Cities of the Future

Tag: Transportation

  • Autonomous Cars Will Turn Back the Clock on Sustainable Cities

    Autonomous mobility could become the most important business in the 21st century. By Diablanco (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons Within the next 10 years autonomous cars could reverse the trend to free cities from private vehicles, instead flooding the streets with even more cars, undermining public transit, and leaving no space for other uses. The companies […]

  • Barcelona tackles its traffic, pollution with parking policies and superblocks

    Barcelona tackles its traffic, pollution with parking policies and superblocks

    Cities of the Future talks to Barcelona’s mobility guru, Mercedes Vidal, about how the high pollution levels that are pushing the city to rethink heavy traffic flows, provide faster more efficient public transport and hike up parking fees. Last week, the city of Madrid had to trigger its high-pollution protocol Level 2 due to dangerous levels […]

  • Free Public Transport: a Good Idea?

    If public transport were free in your city, would you leave your car at home? That was one question the Tallinn city government was about to answer last year when it introduced free public transport for all residents of the Estonian capital. The main benefits the city hoped to gain from such a dynamic move […]

  • No Free Parking — Leave Your Car At Home

    No Free Parking — Leave Your Car At Home

    Free and cheap parking is expensive for cities. It becomes a pull factor for commuters to bring their cars every day, together with the pollution they create, traffic congestion, accidents and lost revenue for public transport.

  • Barcelona’s first Superblock, Fighting the Power of Habit and Wavering Political Will

    A month ago, after nearly three decades of waiting, Barcelona urban designer Salvador Rueda finally saw the first “Superilla” (Superblock) installed in his city. The superblock faced some fierce opposition from unhappy residents and local businesses complaining about loss of curbside parking, and changes of bus stops and street direction. It was also criticized from […]

  • Barcelona, Not Pedestrian Smart

    Every day I take a walk to our favorite bakery to buy fresh bread, and every day I have to side-step dozens of motorcycles parked on the pavement. Often they hog so much space there’s only a meter gap for pedestrians to squeeze through between them and the buildings. Barcelona is constantly referred to as […]