Posts tagged with 'Asia'
By prioritizing sustainable transport solutions, Beijing can shift away from car culture and improve quality of life for its rapidly growing population. Photo by Philip/Flickr.
The making of a livable city: Inspiration for a sustainable, healthy Beijing
Each year, 440,000 people move to Beijing in search of economic opportunity and better lives. Their rural to urban migration is a driver of economic growth, part of a larger plan to catalyze economic development through urbanization across China. However, ...
Caption: Cities can dramatically improve street vendors’ livelihoods by providing sufficient space and infrastructure for vending. Photo by Prasanth Chandran/Flickr.
Making space for street vendors: Towards equitable urban development
As previously discussed on TheCityFix, informal street vendors in cities around the world experience daily challenges to their economic livelihoods. For example, street vendors are perceived to be detrimental to city life, unhygienic, noisy, and to obstruct smooth flow of ...
Raahgiri is promoting sustainable, active transport in the capital of India. Photo by Raahgiri Day, New Delhi/Facebook.
Friday Fun: Delhi announces Raahgiri at the center of week-long Independence Day celebrations
Delhi’s government just announced a week of Independence Day celebrations culminating in a Raahgiri event at Chandni Chowk. Raahgiri Day first came to Delhi in July as a weekly event that closes city streets to cars to celebrate walking, biking, ...
E-rickshaws offer multiple advantages over more common auto-rickshaws, but require increased regulation to ensure passenger safety. Photo by Subhash Barolia/Flickr.
Regulation can help e-rickshaws transform urban mobility across India
As one of the most widely used forms of intermediate public transport or paratransit – services that connect users to mass transport systems like buses or metro – auto-rickshaws are ubiquitous in Indian cities. The electric rickshaw (e-rickshaw), however, emerged ...
Governments must create inclusive spaces for dialogue with street vendors and craft policy to support their livelihoods and economic mobility. Photo by Carlos Penalba/Flickr.
Bridging the divide between vendors and local governments for more inclusive cities
As previously discussed on TheCityFix, many cities worldwide are facing a series of challenges around informal economic activity. As they begin to modernize and transform public spaces, street vendors are often left behind or swept away. Yet, these efforts at ...
Mixed-use development combined with pedestrianization on Mexico City's Calle Madero promotes sustainable, prosperous communities. Photo by Julius Reque/Flickr.
People-oriented Cities: Mixed-use development creates social and economic benefits
The “People-oriented Cities” series – exclusive to TheCityFix and Insights – is an exploration of how cities can grow to become more sustainable and livable through transit-oriented development (TOD). The nine-part series will address different urban design techniques and trends ...
Congestion pricing has the potential to pave the way for more equitable mobility in China's cities. Photo by GuoZhongHua/Shutterstock.
Congestion pricing can make Beijing a more equitable city
China’s capital city of Beijing is already home to 5.4 million cars, the most of any Chinese city. The country’s rising wealth means that this is a trend unlikely to stop. This rapid motorization has led to many city government ...
In order to make cities safer and public spaces more inviting for all, EMBARQ India studied how women perceive – and how they are perceived in – India's urban public spaces. Photo by EMBARQ.
What does a sociological approach to safe cities reveal?: Findings from a national workshop in India
While concerns of violence against women are not new, women’s safety in public spaces has received significant attention in India in the past two years. Cities are seeing increased demands around making public spaces safer for women, ranging from better ...
Technology is allowing city residents to interact with their surroundings in new ways, which can have both the benefit of advancing sustainable development and the drawback of reinforcing social divisions. Photo by Daniel Chavez/Flickr.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: New mapping algorithm poses problems and promise for cities
Yahoo Labs has recently created a mapping algorithm that helps pedestrians find not the shortest route to their destination, but the most attractive one. This is great for visitors who want to spend every second of their time sightseeing in ...
Raahgiri Day, a day in which streets are closed to cars and open to pedestrians and cyclists is a time to celebrate community and human-centered mobility that is swiftly expanding throughout India. Photo by EMBARQ.
Scaling up sustainability: ‘Raahgiri Day’ comes to New Delhi
Raahgiri Day, the weekly event that closes city streets to cars to celebrate walking, biking, music-making, and socializing, has expanded beyond Gurgaon, India. The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) together with the New Delhi Police Department has decided to stage ...
Increasing motorization in cities across China is threatening air quality and public health, causing many to ask what reforms can combat the country's growing culture of car-dependency. Photo by ilmari hyvönen/Flickr.
Turning the car around: Decreasing high-emission automobiles is the first step to a greener China
China currently has enough roads and infrastructure to accommodate 300 million vehicles. With car ownership reaching 137 million at the end of 2013, and 74 Chinese cities already reporting pollution surging above the level deemed safe by the World Health Organization (WHO) for over two thirds ...
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 ...
The Buriganga River in the Bangladeshi city of Dhaka provides transport for the city---yet reminds Dhaka's residents of the need to build resiliency into the city as water levels rise. Photo by William Veerbeek/Flickr.
Pitfalls and potential: Climate change vulnerability in Dhaka, Bangladesh
According to the United Nations, temperatures are likely to warm anywhere from 3 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, and scientists warn that “the world is ill-equipped to deal with the impacts of warming.” To help the lives impacted by ...
Japan's shotengais - partly enclosed markets - succeed both because of their proximity to transport and the unique, tightly knit communities they foster. Photo by Michael Vito/Flickr.
Friday Fun: Japan’s shotengais show connectivity and community are key to commercial success
Even as malls are declining as social spaces in the United States, shotengais (商店街) – pedestrianized business districts covered with translucent roofs – remain a part of everyday life in Japanese cities. Shotengais are generally located near transport hubs and ...
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 ...
Right Menu Icon