Posts tagged with 'South Africa'
5 Cities Show What Urban Transformation Really Looks Like
5 Cities Show What Urban Transformation Really Looks Like
Urbanization is changing the face of the planet – for better and for worse. City populations, GDP and investment are increasing exponentially. At the same time, carbon emissions are rising, more and more people are living in slums, and air pollution ...
Big Picture, Small Cities: Why Urban Development Needs National Governments
Big Picture, Small Cities: Why Urban Development Needs National Governments
More and more, cities are acting independently of – or even in direct opposition to – their national governments. This trend is seen, for example, in the group of American “Climate Mayors” that remain committed to the Paris Agreement even ...
Q&A with Winnie Mitullah on Integrating Non-Motorized Transport in African Cities
Q&A with Winnie Mitullah on Integrating Non-Motorized Transport in African Cities
This series, supported by the Volvo Research and Educational Foundations, discusses walking and cycling in cities with a special focus on low- and middle-income countries. Walking and cycling are the dominant modes of transport in African cities, and too often it’s ...
3 Things Cities Can Learn from Cape Town’s Impending “Day Zero” Water Shut-Off
3 Things Cities Can Learn from Cape Town’s Impending “Day Zero” Water Shut-Off
Cape Town is running out of water. After three years of intense drought, South Africa’s second-largest city is just a few months away from “Day Zero,” the day when the city government will shut off water taps for most homes and businesses. The impacts ...
Live From Transforming Transportation 2018: Confronting Gender Issues, 'Leapfrogging' in Africa
Live From Transforming Transportation 2018: Confronting Gender Issues, ‘Leapfrogging’ in Africa
Beyond the technological revolution underway in transport today, gender was an underlying theme of Transforming Transportation this year. Transport is not gender neutral, not matter where you are, said a chorus of experts during the opening panel on day two. “Gender is often a more robust determinant of modal choice than ...
If Cities Are to Lead, National Transport and Housing Policy Needs to Change
If Cities Are to Lead, National Transport and Housing Policy Needs to Change
Across the world, it’s becoming clearer that development goals must be urban goals. As their populations and global connections grow, cities account for an ever-growing portion of the global economy. But despite their prominence, cities can’t do it alone. Local ...
Beyond "Take, Make, Waste": Developing Cities Show the Possibilities of the Circular Economy
Beyond "Take, Make, Waste": Developing Cities Show the Possibilities of the Circular Economy
By 2050, the global population is expected to soar beyond 9 billion people, 66 percent of whom may live in cities. Accompanying this stunning pace of urbanization will be a complex web of challenges related to consumption, pollution and water and energy stresses. Recently, ...
Video: Edgar Pieterse on Housing and the Democracy Deficit in African Cities
Video: Edgar Pieterse on Housing and the Democracy Deficit in African Cities
Edgar Pieterse, an urban scholar and founding director of the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town, says there are two major challenges facing African cities today. First, the majority of urban residents don’t have access to ...
Do Bus Rapid Transit Systems Improve Equity? A Look at the Evidence
Do Bus Rapid Transit Systems Improve Equity? A Look at the Evidence
Some time ago, professor Christo Venter of the University of Pretoria sent me an intriguing message: Did I have data on how bus rapid transit systems, or BRTs, affect equity in cities? Impact evaluations for changes in travel time, cost, ...
Confronting the Urban Housing Gap
Confronting the Urban Housing Gap
More than 1.2 billion city dwellers – one of every three people living in urban areas – lack access to affordable and secure housing. This housing gap is a major drag on the economy and the environment. The impact is ...
3 Reasons Renewable Energy Is Poised to Take Off in Developing Nations
3 Reasons Renewable Energy Is Poised to Take Off in Developing Nations
You often hear about renewable energy success stories in cities in the developed world – places like Vancouver, which has committed to get 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources before 2050, or San Diego, which has promised to ...
Urban gardens, like the one pictured above in Kibera, Nairobi, allow residents to come together for healthier, happier communities. Photo by Colin Crowley/Flickr.
Friday Fun: Urban gardening builds strong, cohesive communities
CNN recently described Cape Town, South Africa as being in the midst of a “vegoultion,” with hundreds of new community gardens and urban farms popping up throughout the city in recent years. The city’s “Green Clusters” are helping to improve ...
Boats anchored in a harbor outside of Qingdao, China. Photo by Li-Cah/Wikimedia.
Sustainable Cities: From a Vision to Reality
The C40 Cities Mayors Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa kicks off today. It’s the fifth biennial meeting of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, a collection of mayors from cities around the world committed to advancing urban solutions to climate ...
Urban community garden in Montréal, Canada. Photo by Bruno VITASSE/Flickr.
Friday Fun: 100 in 1 day highlights the power of active citizenship
From Bogotá, Colombia to Cape Town, South Africa and Kaluga, Russia, the 100 en 1 día (100 in 1 day) movement is making an impact on urban streetscapes worldwide. A “global social movement for citizen-driven change,” the movement is a ...
TransOeste BRT driver
Visualize and explore Bus Rapid Transit with this revamped data portal
Every single day, nearly 30.9 million people ride Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) or busways system globally. That’s more people than the entire population of Ghana or the state of Texas. 19.5 million (63.3%) of these passengers are located in Latin ...
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