Europe

In most cases, traffic signals are used to stop vehicles succumbing to Newton's law of motion, but a new decree in Paris will change that. Eighteen intersections are now subject to newly relaxed rules that allow cyclists to continue at red lights.

Chuck Wolfe uses the urban scale adaptive reuse of the Roman Emperor Diocletian's retirement palace in Split, Croatia to argue for blending the past and future on a broader scale.

The first bicycle bus for schoolchildren, built by Dutch company Tolkamp Metaalspecials, of course.

In Baku, Azerbaijan, the opportunity to host the annual Eurovision song competition in May has served as a catalyst for showing off the city as an untapped luxury tourism hot spot.

A new theme park dedicated to all things Napoleon has been proposed for the area south of Paris by former French minister and history buff Yves Jégo, and is being touted as a rival to Disneyland, reports Henry Samuel.

The Atlantic Cities has posted a photo essay of the world's newest subway system, which opened on December 1, 2011 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Frugality, a lack of debt, and a government focused on high production, low inflation and extensive social services are the secrets to providing many Germans with a standard of living higher than Americans making twice as much.

The discovery of the harbor town of Bathonea in 2007, after a drought uncovered its water-logged remains, has yielded a treasure trove of relics illuminating Istanbul's rise as a world power.

James Kanter reports on plans by Danish government to generate half the nation’s power from wind within eight years, and whether too much of a good thing, in this case, may lead to failure.

A.K. Streeter provides the scoop on a new four-lane superhighway solely for bicycles planned for the south of Sweden.

Tim Sheehan investigates the lessons -- both successes and mistakes -- that can be learned from Spain's 20-year history with high speed trains.

Kevin Lynch be damned, a new study by a team of German psychologists reaches some surprising conclusions regarding the ways in which our brains navigate the city.

Joerg Haentzschel interviews the young architect Bjarke Ingels. Through offices now established in Copenhagen and New York, Ingels is slowly pushing his 'pragmatic utopian architecture' into the mainstream.

For the famous Danish community of squatters, an offer from the Government to purchase their land proved too good to refuse.

Spiegel Online has published rarely seen photos of Berlin just a few months after the end of World War Two, depicting the massive destruction of the city.

Laura Allsop chronicles the controversial plans, which have caused consternation amongst heritage workers and restorers.

Emissions would be reduced 25% if Europeans adopted the Danish cycling habit, a new study reports. The ECF warns politicians it would be a mistake to invest heavily in technological solutions like electric cars.

Chuck Wolfe analyzes his 2011 articles which appeared on Planetizen and in other sources, and derives his urbanist trends to watch for in 2012.

Madrid Río, a six-mile long park in the heart of Madrid, replaces the blight left over from a highway that once disconnected neighborhoods and reclaims a neglected waterfront.

The NYT chief art critic, Michael Kimmelman, reviews Madrid's almost complete six-mile long park, Madrid Rio, that is having a transformative effect on the city. The park was made possible by the under-grounding of the M-30 ring road.