NonA Weekly: BARRIERS AND FACILITATORS

Image by @slimjimstudios

Dear readers and friends,

The concept of a walkable city represents one of the possibilities for introducing sustainable mobility. As the concept of walkability offers many advantages, particularly economic ones, it should not be difficult trying to persuade local governments to make such changes in urban logistics.
The walkability concept has become popular due to the poor quality of urban spaces dedicated to pedestrians (footpaths, pavements etc.). City authorities have often forgotten that the streets offer a huge potential, which should not be limited to cars and parking spaces; rather, they should be available to all pedestrians, even if they are using urban transport.
This time we will dedicate this newsletter to themes around traffic, congestions, walkability, daily commutes, and public Transport.

1. HOW TO MAKE CITIES MORE WALKABLE
Walking helps reduce traffic in urban areas – provided that the right conditions and infrastructure are in place. Promoting pedestrian traffic requires planners to design a pedestrian-friendly environment. What makes a city WALKABLE?

2. THE 15-MINUTES CITY
Living in a CITY means accepting a certain level of dysfunction: long commutes, noisy streets, underutilized spaces. Carlos Moreno wants to change that. He makes the case for the “15-minute city,” where inhabitants have access to all the services they need to live, learn and thrive within their immediate vicinity – and shares ideas for making urban areas adapt to humans, not the other way around.

3. URBAN MOBILITY AND PUBLIC TRANSPORT: FUTURE PERSPECTIVES AND REVIEW
Trip-making behaviour has already changed considerably as lifestyles change and they will continue to change in the future. The key principle of operation for the MOBILITY of a smart city will be the ability to optimize the connectivity of movement in order to approach a seamless move while endowing the phrase door-to-door travel with new meaning.

4. THE CONCEPT OF A WALKABLE CITY AS AN ALTERNATIVE FORM OF URBAN MOBILITY

5. TRAFFIC JAMS, POLLUTION, ROAD CRASHES: CAN TECHNOLOGY END THE WOES OF URBAN TRANSPORT?

After a century of relatively small incremental progress, disruptive changes in the world of automotive technology could have fundamental implications for sustainability. What are these megatrends, and how can they reshape the future of urban MOBILITY?

6. RETHINKING URBAN MOBILITY FOR THE POST-COVID CITY

Despite the hardships caused by the spread of Covid-19, the current situation presents a unique opportunity. Now is an ideal time to revolutionize the way we live in urban environments. In the space of a few weeks, major cities all over the world have transformed from car-focused hubs into bicycle-friendly SPACES. Almost overnight, miles and miles of pop-up bike lanes have appeared. And people are using them.

7. THE BEST AND WORST CITIES FOR COMMUTING IN THE WORLD

Two studies reveal the best and worst in urban planning for sustainable commuting and make recommendations for how to achieve sustainable urban mobility. The first, the Urban Mobility Index report looks at 84 major cities around the world. Of these, Hong Kong was judged the best and most accessible city for people to get around. Check out the full LIST of the top 11.

8. A BETTER DAILY COMMUTE IS POSSIBLE

Public transport plays a vital role in CITIES around the world, connecting people to their jobs, schools and communities. The best systems are fast, clean, comfortable and efficient, reliably moving millions of people from home to work and back again every day.

9. THE FUTURE OF COMMUTING? THE KEY IS IN CONNECTIVITY

Anyone can relate to the feeling of wasting precious hours every week in a car or a train. Then the COVID-19 crisis hit, and a large percentage of the world stopped COMMUTING. Streets and trains were suddenly empty. Six months later, the world is slowly attempting to regain a sense of normalcy, and people are relearning something that was a significant part of their daily routine – the commute.

10. URBAN PASSENGER TRANSPORT: CITIES CAN MAKE MOBILITY SUSTAINABLE, EQUITABLE AND RESILIENT

Urban travel is responsible for 40% of all greenhouse gas emissions from passenger TRANSPORT. Between 2015 and 2050, demand for urban passenger transport is poised to more than double after a temporary dip due to Covid-19. Unless cities succeed in cutting their transport emissions, the increase in urban mobility could jeopardise the climate goals of the Paris Agreement.

Stay creative and see you next week,

Daniela