Compact, Connected, and Coordinated: A Vision for India's Smart Cities
New services are venturing to transform the way the auto-rickshaw sector is managed in Chennai, India - to the benefit of users. Photo by Mattheui Aubry/Flickr.
Last Thursday could be a turning point in the history of India’s urbanization: the Modi government has unveiled its ambitious Smart City project, which aims to build 100 smart cities across the country. Additionally, the AMRUT program will aim to ...
To Subsidize or Not to Subsidize Public Transport: That Is the Question
TransMilenio BRT in Bogotá, Colombia. Photo by Mariana Gil/EMBARQ Brazil.
Subsidizing users’ fares for public transport may sound like a great idea, and often there are good economic reasons for doing so. In all industrialized and many developing countries, urban transport systems are subsidized with public funds in order to ...
Friday Fun: A Wave of New Smartphone Apps Makes Cycling Undeniably Easy
Mobile Apps for Cycling
With the growing number of smart phone users and urban cyclists, the rise of mobile apps for bikers should come as no surprise. These innovations can be used in myriad ways—from navigating maps to submitting pictures of local potholes in ...
Reimagining Mumbai
Mumbai, India and Smart Cities
This article originally appeared on WRI-India.org How can Mumbai become a Smart City that the nation is proud of? The recently published Draft Development Plan (DP) for Mumbai was so poorly received by various stakeholders that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis scrapped ...
Smart Cities No Longer an Urban Legend
Ahmedabad, India Smart Cities
This article was originally published in The Economic Times. Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally launches the government’s ambitious Smart Cities initiative, which aims to tackle key issues resulting from India’s rapid urbanization. In addition, the ‘Atal Mission’ and ‘Housing ...
How Transit-Oriented Development Benefits Local Economies
Nossa Cidade TOD 1
Nossa Cidade (“Our City”), from TheCityFix Brasil, explores critical questions for building more sustainable cities. Every month features a new theme. Leaning on the expertise of researchers and specialists in WRI’s sustainable urban mobility team in Brazil, the series will feature in ...
Enrique Peñalosa: Our Streets Belong to All
Enrique Penalosa
Enrique Peñalosa, Bogota’s former mayor, will come to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on September 9  for the Mayors´ Summit. The event is hosted by WRI Brasil | EMBARQ Brasil as part of EMBARQ Brasil’s 10th anniversary celebration. Here is an exclusive interview for ...
Why Cities Need Youth Innovation for a Low Carbon Future
Youth Innovation
Given our increasingly complex and dynamic world, cities need to be continuously innovating in order to solve pressing social and environmental problems. Many cities worldwide are growing rapidly, and by 2050 it is estimated that 70 per cent of the world’s ...
Friday Fun: Hacking Our Way to Global Climate Action with #Climathon
Hackathon technology cell phone
Yesterday was an incredibly significant day for climate change action. Not only did the highly anticipated release of Pope Francis’ Climate Change Encyclical, which calls for people worldwide—regardless of religious affiliation—to make more sustainable lifestyle and consumption choices,  inspire action ...
The First "Urban Pope"
A Brazilian slum, or favela, and a cross. Pope Francis's Encyclium addresses urban poverty and inequality as well as climate change. Chico Ferreira/Flickr
Pope Francis is proving to be the first “environmentalist pope.” It turns out he also may be the first urbanist pope–not counting the aptly named Pope Urban of the 3rd Century. Today marks an important milestone in the global effort ...