Car sharing the next wave of innovation for Brazilian cities
In 2014, Recife became the first city in Brazil to have a car-sharing program
Driving a car is often the easiest, most straightforward mobility option for many urban residents. There are a laundry list of reasons people just can’t seem to live without cars in cities: because they don’t feel that public transport or ...
Friday Fun: Addis Ababa on the frontier of sustainable transport for African cities
Downtown in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
East Africa doesn’t make a lot of headlines for its sustainable transport achievements. That’s changing, as its cities are starting to pioneer innovative new projects to bring urban Africa into the spotlight for sustainable development. The challenges in the region ...
'I want to ride the pink bus': The problem with public transport’s public image
The problem with public transport's image
In many parts of the world, the bus is suffering from a public image crisis. According to a report by the US Federal Transit Administration, many people already look down on public transport in general, and the bus in particular ...
The two things India must get right for its economic future
Energy and sustainable cities are key to India's economic growth
Taking even a quick look at India’s current pattern of growth, it’s not hard to see both the rising energy insecurity and the stress that cities across the country are experiencing. Congestion, urban sprawl, and poor access to reliable energy ...
Empowering citizens to shape their city: Brazil’s new approach to public participation
Public participation in Belo Horizonte
Citizen participation is a critical—and often overlooked—aspect of successful urban planning. For public policies and services to actually have a positive impact on people’s daily lives, city leaders need to have a clear picture of the particular needs of the ...
Why public transport needs to work for women, too
Making public transport work for women in India
Men and women use public transport in different ways because of their distinct social roles and economic activities. Since women’s reasons for traveling generally differ from men’s, the purpose, frequency, and distance of their trips are also different. Additionally, safety ...
Friday Fun: Bogotá, Colombia celebrates its 15th annual car-free day
2015 car free day Bogota Colombia
Yesterday, Bogotá, Colombia celebrated the 15th anniversary of its annual car-free day. Between 5am and 7:30pm, residents left their cars behind and turned to a variety of other modes of transport—a symbolic act that 63 percent of citizens institutionalized through ...
Transforming Transportation 2015: Turning momentum into action
Transforming Transport 2015 sustainable transport Hong Kong
What will the city of the future look like? How can we unlock the potential of urbanization to create safe, accessible and prosperous societies? At Transforming Transportation 2015 – the annual conference co-organized by the World Resources Institute and the World Bank– we learned about ...
What human-centered design teaches us about making cities car-optional
Mexico City's pedestrian-friendly historic downtown
Previously on TheCityFix, we took you through the initial steps of EMBARQ and IDEO’s project to explore how human-centered design thinking can be put to work for sustainable urban mobility. We’re asking a bold question – what if there were ...
How to enable safer access to mass transit in Indian cities
Making safe and accessible BRT stations
It is increasingly recognized that cities are both powerhouses of economic growth and the primary drivers of economic prosperity, worldwide. This holds true for urban India as well, where exponential growth is expected not only in existing metropolitan areas, but ...