If you want to take good black and white pictures, the most important thing, is to be able to understand the subtlety on how to play with light and shade. A good place to start when learning about light and shade, is a book that is specifically geared at black and white photography. After that, you will just have to practice what you read about.
If you are looking to improve as a photographer, you should begin to shoot anything and everything. Of course, you'll want permission before you snap a shot of your significant other, climbing out of bed in the morning, but you should be out shooting everything to practice with lighting, angles, coverage and other areas of importance.
Although it may seem obvious, but know how to handle your camera and what happens when you press the buttons on it. Understand what happens when the shutter button is pressed and the timing of the shutter. It really depends on personal preference and there is no right or wrong way, but some things do not vary like keeping the camera perfectly still while taking a photo.
Learn how to use the ISO setting on your camera. It is the setting that determines the film speed. The higher you set your ISO, the more light that will come in. If you increase the ISO in dark settings you will capture more light making the photo turn out better.
When you are planning a street photography trip, consider the route that you are going to take prior to leaving your home or hotel. There are many beautiful and unique images to capture and taking the time to plan your route ahead of time is going to make it easier to get all of the shots you want.
Those are only a few of the tricks out there to help you take amazing photos. But photography isn't something you will learn over night, so remember these tricks and try them out until you get the hang of them. Before you know it, you'll be taking professional quality photos!