Posts tagged with 'China'
Introducing the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. Photo by Christian Haugen/Flickr.
Introducing the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities
TheCityFix, produced by EMBARQ, is excited to announce the launch of the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, which will focus on research, tools, and on-the-ground action to develop accessible, healthy, equitable, and environmentally friendly cities. The Center will build ...
China's new urban plan seeks to build competitive, livable cities while combatting the rising phenomena of congestion, air pollution, and sprawl. Photo by Rob Chan/Flickr.
Preparing for the urban billion: “New-type” urbanization in China
While cities are drivers of economic growth, this prosperity does not always come naturally. The fate of a city lies in its ability to balance the positives of dense, connected communities – mobility, accessibility, and innovation chief among them – ...
China's high-speed rail system has offered affordable, sustainable alternatives to travel for China's residents, while strengthening the linkages between China's emerging cities. Photo by Michael Vito/Flickr.
How did high-speed rail transform China’s regional transport sector?
In the past few years, China has made eye-catching achievements in building the world’s largest high-speed rail system, with a total length of over 9000 km (5,600 miles) in operation in 2012. In China, trains travelling at design speeds above ...
The construction of the Shanghai Tower is a testament to architectural skill and China's growing economic power, but does this come at the expense of vibrant street life? Photo by Jerry Yang/Flickr.
Friday Fun: Shanghai Tower raises questions on the future of walkability
Shanghai Tower, designed by transnational architecture design tycoon Gensler, will soon become the third tallest building in the world this year. Once complete, it will proudly join Shanghai’s already crowded skyline, which currently consists of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, ...
Residents of Hyderabad, India, can use mobile devices to be a part of the planning dialogue---whether it's creating clearer maps of the city or crowdsourcing infrastructure projects. Photo by Nietnagel/Flickr.
Public participation platforms change the dynamic between city and citizen
Instead of arguing about how their city did not have enough money to fund the creation of bike paths, a community in Mexico City, Mexico, went ahead and made them. When residents in Beijing, China, saw that cars were encroaching ...
Hong Kong's mass rapid transit (MRT) system boasts a high quality of service, an important factor in making sustainable transport the way to go for urban residents. Photo by Lileepod/Flickr.
Friday Fun: A day in the life of Hong Kong's subway
Transport and urban planners spend much of their time thinking about distance to stations, fare pricing, and the key components that make sustainable transport systems work at a basic level, but they sometimes forget the smaller details that make transport ...
Air quality and smog in China. Photo by Niccoló Mazzati/Flickr.
Air pollution in China forces short-term responses, requires long-term solutions
As severe air pollution grips Beijing, China and the surrounding region, the sharp rise in harmful particulate matter has forced authorities to consider both immediate responses and long-term strategies to combat air pollution. The current situation The height of the ...
Shanghai is one of China's many cities which has seen the proliferation of bottom-up innovations, such as e-bikes, to tackle the problem of urban transport. Photo by 2 dogs/Flickr.
E-bikes bring individual and sustainable transport to China
In developed cities, new mobility options typically only penetrate the transport ecosystem after governing bodies have developed an institutional framework around the new technology. Emerging economies, however, do not always have the regulatory capacity to standardize regulations and create policy ...
Crowded subway car in Beijing, China. Photo by Filipe Fortes/Flickr.
Will raising Beijing’s subway fare be enough to improve service quality and combat mounting subsidies?
As we discussed last week on TheCityFix, Beijing’s municipal government is currently considering a controversial proposal that would reform the city’s low subway fare structure. If approved, the proposal would raise the standard subway fare in an effort to alleviate ...
Rush hour at Guomao Station on the Beijing subway. Photo by Jens Schott Knudsen/Flickr.
Beijing’s subway fare increase, justified
Beijing’s subway system – one of the longest in the world at 469 kilometers (289 miles) of track – is confronted by excessive congestion and costly government subsidies. In an extremely controversial move, the city government has decided to increase ...
Traffic in Beijing, China. Photo by Malingering/Flickr.
Beijing says “no” to vehicle ownership growth
Beijing has launched an effort to tighten up its vehicle quota control regulation and further curb air pollution and traffic congestion in China’s capital city. Echoing the city’s recent “Clean Air Action Plan (2013-2017),” an amendment to the car ownership ...
Beijing traffic congestion
Beijing’s parking woes: Is there any end in sight?
What do the time-honored hutong – quintessential narrow alleys of Beijing that date back to the Qing dynasty – and danwei – organized work and housing complexes from the pre-1979 era –have in common? Apart from the fact that neither ...
Mexico City intersection
On the move: Reducing car usage and ownership in China, Latin America, and other developing economies
This is the fifth post of the “Sustainable Urban Transport On The Move” blog series, exclusive to TheCityFix. It presents emerging, trendy, and mainstream solutions leading this transition, and tracks progress being made by cities already adopting measures to enhance accessibility. Preparation ...
Shanghai Mike Hedge
Friday Fun: A bird’s eye view
It can be disorienting to view familiar cities from above. The details that seem to define cities while we move through them on the ground are missing. Instead, shapes representing streets and buildings emerge, almost abstract. But we can tell ...
The number crunch: Predicting motorization in China
The number crunch: Predicting motorization in China
China’s dramatic increase in motorized vehicle use has greatly exceeded past predictions. Now, latest estimates suggest that, by 2050, as many as one billion vehicles (excluding electric bikes and rural vehicles) will be on the road in China. This is ...
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