Jul 16
Jun 13
Video - Mexico City Residents Losing Sense of Smell
Sustainable Transport, Mexico City, Video, Social Impact, Pollution, Mexico, People, Particulate Matter, Public Health, Ozone, urbanization 1 Comment »
People In Mexico City Losing Their Sense of Smell. Produced by theEMBARQ Network on Vimeo.
Rhys Thom and I recently visited Mexico City where we met with two researchers at UNAM - Mexico’s National University - who are doing some fascinating research. Robyn Hudson, a charismatic professor, originally from Australia who has been living in Mexico City for quite some time, and her colleague Marco Guarneros, a fellow biomedical researcher, conducted a study comparing the ability of Mexico City’s residents to detect certain smells, with the ability of people living in a Tlaxcala, a neighboring town. Mexico City and Tlaxcala are similar in many respects - they share a similar culture and climate, situated high in the mountains of Mexico. But there is one crucial difference: Mexico City has much higher levels of air pollution.
When compared to their neighbors, people living in Mexico City need higher concentrations of a smell in order to identify it, a clear indication that their sense of smell is deteriorating.
Read the rest of this entry »
May 19
May 16
I haven’t had a chance to see this elegantly shot film, but I still thought it would be appropriate for me to share it with you.
Click here to view the film makers site.
And click here for AO Scott’s review in The New York Times.
Apr 29
The Supidest Bike Lane Ever - Part II
Sustainable Transport, Video, Bicycles, Urban Planning 1 Comment »A few weeks back we posted a video from SlateV about “The stupidest bike lane ever” which featured a short and poorly thought out bike lane near the University of California Los Angeles. Now SlateV has made a follow up video in response to readers feedback, documenting several other stupid bike lanes. Check out the video above.
Apr 10
Car-Centric Transport Policy Hurts India’s Informal Sector
Video, India, Pedestrian, Rickshaw 2 Comments »In a recent post here on TheCityFix.com, Sudhir Gota documented the plight of ‘Transport Challenged People’ in Bangalore, India. In his piece, Sudhir explains how Indian transportation policy’s often myopic focus on car infrastructure can reduce the mobility (and thus the quality of life) of those unable to afford automobiles themselves.
Another example of the link between social justice and transport policy is the plight of Delhi’s ‘wastepickers’ – informal sector trash collectors that make their living collecting and sorting garbage. According to Bharati Chaturvedi, Director of Chintan, a community group that advocates for wastepicker rights, new transport policies in Delhi and other Indian cities have often favored the transportation needs of private automobile owners over those of the wastepickers. Read the rest of this entry »
Mar 27
Well at least its a bike lane. The vast majority of LA’s streets don’t even have them.
Mar 25
In Hanoi, crossing the street can be a dangerous proposition. Despite the high marks that Vietnamese motorists receive for driving etiquette in the absence of formal traffic rules, (clearly evidenced by the ability of the pedestrian in this video to weave in and out of countless motorbikes) traffic safety is a major public health concern in Vietnam.
A recent article in the Malaysian Sun presents the grim figures:
Traffic accidents are one of the leading causes of death in Vietnam, with an average of 36 people killed each day on the roads as the country’s new prosperity leads to greater numbers of motorbikes and cars.
Last year, some 13,000 people died on Vietnam’s roads, railways and waterways. Safety advocates say that the number of deaths could be cut if more motorbike drivers wore helmets.
Only three per cent now wear helmets even though motorbikes account for up to 90 percent of vehicles on the roads, according to the Asian Injury Prevention Foundation.
Click here to read a post by Lee Schipper, a fellow contributor at TheCityFix, who had the opportunity to ride a two-wheeler in Hanoi. And click here to see a movie to the one above about motorbikes in Ho Chi Minh City.
Mar 13
Our friends over at Streetfilms just produced a nice video about Istanbul, featuring the city’s battle with cars, air pollution, and traffic and some bold efforts to make the city more inviting to pedestrians and cyclists.
Click the following links to learn more about cycling in Istanbul, it’s efforts to systematize its taxis, its new bus rapid transit system, and its history as a pedestrian city.
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