tagged “page2.”

Disclaimer

Views and opinions expressed here are mine alone and do not reflect those of my employers, past, present, and future.