April 7th, 2019 | by World Resources Institute
Medellín, Colombia used to be the murder capital of the world. With the explosion of the global drug trade in the 1980s, crime burgeoned, plunging the city into a state of lawlessness. Slum communities, stacked up along the perilous slopes of the surrounding Aburrá Valley, were on the front lines of the violence and mayhem.But today, Medellín is transformed
April 7th, 2019 | by World Resources Institute
The story of how Warwick Junction bucked the global trend of replacing informal markets with malls and shopping centers is a testament to the compromise, conflict, and resourcefulness of a small set of actors – informal workers, local officials and the small non-profit Asiye eTafuleni (Zulu for “bring it to the table”). It is a story of social healing and the enduring contradictions of a modern African city
April 6th, 2019 | by World Resources Institute
Chaos often reigns on the streets of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s capital. Minivans, cars and motorcycles careen along half-finished roads without markings, sidewalks, or traffic lights. Pedestrians walk single-file within reach of speeding vehicles. Groups of children in matching school uniforms hold hands as they linger at the road’s edge. They scan for breaks in traffic and dart across before the bell rings for the start of class. Every day, this journey puts their lives at risk
April 6th, 2019 | by World Resources Institute
Many cities are looking for a new future after the decline of traditional manufacturing industries. From the American Rust Belt to Europe’s industrial heartlands, mayors are striving to reinvigorate and reinvent, while cleaning up the pollution left by heavy industry
March 8th, 2019 | by Steve Hanley
Guardian columnist George Monbiot writes that we need to get rid of most private cars within 10 years because of the pollution and congestion they cause. He doesn't spare electric cars from his analysis either.
December 10th, 2018 | by Sponsored Content
While there is exciting progress and promise as air sensors become cheaper and more available, a diverse coalition of industry, activists, policymakers and researchers is critical to ensuring that the data is reliable, accessible and most of all, actionable.
November 30th, 2018 | by The Beam
For Helle Søholt, Founding Partner and CEO of Gehl, there is a global urgency for a people-first approach to planning and to improve people’s everyday lives in cities
November 4th, 2018 | by Cynthia Shahan
Janette Sadik-Khan is a top rock star in the world of city planning. She led NYC's recent transportation transformations under Mayor Bloomberg. In the interview, Zachary Shahan, CleanTechnica's director and chief editor, returns to his roots as he interviews Janette Sadik-Khan and talks urban transport leadership. Zach's master's degree was in city and regional planning (from UNC-Chapel Hill). UNC–Chapel Hill was ranked the #1 grad school in the nation for his specialization the year he graduated. The pair, on the same page, were brought together by Autonomy
October 31st, 2018 | by Michael Barnard
Urban planners and traffic safety regulators are struggling to come to grips with electric bicycles. They offer tremendous advantages for urban mobility, they reduce congestion, they offload overloaded transit, every electric bicycle is arguably one less car on crowded city streets, and they don't pollute.
January 27th, 2018 | by Carolyn Fortuna
The Global EVRT Middle East 2018 participants visited the Eco Haus in Oman and share insights into sustainability solutions
December 18th, 2017 | by Steve Hanley
Elon Musk has some unkind things to say about the state of public transportation today. His remarks did not sit well with transportation engineers and urban planners.
August 21st, 2017 | by Steve Hanley
Bicycles present a unique challenge for city planners and designers of autonomous cars. The question is, what do cities of the future want to be -- still focused on cars or centers of refuge for pedestrians and bicyclists?
April 16th, 2017 | by Cynthia Shahan
NYC's Q train recently got a big new subway extension, after nearly a century-long wait for the mythic segment. New Year's Day 2017 saw the first phase of the "Second Avenue subway" opened — that's after a 1972 "groundbreaking." The segment was envisioned in the 1920s
April 5th, 2017 | by Cynthia Shahan
Donald Shoup pointed out many years ago that if companies pay the costs of parking for their employees, a common fringe benefit (and an expensive one, at that), those employers are essentially giving “an invitation to drive to work alone.”
March 17th, 2017 | by Cynthia Shahan
Rush hour Chicago provides an untapped income for the city of Chicago. Traffic enforcement could pick up funds from well-deserved traffic tickets. It seems no one is getting a ticket and the chaos continues. The larger question is — after $32 million of taxpayer money to build it, is the Loop Link being used as intended? No, not much, it seems. It was designed for fluid, fast, reliable movement — time-saving, much-needed flow for the city's buses. Lost? The Loop Link is specially marked bus lanes meant to offer mass transit an unfettered flight during rush hour times. And yet
March 7th, 2017 | by James Ayre
Recent comments from Berlin's Transport Secretary, Jens-Holger Kirchner, included his thought that personal car use in the city was on its way out, and that it is probably the slowest way to get around
March 3rd, 2017 | by Cynthia Shahan
The idea of apartments near train stations and along bus corridors makes perfect sense. Along with greater convenience, a new report released by the Urban Land Institute shows this to be a good move for tax revenues
February 28th, 2017 | by Cynthia Shahan
Word of mouth is a way of education that continues to be powerful in the midst of societal and technological change. In the impassioned subcultures I frequent, activities growing fast because of word of mouth include bicycling, urban farming, and organic farming. For those subcultures, word of mouth seems more powerful than anything else. The word comes from someone doing rather than telling, and that is largely the force of change
February 28th, 2017 | by Cynthia Shahan
Focusing on mass transit over cars is best for cities, for the air, and for the ambiance. Traffic jams don't improve city life
February 6th, 2017 | by Cynthia Shahan
Infrastructure that supports multi-modal travel makes it possible to live comfortably without a car. Vancouver is perhaps North America’s #1 city in this way. How unusual is the city of Vancouver? Well, for one thing, in the 1960s, Vancouver's citizens refused to allow freeways in the city. That may seem like an obviously smart move today, but it was radical back then
January 9th, 2017 | by James Ayre
Despite the very high numbers of people moving to Denver (and Colorado in general) in recent years, much of the city is apparently still less densely populated now than it was in
January 1st, 2017 | by James Ayre
New York City now has a continuous 9-mile, northbound bikeway from downtown Brooklyn up into the Bronx — running across the Manhattan Bridge, up through First Avenue, and then over the Willis Avenue Bridge
December 27th, 2016 | by James Ayre
Owing to the recent election of Donald Trump as the President of the United States of America, and some of the comments that he's made to date about infrastructure spending and job creation, the folks over at Bike League recently reposted an old article of theirs discussing the fact that infrastructure projects that incorporate bicycle and pedestrian elements create more jobs than road-only projects. A lot more
December 7th, 2016 | by James Ayre
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced that over the next 5 years London will invest £770 million into various bicycling support programs, infrastructure, and initiatives — roughly doubling the amount spent on bicycling support by former mayor Boris Johnson
