The International Herald Tribune has put together this interesting video together on the building boom in Shanghai, which is now one of the fastest growing cities in the world.

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Here’s a neat video about Amsterdam that doesn’t need a whole lot of explanation. Enjoy! To learn more about Amsterdam’s integrated transport network and Centraal Station shown in this video - it’s the one with a two-story bike rack - check out this post.

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Here is a fun videoclip about a situation that you would never like to be in: after having had lots of beans for lunch you naturally need a toilet and you attempt to go home to find one by braving Istanbul’s transport system!

I like the video a lot; the melody is nice, the lyrics are fun, and it provides a human touch to Istanbul’s traffic problems! The video truly represents what it’s like taking a taxi, standing in a bus like sardines in a tin, suffocating in a tram because the air conditioning doesn’t work (I myself have the opposite problem of freezing in tram with the AC blasting), and being snared in a traffic jam. If you’ve ever experienced (im)mobility in Istanbul, or, if you’ve been stuck in a taxi with a driver sucking down cigarettes, you’ll instantly sympathize with the guy in the video!

Check out what the singer “Yo” says and his message at the end!

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In this great ad from MTV a donkey named Lolo takes the bus. The caption says “If Lolo can save the planet, why can’t you? Leave the car and take public transit. Let’s stop global warming.”

The car industry’s total annual advertising expenditures for the US alone were $16.3 billion in 2006 according to media research firm TNS Media Intelligence. In the face of this barrage of automobile advertising, it’s nice to see some time, money, and creativity invested in well done TV spots promoting public transportation. I’d love to see more of this. If anybody has any more examples of this kind of messaging please post them here or send them to me at rthom[at]wri[dot]org.

Way to go MTV! Check out the campaign at mtvswitch.org.

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Via our friends at Streetsblog, this slice of an old Disney film gives us a nice view of the future of our automobile society from mid-century. Enjoy!

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One of the primary causes of urbanization is what demographers call “rural to urban migration.” Migrants leave their homes in rural areas for a confluence of reasons — degraded farm land, drought, confiscated land, etc. — and move to cities, often because they have no other option. Some have argued that the best way to relieve the stress that these migrants are placing on cities, which often lack the infrastructure to handle them, is to improve rural areas so that they never end up migrating in the first place. Check out the video posted above to see how a coffee shop in Portland, Oregon has teamed up with a coffee cooperative in Rwanda to provide custom-made, industrial bicycles to coffee workers. This video was made byGood Magazine.

Click here for more info. on bike stuff in Africa.

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In an Earth Day special, MTV’s Pimp My Ride will feature the greening of a ‘65 Chevy Impala. During this very special episode of Pimp My Ride the crew will be replacing the original engine of the Impala with a 800 horsepower diesel engine that will run on biodiesel. While this should be entertaining, chances are it won’t touch EMBARQ’s Mexico City Diesel Retrofit video Read the rest of this entry »

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When it comes to making a city bike friendly, the simple bike lane is not enough. Check out this video featuring Transportation Alternatives, The Project for Public Spaces, and The Open Planning Project, which calls for a system that segregates bikers from traffic. This is BRT for bikers!Special thanks to Erica Stephan for the hot tip.

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Part I

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