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10 Principles for Sustainable Transport + Free, Downloadable Book!
From architect Jan Gehl and and Walter Hook, Executive Director of the Institute of Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), come the following 10 principles for sustainable transport:
1. Walk the walk: Create great pedestrian environments
2. Powered by people: Create a great environment for bicycles and other non-motorized vehicles
3. Get on the bus: Provide great, cost-effective public transport
4. Cruise control: Provide access for clean passenger vehicles at safe speeds and in significantly reduced numbers
5. Deliver the goods: Service the city in the cleanest and safest manner.
6. Mix it up: Mix people and activities, buildings and spaces.
7. Fill it in: Build dense, people and transit oriented urban districts that are desirable.
8. Get real: Preserve and enhance the local, natural, cultural, social and historical assets.
9. Connect the blocks: Make walking trips more direct, interesting and productive with small-size, permeable buildings and blocks.
10. Make it last: Build for the long term. Sustainable cities bridge generations. They are memorable, malleable, built from quality materials, and well maintained.
The principles are found in the free, downloadable book, ’Our Cities Ourselves: 10 Principles for Transport in Urban Life’, which:
shows how cities from New York to Nairobi can meet the challenges of rapid population growth and climate change while improving their competitiveness. The publication’s purpose is to reframe the issue of transport so that it is no longer seen as separate from, but rather integral to, urban design.
The book was published as a part of the global Our Cities Ourselves campaign to:
bring attention the critical role of transportation in climate change and rapid urban development.
(Photo credit: Our Cities Ourselves and Fábrica Arquitetura and CAMPO aud)
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climateadaptation asked: Hi there, sweet tumblr! m
Right back at ya! You’ve got some great content of your own. Particularly enjoyed your post on taking on climate skeptics and obstructionists the other day. The Biking in the Netherlands video is a goodie too.
Cheers!
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Allison Arieff on New York City’s Taxi of the Future Contest
Allison Arieff, editor at large for GOOD and New York Times writer, has a new article looking at NYC’s “Taxi of Tomorrow” competition. While they’re a long way from the yellow cabs featured in the 1980s hit show ‘Taxi’ Arieff is not particularly impressed with the three finalists; describing them as dull, boxy and lacking in imagination.
But, along the way she brings up some important issues about the role(s) of taxis in urban environments:
The winner stands to supply more than 13,000 medallion taxis for at least a decade, a deal that could be worth up to $1 billion. Imagine if, in turn, the yellow spots monopolizing New York’s streets could help transform the urban landscape, perhaps by being smaller and more streamlined, having less environmental impact, or providing more comfort, convenience and aesthetics to passengers. What if the “tomorrow” part manifested itself not just in the object (the car) but in new initiatives inspired by the broad national movement toward collaborative consumption, like a taxi-sharing app that could help facilitate carpooling from J.F.K. into the city?
In an effort to address these and other issues Arieff connects with “artist/inventor (and former R&D guy for Honda) Steven M. Johnson, a self-described conjurer of “ludicrous” ideas” who ended up producing 60 taxi concepts of his own following their conversation. Nine are featured in a slideshow accompanying Arieff’s article.
While Johnson’s concepts don’t appear to answer all of Arieff’s questions they are inventive and, as she reminds us:
sometimes the wildest ideas result in the best solutions.
As for my favourite, I like the ‘bike-friendly’ concept, which is amusing, if not particularly practical or safe. It seems inspired by the ‘straddling bus’ concept that lit up planning and transportation media last year.Taxi!
SG
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