Posts tagged with 'quality of life'
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 ...
Trees bring a multitude of benefits to cities, helping the environment as well as residents' quality of life. Photo by Tristan Higbee/Flickr.
Urban trees boost quality of life for city dwellers around the world
Trees often fade into the background of what people understand as the city, yet they bring immense value – including environmental benefits like filtering water run-off and cleaning the air as well as increasing health and quality of life – ...
Connecting smart cards and mobile phones enables cities to offer more efficient mobility and a safer, quality experience for all transport users. Photo by EMBARQ Brasil/Flickr.
Connecting data and technology for smarter transport systems
Emerging technologies, together with big data, are tools that allow us to better plan our cities and revolutionize the efficiency and quality of our transport systems. We are seeing threads of this already, as millions of people use smart cards ...
Researchers find strong correlations between access to green space and increased levels of physical health and happiness. Photo by Mark Carter/Flickr.
Urban green space makes people happier than money
As much as cities can be drivers of economic and social progress, sometimes it’s downright stressful to live amid the hustle and bustle of today’s urban centers. To escape this stress, many urban residents take refuge in green public spaces, ...
Walking in Bangalore. Photo by Benoit Colin/EMBARQ.
In photos: Walking in Bangalore reveals the plight of pedestrians
Bangalore has rapidly become a megacity. At nearly 10 million people, the city has already doubled the size of its population in just 20 years. This explosive urban growth has been coupled with increased motorization, with now more than 50% ...
Urban planners and city leaders look for a new framework to think about sustainable transport that promotes accessibility over mobility. Photo by Trevor Pritchard/Flickr.
Ekistics offers new perspective on mobility versus access
Being able to use a bus to travel ten miles to a super market is not the same as having a grocery store around the corner. Mobility, even sustainable mobility, is not the same as access. In order to create ...
Pedestrians passing across a congested road in Mumbai, India. Photo by Jerry H/Flickr.
From traffic flow to pedestrian access: Shifting Mumbai’s parking policy
In a recent study, the International Energy Agency (IEA) projected that the area required for parking in India if motorization trends continue as they are today will reach between 10,000 and 20,000 square kilometers (3,861 to 7,722 square miles) by ...
Bikers in the Forests of Palermo, Buenos Aires. Photo by Claudio Olivares Medina/Flickr.
Show off your skills – and your streets – with the ‘Open Streets’ Video Contest
Each Sunday streets across cities in the Americas are blocked off to all motorized vehicles. In the absence of cars from their normal ecosystems, new patterns of public interaction emerge in these public spaces. Instead of automobiles, people appear: runners, ...
Social, environmental, and economic impacts of BRT. Photo by Benoit Colin/EMBARQ.
4 ways cities benefit from bus rapid transit
Around the world, cities are searching for sustainable ways to transport residents quickly, efficiently, and safely throughout their streets. One such solution is bus rapid transit (BRT), which is already widely implemented in both the developed and developing worlds. New ...
Vancouver, Canada
Vancouverism: The prescription for a healthier city?
Three weeks ago I had the pleasure of representing EMBARQ at the International Women’s Forum (IWF) in Vancouver, Canada. The event focused on modern movements shaping the world, including trends influencing our lives, communities, and future. Since urban transport is ...
Copenhagen Wheel
Friday Fun: A boost from your bike
Have you ever wished your bicycle could give you a boost while biking uphill or riding long distances? Thanks to the new Copenhagen Wheel from Superpedestrian, a start-up company based in Boston, bikes will be able to do just that ...
Open response to the editorial in Estado de São Paulo newspaper
Open response to the editorial in Estado de São Paulo newspaper
It’s a pity that one of the biggest newspapers in Brazil, the State of São Paulo (Estado de São Paulo) dedicated its editorial on October 10 to reducing debate on the important issue of mobility in the city of São ...
Bay Area Bike Share
Shared-use Mobility Summit explores future of urban mobility
“The 20th century is a century of general, and the 21st century is a century of sharing.” – Lisa Gansky, author of the Mesh Shared mobility is the cornerstone of the sharing economy, which is spurred by demographic changes, increased ...
Bike on board
Friday Fun: “Two Hoots” campaign rewards good behavior on public transport
In Perth, Australia, residents are fed up with anti-social and rude behavior on public transport. In an effort to reward riders who care about the comfort of their fellow passengers, Transperth – part of the Western Australia State Government’s Public ...
Robin Chase
Three things you should be doing right now: Advice from Robin Chase, founder of Zipcar
As human society faces the massive global challenge of climate change, many of us ask ourselves – do my individual actions really matter? Robin Chase, the founder and former CEO of Buzzcar and Zipcar, thinks they do, and she’s given ...
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