cars

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Cities have always been shaped by transport; and the planning and design of cities has always impacted on transport choices. But car dependency can also limit our social lives.[read more]

There are neighborhoods and then there are great neighborhoods; neighborhoods are the cul-de-sac communities you find out in the suburbs, great neighborhoods are the moderately dense, diverse, unique parts of the city that are so entwined with the way cities operate the neighborhood almost seems natural, like it has been there for...[read more]

Way back in 2009 I blogged about plans to turn Exhibition Road – one of London’s most popular tourist destinations – into a shared space street, and in late 2011 work was finally completed. A shared space street is exactly as the name suggests – automobiles, bicycles and pedestrians all sharing the space, with few on-road markings to...[read more]

The way we get around our cities is a critical factor in their sustainability. Here are 5 of the best blog posts we’ve featured on This Big City in 2011 exploring that very topic: Is the Supervia Highway a Wrong Turn for Mexico City? ‘While urban highways are being destroyed around the world, Mexico City is preparing to build another one...[read more]

Low-carbon, affordable and convenient, Zipcar and other car-sharing programs are gaining popularity with Millennials. Photo by tedeytan. The “Millennial” generation is quickly adopting car sharing as a mainstream transportation solution, according to results from Zipcar’s second annual study of the personal transportation and car...[read more]

Guardian: US road accident casualties: every one mapped across America :"US road accident casualties: every one mapped across America 369,629 people died on America's roads between 2001 and 2009. Following its analysis of UK casualties last week, transport data mapping experts ITO World have taken the official data from the National...[read more]

By David Keith Ph.D Candidate Engineering Systems Division Massachusetts Institute of Technology Hot on the heels of Thanksgiving, many in the car industry have further reason to celebrate next week: the first birthday of America’s first mainstream electric vehicle (EV).  On November 30th 2010, the first Chevy Volt rolled off the...[read more]

Driving is a dangerous endeavor – in fact for most people who drive to work every day it’s probably the most dangerous aspect of their lives. In the immediate, operating a motor vehicle is deadly because of physics and metallurgy: steel boxes hitting each other at 45 MPH create several spheres of danger outside of pure impact. It’s also...[read more]

With a dismal 2% of all trips made by bicycle in London, now seems like a good time to change our approach to cycling in the British capital. Earlier this year, Gordon Macrae wrote a piece for This Big City tackling that very subject. Calling it ‘time to reach beyond the young, macho or ultra-fit typically associated with urban...[read more]

According to this infographic from Denver bikes, four of five dollars you spend on your car leave your local economy.  To keep 130k transportation dollars in your local economy your city would need to reduce car ownership by 15k cars.  Which could mean 15k more bike owners, and bike money stays 100 percent local which makes...[read more]

    Today’s post is by Gordon Feller, co-founder and leader of Meeting of the Minds 2011, a conference on urban technology and resilience recently held in Boulder, Colorado.  Feller is employed by Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group, a conference co-sponsor. Perhaps more than ever before, public sector leaders are...[read more]

Fuel efficient and easily accessible car share programs are great incentives to ditch your own vehicle. Photo by reflexblue. A study out of the University of California Transportation Center found that car sharing leads to reduced car ownership, preventing the addition of new cars on to the road and maintaining levels of greenhouse gases...[read more]