Want to be more involved in the development and design of your city? Want a fun way to creatively engage via your computer? If so, Betaville may be just what you’re looking for. Here’ more from UrbanOmnibus: “A living city…
Peak Oil is a Comin’, WikiLeaks Confirms
As if it wasn’t already completely self-evident, WikiLeaks has released a number of cables showing that Saudi Arabia is probably going to run out of oil a lot sooner than they’ve been claiming, and that, of course, their ability to…
Livable Streets are without Car Traffic: Where Did the U.S. Go Wrong?
In 1981, scholar Donald Appleyard published the book “Livable Streets” (link is to the 2nd edition soon to be published) based on his research into how people experience streets with different traffic volumes. Streetfilms recently covered portions of his research…
First Comprehensive Urban Agriculture Plan for NYC: Five Borough Farm Project
Creating the first comprehensive urban agriculture plan for New York City, that is a new project by Design Trust for Public Space and Added Value, the Five Borough Farm project. Here’s more from UrbanOmnibus, part of the intro to an extremely in-depth…
2011 Sustainable Transport Award Winner: Guangzhou, China
The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy recently announced the 2011 Sustainable Transport Award winner, which, as you can see, is Guangzhou, China. Its new bus rapid transit (BRT) system, which integrates bike lanes, bike share and metro stations was…
Walking The New Broadway
In the Spring of 1904, the world’s first electrified advertisement appeared on a bank in New York at the corner of Broadway and 46th Street, in what was soon to be called Times Square. In many ways, this event anticipated…
World Urban Rail Systems [Map]
Since I’ve been writing about transit a lot lately, I thought I’d share this super cool map of world rail systems (from 2008). I actually ran across it looking for a photo last week for a post on the world’s…
European Cities Limiting the Car, Improving Quality of Life
Europe, as we know, has a much different urban fabric — because most of its cities were developed long before cars arrived. They have narrower streets, are more walkable, more bike-friendly, and more pleasant. Nonetheless, Europe went the same route…
Cities Could Imitate Nature, be More Sustainable
“Urban sprawl literally defines the modern city,” Dickson Despommier of What Matters writes. Truthfully, even here in Europe, most cities are sprawling out to accommodate the car. Despommier continues on: “We can all understand that this kind of growth is the…
Dutch Improving Cycle Networks, Building Fast Cycle Lanes
The Dutch are already well-known for having the best bicycle facilities in the world (well, there is a bit of competition between the Netherlands and Denmark, but the two nations are clearly on top of the world when it comes…