Friday Fun: Shanghai Tower raises questions on the future of walkability
The construction of the Shanghai Tower is a testament to architectural skill and China's growing economic power, but does this come at the expense of vibrant street life? Photo by Jerry Yang/Flickr.
Shanghai Tower, designed by transnational architecture design tycoon Gensler, will soon become the third tallest building in the world this year. Once complete, it will proudly join Shanghai’s already crowded skyline, which currently consists of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, ...
São Paulo’s changing perception towards the car
Social media, new bus lines, and increasing awareness of the environmental impacts of carbon emissions have altered the public's perception of mass transport in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Photo by Mariana Gil/EMBARQ Brasil.
Earlier this month, the government of São Paulo, Brazil, and METRÔ-SP published the results of the 2012 Mobility Survey. The data is heartening in many ways, for in a city where cars were once seen as symbols of wealth and ...
Top five under-rated low carbon transport solutions
There many creative ways to lower the carbon impact of transport. Some ways are zanier than others. Photo byRichard Masoner / www.cyclelicio.us
Climate change is not a joke. Here at TheCityFix, we realize that we need to get serious about our strategies to reduce carbon emissions from transport. The world needs to explore bold, creative approaches to climate change mitigation if we ...
GreaterPlaces: The emerging Wikipedia for urban planners
Cities have a lot to learn from one another. New "Wikipedia for urban planners" GreaterPlaces helps them do just that. Photo by Shreyans Bhansali/Flickr.
Washington, DC recently hosted a Techcrunch meet-up, a Silicon-valley style pitch-off battle for emerging application developers. Amidst contestants like Broomie, which allows people to remind roommates and errant husbands to pick up groceries, and SpeakerBlast, which lets users turn their ...
Friday Fun: Moscow metro’s commuter dogs
Dogs ride the Moscow Metro, too! Photo by Adam Baker/Flickr.
Over the past few years, a number of incredulous stories have surfaced about stray dogs in Moscow – dogs that sleep in the suburbs, take the subway downtown in the morning with other commuters and return home in the evening ...
The nuts and bolts of a road safety audit
Road safety auditing in Rio de Janeiro. Photo by Mariana Gil/EMBARQ Brazil.
Although many people want to help improve road safety around the world, few actually know the nuts and bolts of accomplishing this goal. Wilson Arias-Rojas, Civil Engineer and Surveyor with 17 years of experience working for the Department of Justice ...
Two case studies show cities return to physical activity
Parque Madureira in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, provides a place for residents to engage in physical activity and connect with the local community. Photo by Higor de Padua/Flickr.
Worldwide, people are moving less – taking their car, abandoning walking and bicycling, or perhaps unable to visit a neighborhood park or play space because it may not exist. In real numbers, as outlined by the Designed to Move campaign, physical activity ...
“The wind at our backs”: An interview with Alta Bicycle Share co-founder Jeff Olson
Alta Bicycle Share has been successful in molding bike-share systems to meet individual city needs and build a culture of sustainable mobility. Photo by aaaronvandorn/Flickr.
Recently Jeff Olson, co-founder of Alta Bicycle Share, took a moment to sit down for a discussion on bike-share and sustainable urban mobility with TheCityFix. Our discussion spanned Olson’s thirty years of work in the field and his thoughts on ...
Maio Amarelo: Raising awareness for road safety in Brazil
Crowded and chaotic streets in Rio de Janeiro underscore why Brazil has such a significant road safety challenge. Photo by Yukun Chen/Flickr.
Raising awareness and tapping into public sentiment is essential to making inroads against any major threat to public health. October, for example, is breast cancer awareness month and in November we remember all those lost to prostate cancer. Now, the ...
Friday Fun: Four awesome (and odd) gadgets for your sustainable commute
Finding ways to making riding transport fun and convenient takes innovative thinking, and sometimes, courage to think outside the box. Photo by Adam Cohn/Flickr.
South by South West (SXSW), the yearly festival that celebrates all things in entertainment technology, has just wrapped up in Austin, Texas. The festival featured many cool and innovative new devices – like virtual reality goggles, a computer that doubles ...