An informative, detailed, and attractive infographic from the vacation rental website HouseTrip compares the environmental credentials of London, New York, Vancouver, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Stockholm, across a range of categories.
Ariel Schwartz looks at how six leaders in sustainability stack up according to the metrics identified in the infographic shared by HouseTrip. Although no clear winner is declared from among the six cities evaluated, "[i]n each of these cities, there are notable statistics worth mentioning," says Schwartz.
"Amsterdam has one bike for every 0.73 people, Copenhagen has legislation
requiring all new buildings to have green roofs (this will add 5,000
square meters of vegetation), and only 44% of New Yorkers own a car,
compared to 95% of Americans overall...New York has the highest carbon emissions per person (8.6 tons), but
it's still significantly lower than the U.S. average of 14.5 tons.
European cities are on average more carbon-conscious; they average 5.2
tons per person. London, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam all exceed that
average, while Stockholm emits just 3.62 tons per person."
Read the full story: An Infographic Breakdown Of The World’s Greenest Cities
Will Developing Nations Drive/Follow in our Faulted Footsteps?
The growth in hybrid car sales is a welcome sign that a major change in the automobile industry is afoot. The shift to transport infrastructure that is not based on the archaic complexity of an internal combustion engine, with its hundreds of moving parts and compressed fuel explosions, has been long put off by an automobile industry, happy with status quo, partnered with oil cartels with the power to price their product as if it were in endless supply. But with smack-in-the-face-reality fuel prices last summer, the collapse of the so-called “Big Three” over the winter, and the simultaneous heralding assertion of alternative energy technologies (Daimler AG bought a 10% stake in Tesla Motors last month!), the fallout of western economic near-collapse has changed everything we’ve known to be sacrosanct; Leonard Lopate even waxed nostalgic about the “Death of the Car Song” yesterday on National Public Radio’s local station, WNYC.
The World's Best in Progressive Bike Infrastructure
From car-shaped shelters for cargo bikes in Copenhagen to a bike path that runs through the middle of one of Amsterdam's most visited museums, Sarah Goodyear surveys some of the most innovative bicycle infrastructure projects in the world.
Congestion Pricing: The Key to Better Transit?
Noah Kazis describes the explosive success of transit systems in London, Stockholm, and Singapore, and suggests that charging motorists for road use is the secret ingredient that keeps ridership high and public support strong.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
US buildings threatened, destroyed by fires set to triple by 2060
Researchers found a high fire risk for socioeconomically vulnerable neighborhoods in the American West.
LA residents may be allowed to paint their own crosswalks
Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky put out a motion instructing the Los Angeles Department of Public Transportation to study the feasibility of allowing volunteers to paint crosswalks.
Dallas moves to overhaul its zoning code
The city's zoning reform will allow more multi-family and mixed-use developments.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority