Posts in the 'Sustainable Mobility' category
Helsinki’s “mobility on demand” system will integrate a variety of transport options and could make car ownership obsolete. Photo by Justin Swan/Flickr.
Friday Fun: Two cities’ bold plans to make cars obsolete
Helsinki, Finland and Hamburg, Germany are both striving to vastly improve urban transport in less than a generation. The Helsinki Times boldly states that “the future resident of Helsinki will not own a car.” Hamburg, meanwhile, has announced a plan ...
To help increase safety for women on mass transport, cities in Latin America are requiring women-only passenger cars on metro systems. Photo by Gustavo Gomes/Flickr
Customers protest new women-only cars on São Paulo metro system
Cities around the world face the challenge of creating safe public spaces for women. In Brazil, sexual assault is a prevalent problem. Alarmingly, a survey by the Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada, a major Brazilian research institute, found that 26% of ...
Bus rapid transit (BRT) is expanding worldwide, particularly in Asia and Latin America. Watch it grow on BRTdata.org. Photo by EMBARQ Brasil.
New BRT data shows cities’ increased commitment to sustainable transport
The BRTData.org global database of bus rapid transit (BRT) data has recently been updated, and the increased number of BRT lines, as well as the length of those lines, reflects the commitment of cities around the world to provide high-capacity ...
São Paulo's Rua da Consolação is often congested for hours each day, leading residents and city leaders to wonder if other transport modes such as bikes and mass transport can be used to cut down on traffic while increasing sustainable mobility. Photo by Carlos Barretta/Flickr.
Study: São Paulo commuters lose one month per year sitting in traffic
While the idea of ‘free time’ is by nature associated with individual choice and being momentarily ‘free’ from the demands of everyday life, the amount and quality of this time we have at our disposal is closely linked to city-wide ...
Although Brazil has taken criticism for World Cup infrastructure investments, examples like Belo Horizonte's MOVE bus rapid transit (BRT) system show how a project can serve visitors and also provide lasting impacts for the people of Brazil. Photo by Mariana Gil/EMBARQ Brazil.
To Maracanã and beyond: World Cup brings sustainable transport benefits to Brazil
World Cup fans may be focused on the games, but critics are paying attention to another aspect of the event—its price tag. Brazil spent billions of dollars on World Cup infrastructure, and many are understandably questioning the long-term benefits these ...
Mexico City's car-free Sundays have created a mindset of sustainable mobility that has perpetuated throughout the week. Photo by Carlos Alejandro Figeuroa/Flickr.
Beyond Move in Mexico City: Integrating Sustainable Mobility Into the Everyday
This year marks the seventh anniversary of the “Muévete en bici” (Bike Move) program in Mexico City. Every Sunday for the past seven years, the city has closed many of its streets to cars, and opened them up to pedestrians ...
Work schedules outside of the traditional 9 am to 5 pm allow greater flexibility in personal mobility, and in turn decreases congestion in developing cities. Photo by Roger Schultz/Flickr.
The end of rush hour: Technology gives way to new commuting and mobility patterns
For decades, ‘work’ meant spending an eight-hour chunk of your day in an office, industrial facility, or at school. Workers needed to physically occupy a given location in order to do their jobs. Because of this, the trips to and ...
In a new study on the connection between mood and transport, bicyclists were found to be the happiest, giving one more reason to choose sustainable mobility. Photo by Onny Carr/Flickr.
Mobility and mood: Does your commute make you happy?
There is a complex connection between the environments we inhabit and the way we feel. For instance, urban physicists have studied how rain and wind influence walking patterns, environmental psychologists have researched how the presence of nature influences well-being, and ...
The pedestrianization project in the Historic Peninsula of Istanbul, Turkey, has created vibrant thoroughfares that has allowed the city to compromise between preserving culture and meeting the mobility needs of its growing populace. Photo by Gulsen Oczan/Flickr.
Peninsulas and public spaces: The pedestrianization of Istanbul
Istanbul, Turkey, has stood at the center of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Empire. It has acted as a central hub of political history and artistic creation for some 20 centuries, with remnants of the ...
King's Cross Station in London ties together both train and high-speed rail lines, serving as a transport hub for residents in the city and the wider region, and, perhaps, for wizards. Photo by Jim Nix/Flickr.
Friday Fun: What Harry Potter teaches us about integrated transport
In J.K. Rowling’s novel Harry Potter, there comes a time when the reader learns about Apparition – essentially teleportation – where wizards close their eyes, think about where they want to be, and poof! There they are. Once you learn ...
Quality, user-friendly public transport systems provide a viable alternative to the private car and help build livable, accessible cities. Photo by Alejandro Luna/EMBARQ Mexico.
People-oriented Cities: Three keys to quality public transport
Quality, user-friendly public transport systems provide a viable alternative to the private car and help build livable, accessible cities. Photo by Alejandro Luna/EMBARQ Mexico. The “People-oriented Cities” series – exclusive to TheCityFix and Insights – is an exploration of how ...
Groups like the Seatbelt Crew combine education and entertainment to get automobile drivers on Mumbai, India's crowded roads to buckle-up. Photo by Jerry H./Flickr.
Friday Fun: Mumbai's Seatbelt Crew wants you to buckle up
Imagine it’s a hot, sunny day in Mumbai, India. Traffic is stopped. As you watch people passing by, suddenly a group of hijras – sometimes referred to as India’s transgender “third sex” – in matching saris file into the streets ...
Information-communication technologies have the ability to improve data quality for transport operators while increasing convenience for transport users. Photo by Frederik_Rowing/Flickr.
Across the divide: Information and communication connect users and transport systems
As the situation stands in India, lack of data connectivity inhibits the success of urban transport systems on two fronts. On one hand, transport operators do not have the baseline information to do their job efficiently. On the other hand, ...
Jaime Lerner's vision for Curitiba, Brazil, included creating a connected, sustainable city that would be accessible to all. Photo by EMBARQ/Flickr.
Urbanism Hall of Fame: Jaime Lerner – The architect of Curitiba
This is the third entry in the Urbanism Hall of Fame series, exclusive to TheCityFix. This series is intended to inform people about the leading paradigms surrounding sustainable transport and urban planning and the thinkers behind them. By presenting their ...
EMBARQ Brazil released today a new manual to help cities like Rio de Janeiro build safe cycling infrastructure and foster cycling culture for sustainable urban mobility. Photo by Mariana Gil/EMBARQ Brazil.
New manual to catalyze cycling in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas
Cycling is already an important part of daily life many of Brazil’s urban residents. To grow the country’s cycling culture as well as provide better conditions for users, the new “Manual of Projects and Programs for Encouraging Cycling in Communities” ...
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