More Trees Means Less Death
In the cold of winter you might not be thinking of the nice hot summer days as a negative thing. In the winter when temperatures get really low people suffer…
urban
Hop Aboard the Free Transit Movement
Our contemporary financial approach to moving people around a city subsidizes individual automobile use, which leads to more car use and worse mobility for everyone. An easy solution to this…
Time to Rethink the Skyscraper
The climate crisis has us questioning where people live, work, and how they get between the two. We’ve known for decades that low density sub-urban living is horrible for the…
Kids Love Living in Cities
Urban places are already good places since they are more environmentally friendly than sub-urban places and have fantastic access to culture. Research in Toronto has revealed that children love cities…
13 Year Long Study Confirms Bike Lanes Make Streets Safer for Everyone
Bike lanes not only protect cyclists from negligent drivers, they protect drivers and pedestrians too. A longitudinal study reveals that it’s not the cyclists which make the streets safer, rather…
Street Writing Snippet #1
Angelique imagines herself howling. It seems like something she would like to do. Some people imitate what they believe are Iroquois war cries. She is not sure how you could…
How to Build People Focussed Communities
The Sustainable City Show · Ep 3: Creating Car-Free Communities | In Conversation With Eckart Wurzner & Chris Shears A sustainable world is a walkable city. Over at the Sustainable…
The Transformation of Paris from Traffic Jams to Quick Movement
Paris once had a reputation for horrible traffic, long queues of cars and taxing journeys via cars. When you have a problem stemming from one element sometimes it’s best to…
Cities of the Future Act as Sponges
When it rains cities should hold all the water. In the 20th century that idea would have been laughed out of the room; today, we know better. Urban water management…
How Cities Deal with More Intense Heat Waves
Global warming is bringing more intense heat waves to our urban environments which means cities will need to adapt to the new temperatures. Indeed, regular readers will recognize a lot…
Urban Ecology Cools Building, Cities, and Helps Biodiversity
Modern cities are full of biodiversity, you just need to know where to look .Urban ecology is a relatively new field of study that examines how isolated urban green infrastructure…
Removing Highways Improves Cities
Urban highways occupy a lot of space that can otherwise be used for parks, housing, offices, or anything else that produces economic benefits. The post war highway building boom in…
Bustling Bike Boom Brought on by Pandemic Continues
Riding bikes has gotten more popular over the course of the pandemic due to the fact it’s a safe outdoor activity. Popularity of commuting by bicycle has also increased thanks…
Urban Farming Helps Cities Tackle the Climate Crisis
Growing your own food is fun and possible, even in a tiny space, so everyone should give it a try. Cities are finding ways to encourage more people to grow…
We’ve Improved Urban Life During the Pandemic, Let’s Keep it up!
During the the last century urban planners in North America built cities for cars instead of people. The 21st century is literally paying the costs of their misjudgement. Efforts to…
5 Ways We Can Improve Cities During the Pandemic
IKEA’s research and design lab in Copenhagen released a book this month on ways we can improve our cities. They start by recognizing we’re presently facing two global crisis: a…
Cable Cars Growing in Popularity
The future of urban transit can be found in the mountains. As we noted back in 2012, gondolas (AKA cable cars) are a very real and practical option to solve…
Fleeing the City During This Pandemic? Do so Sustainably
Inequality has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and we ought to be conscious about this. Wealthy individuals can work from home and afford to move, while others need to…
Truly Smart Cities are Actually “Dumb”
Earlier this year Sidewalk Labs (Google) opted out of building a “smart” neighbourhood in Toronto due to local pressure (protests work!). What the “smart” neighbourhood wanted to do was monitor…