Parking lots have much potential to be principal areas for harvesting the sun's solar rays. Photo by Kevin Dooley
Welcome back to TheCityFix Picks, our series highlighting the newsy and noteworthy of the past week. Each Friday, we’ll run down the headlines falling under TheCityFix’s five themes: mobility, quality of life, environment, public space, and technology and innovation.
Mobility
Cincinnati, Charlotte, and Chicago are just some of the cities that will receive a portion of the $293 million in competitive grants for bus and streetcar projects from the United States Federal Transit Administration.
Public Transportation Takes Us There released a report this week that revealed that an average annual savings of $9,343 could be achieved by Americans using public transit.
A full bus trip during New York City rush-hour is to take a total of 12 minutes! The New York magazine features an extensive article about the future bus rapid transit system to be installed in NYC.
Quality of Life
At what age is it appropriate to let a child cycle without supervision? That is the question that the Guardian‘s Bike Blog poses to readers this week.
Did South Africa win? Yes! Well…infrastructure-wise, most definitely. The Financial Times held a round table of five South Africans centered on that question.
Environment
A recently concluded study in the Netherlands shows that an air-purifying road surface removes up to 45% of nitrogen oxide pollution produced by vehicles.
The New York Times Green Blog takes a look at parking lots for use as “solar groves” for collecting energy from that shiny celestial body over our heads.
Public Space
When was the last time you rode your bicycle to the airport? This piece in The L Magazine proposes a drastic change in urban infrastructure to make room for more bikes as a truly viable option for getting, for example, to the airport.
“They’re here to stay!” Vancouver’s bike lanes celebrated one million users within one year of the opening of the pilot project.
Technology and Innovation
New cars with installed “black boxes” that record video and information about driving behavior to be used by police and insurance companies could be on roads in the near future, according to the Telegraph.
Tired of roaming the parking lot for an empty parking space? New software developed at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona uses a new positioning technology to locate nearby empty spots to park your car.
Last week it was diesel made from trans fats. This week it’s soy oil in rubber auto parts from Ford.
