Friday Fun: Art in metro stations is about more than just good looks
Universidad de Chile metro station mural
A successful transport system connects people with their city not only physically, but also culturally. While public transport can sometimes be perceived as anonymous and impersonal, metro stations that engage culturally with the communities they serve are much more likely ...
New pilot program aims to expand energy efficiency in Chinese cities
Reducing building emissions in China
As China urbanizes, buildings in the country’s cities are a growing source of emissions and air pollution. Energy use from public sector buildings rose 15 percent between 2006 and 2010, and heat and electricity from emissions-intensive coal now account for ...
New survey shows increased satisfaction with urban transport in São Paulo
New bike paths in São Paulo
Are you satisfied with the quality of life in your city? In São Paulo, overall perceptions of quality of life increased over the past year for one-third of the population, and remained stable for half according to the city’s Municipal ...
Mobility solutions for marginalized communities: The urban cable car
Connection between Medellín's Metrocable and Metroplús rapid transit systems
Latin America’s rate of urbanization peaked in the 1960s and 1970s, during which the region’s cities saw unprecedented rural to urban migration. In the following decades, violence in many of these population-drained rural areas accelerated the flow of rural migrants ...
Friday Fun: Six mayors who bike, and why this is a good thing
Madrid mayor Ana Botella rides her bike
Here at TheCityFix, we believe in recognizing profound leadership in urban sustainability. After all, it takes a combination of citizen support and top-down vision to create meaningful change in a city. While public focus is usually on what city leaders ...
People-oriented streets and the built environment: Lee Schipper Memorial Scholars present at Transforming Transportation 2015
2014 Lee Schipper Scholars present at Transforming Transportation
Last week’s Transforming Transportation conference put forth multiple innovative ideas for how cities can transform mobility to become more socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable. Speakers included former heads of state like Mexico’s Felipe Calderón, road safety champions like former New ...
Urban design for safer roads: Insights from EMBARQ Turkey’s RSLab
Making Turkey's roads safer by design
More than 1.2 million people worldwide are killed in road traffic crashes every year, and an additional 20 to 50 million are injured. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), if urgent action is not taken, these figures will increase ...
Transport plays a key role in urban air quality
Londrina, Brazil. Photo by Mariana Gil/EMBARQ Brasil.
The city is like an organism, and the swift movement of people and goods is the oxygen that sustains its well-being. When this circulation is inhibited, it significantly compromises the quality of urban life. For example, private cars account for ...
Who needs cars? Smart mobility can make cities sustainable
Mexico City's Metrobús BRT system. Photo by Taís Policanti/EMBARQ Mexico.
This article was originally published on January 15, 2015 by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.  Last year marked an important tipping point: for the first time, half of the global population lives in cities. Cities currently add 1.4 million people each ...
Live from Transforming Transportation: The actions we need for the sustainable urban future we want
At the final session of Transforming Transportation 2015, speakers discussed why 2015 presents unprecedented opportunities to embed sustainable transport in the global development agenda. Photo by Benoit Colin/EMBARQ.
Transforming Transportation (#TTDC15) is the annual conference co-organized by EMBARQ, the sustainable urban transport arm of the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, and the World Bank. This year’s conference focuses on Smart Cities for Shared Prosperity, and takes place on ...