The winning projects of a global competition for innovative carbon-free and resilient urban projects were announced in Oslo and sent to us by C40 CITIES. Have a look.
Move over, Copenhagen. Hamburg is following you into the 21st century by deemphasizing the role of the car. Almost half of Germany’s second-largest city already consists of green areas, parks, gardens, squares, cemeteries, and sports facilities (see map). Hamburg plans to link two large green areas in the north and south with bicycle routes and pedestrian
If you sit back and reflect on your own experiences for a moment, this is probably no surprise. When we’re driving through a new place, people on the street are easily seen as potential obstructions or sources of difficulty. When we are walking or biking along, that perception is much less so. A couple of new
How come Normal, Illinois–about 150 miles south of Chicago–has ten times as many electric vehicles per capita than the U.S. average? (You’re right; it’s not just coincidence.) A coalition of business, industry, nonprofits, all levels of government, and farsighted individuals has converged to transform Normal into an EV town. And it’s not an exclusive community.
We know that bike-sharing programs get people to switch from driving to bicycling. We know that good bike-sharing programs increase bicycle commute rates dramatically. We know that bike-sharing programs keep the air cleaner and citizens healthier. But new research has also found that bike-sharing programs improve street life. “Bike share stations are ideal triangulators,” David M.
What do you do if you have a lot of trash, limited landfill space, problematic floodplains, and a growing population? It’s a common problem across the world, as the trends of population growth, wasteful consumption and an increasingly plastic, throwaway culture continue to increase. The city of Tel Aviv, in 2010, created a master plan
Originally published on Bikocity. For the next generation of bike-sharing innovations, take a look at Copenhagen and smile. Trains and a bike-sharing program working as one travel option now offer a GPS built into the bike. Not only do you know where to pick up your next connection – you have a schedule of all
Reposted from Bikocity: Obviously, we’re big fans of bikes here. I realized several years ago that the common line and piece of advice “stop to smell the roses” matched bicycle transportation excellently. You see and smell and appreciate so much more on bike than in a car. I’d say that you do less so than
Here are a couple reposts from Bikocity. The first documents the rise of bike commuting in the US, especially in “Bicycle Friendly Communities” and 10 key cities. The second repost is about how Bicycle Friendly Communities are evaluated. Check them out: Where Bike Commuting Grows Fastest (Infographics) The League of American Bicyclists recently created some
Here’s the story as to why I became an electric car lover after being a car hater: I’m not going to lie — I’ve got issues with cars. My master’s degree is in city and regional planning. From my experience studying that (before, during, and after graduate school), I’m well aware that cars and cities simply don’t
Heated bike paths are currently being considered as a solution to winter snow cover in some regions of the Netherlands. Such paths would result in drier, easier bike commutes during the winter… and likely increased biking during that time of the year. On the other hand, they also seem like an extravagant waste of
The folks over at HouseTrip, which is a holiday rental site, have taken their expertise and created an infographic showing the top greenest cities in the world. These eco-friendly cites were judged on everything from tree planting to water usage. Six cities where selected, including; London, New York, Vancouver, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Stockholm. Among the
Although it has taken more than twenty years, Oklahoma City is making progress in its attempts to offer its citizens a variety of ways to get around town. It has been almost seventy years since the last streetcar was in operation, and automobiles have naturally become the dominant method of transportation in the area. However,
Mobility is a major concern for the aging person individually and as part of their family. Rather than rely on a family member to chauffer them around, a senior citizen can access their community’s ground transportation.
The wide, big routes that Europeans and other countries enjoy when biking are not yet in the US. However, Americans are turning out in amazing numbers in spite of the lack of good routes. “The NJ DOT study shows that during the peak usage time — Saturday afternoon — bicycles make up just over 47 percent of the
Bikes and Northern Europeans — They Really Have It Going On April 14, 2012 — the first part of a Bicycle Superhighway network opened. Copenhagenize brought us the story of new bike routes that will help Copenhagen to continue leading the way in this arena. Dreams are coming true. (Cyclist’s long-distance bike-riding dreams.) The infrastructure
As someone who decided to get his master’s degree in city and regional planning, this sort of social networking site for improving your neighborhood or city looks sweeter than sweet. It is actually a huge service to city planners, too, as it engages citizens in ways that many planners wish to do (and are
A group in New York City is looking “to transform an abandoned trolley terminal on the Lower East Side of Manhattan into the world’s first underground park.” It has been raising funds for the project on Kickstarter and already has $34,500 more than the $100,000 it was aiming to raise (but, of course, you
There is nothing pleasant about a huge road full of cars. No one finds such a place enjoyable except, perhaps, someone in love with traffic or weaving in and out of traffic or some traffic engineers (but even most of them probably don’t love it). Have you ever stood on the side of a
Well, public space is public space, but if it is bland and relatively unwelcoming, most people will pass it by without noticing. In an effort to help people make more use of their spaces, the NYC Department of Transportation created the Pop-up Café Program about two years ago. The NYC DOT “teams with local restaurants to provide
New York City has some of the highest-priced real estate in the world. But building rooftops remain grossly underutilized (barring some notable exceptions). However, the city planning department is proposing that 1,200 acres of commercial rooftops be available for urban farmers to put greenhouses on. That would certainly boost local food and environmental stewardship in
Well, the part of a recent study summarized in my title above is sort of well-known among city planners (a discipline I have a master’s degree in), but I often wonder how many normal folks know that building roads only limits congestion for a very short time, and that empty or underutilized roads stimulate
The story below immediately made me think of the classic global warming denial cartoon above, and the one below is a good fit too. The story: a number of Virginia residents duped into believing global warming is a hoax are pissed off about local planners changing zoning codes based on growing flood threats. “A
