Green (Living) Review: cities

Showing posts with label cities. Show all posts

Will your city go 100% renewable?

Copenhagen bike lane The recent joint announcement that China and the US would both commit to curbing their carbon emissions was a welcome signal that the tide is turning on international climate action.

It was also, however, a reminder of just how pitiful most countries' clean energy ambitions really are.

While countries like Finland have committed to a legally binding 80% cut by 2050, most larger nations—the US and China included—are really only talking about modest cuts at this stage. (The United States is aiming for emissions of 26%-28% below its 2005 level in 2025. China intends to achieve the peaking of CO2 emissions around 2030.)

That's why many clean energy advocates are looking beyond nation states, leveraging local politics at the city level to push much more ambitious, and potentially much more important, targets. The Guardian reports on a new grassroots movement aimed at securing commitments from cities to a goal of 100% clean energy.

The problems in our big cities aren't caused by restrictions on density and height, but by inequality.

310 88th street New York Exactly one year ago today I wrote It's time to dump the tired argument that density and height are green and sustainable. It was part of my continuing rant about Edward Glaeser and Ryan Avent and Matt Yglesias who want to get rid of height restrictions and historic preservation rules and let a thousand towers bloom. Because:

Preserve your brain, live in a walkable neighborhood

walkable street Walkable neighborhoods are great on many levels. The latest news is that they help to preserve your brain.

I've lived in 9 neighborhoods in the past 9 years. Several of those have been very walkable neighborhoods, but some more than others of course. I've realized in my current one, one of the most walkable yet, that a nice, walkable neighborhood is a tremendous value that cannot be quantified by calculating the transportation and time savings. Well, I have known that for ages, but it has really been registering for me lately as I walk with my wife and baby daughter to one wonderful park ~3 minutes away, a huge park/forest ~5 minutes away, or a low-key but super useful shopping center ~4 minutes away. If I miss a day of walking around the neighborhood, or if I haven't yet been out as the mid-afternoon rolls around, I can feel something is just not right — with my body and with my head.

Still, this recent piece of news surprised me: a study from the University of Kansas has found that "neighborhoods that motivate walking can stave off cognitive decline in older adults." My guess is that such neighborhoods also help with the cognitive functions of not-so-elderly adults and children as well.

These Streets Are Made for Walking

How to restore foot traffic as a way to go

More than 4500 pedestrians (see earlier Commons magazine story) are killed by motor vehicles every year on the streets of America. This is not an inevitable fact of modern life. These deaths are preventable, as shown by the dramatic decline of pedestrian fatalities (as well as bicyclists and motorists) in Sweden after they adopted the Vision Zero approach to traffic safety.

The gravest danger to walkers and bicyclists, as well as motorists, is other motorists who drive recklessly. According to data collected by the New York City Department of Transportation from 2008-2012,“dangerous driver choices” contribute to pedestrian deaths in 70 percent of cases. “Dangerous pedestrian choices” is responsible in 30 percent of cases and joint responsibility in 17 percent of cases.

As the old saying goes, speed kills. Two landmark studies, one from the US and one from the UK, found that pedestrians are killed:

-5 percent of the time when struck by a car traveling 20 mph

-37-45 percent of the time when struck by a car traveling 30 mph

-83-85 percent of the time when struck by a car traveling 40 mph.

In light of these findings, it’s scary to realize that traffic on many if not most American roads travels closer to 40 mph than 20 mph.

“If we could do one switch to make safer streets it would be to reduce car speeds to 20 mph, which would reduce pedestrian fatalities by 90 percent,” says Scott Bricker, Executive Director of the America Walkspedestrian advocacy network. America Walks also plays a role in Every Body Walk!, a collaborative of citizens, businesses and organizations across many fields convened by the health care non-profit Kaiser Permanente.

This means more than lowering speed limits. Charlie Zegeer, project manager at the University of North Carolina’s authoritative Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC) says, “Research shows that lowering a speed limit without other improvements like road design changes or improved police enforcement doesn’t work to slow traffic-- it’s the roadway design that affects the speed.”

Here’s a few of practical steps to slow speeds, deter distracted driving and help make walking a safer, comfortable and enjoyable experience for everyone. This is where Vision Zero hits the road.

Can You Imagine a City Where Trees and Swing Sets Matter More Than Cars?

If there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s that the future hasn’t happened yet. How we will live a few decades from now is anything but clear, despite predictions from our wisest architects, planners, politicians, philosophers, futurists, and science fiction writers.

For anyone committed to creating a more sustainable and just culture, here’s a sobering exercise: Try looking into the past as a way of tracking society’s expectations for itself. Look back a few decades and see how yesterday’s visionaries predicted we’d be living now.

I must do this routinely in my work in setting standards and developing tools for change at the International Living Future Institute. So I can tell you a common thread weaves through most fictionalized, artistic, and scientific forecasts: that the ongoing march of technological progress will continue unabated, further mechanizing our experience as humans and separating us from nature until everything we need is provided by machines and computers whose intelligence surpasses that of their operators. A companion theme in futuristic prophecies is the subjugation and taming of nature or, in extreme cases, nature’s total elimination. In these depictions, there is little room for nonhuman life.

Think for a moment about the sheer bulk of stories you’ve read and movies you’ve seen, and how many of them warn of a bleak future for society—books such as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and a catalog of dystopian cinema: Metropolis, Blade Runner, Road Warrior,Terminator, and WALL-E, just to begin the short list. The current epidemic of zombies chasing after us through our popular culture is, I think, nothing less than a psychological manifestation of our species’ sense of worthlessness. The undead trudge through our cities consuming us like a cancer. What better symbol of hopelessness and lack of self-worth could we possibly conjure up?

London is too rich, and too expensive, for its own good

‘Capital of the world’ means nothing if only the wealthy can afford to live in it

A group of us, mostly metropolitan types, found ourselves in a public house in Hull city centre last weekend. I ordered a round of drinks: two pints of bitter, a pint of lager, a large glass of white wine and a pint of lime juice and soda. I got out £30 from my wallet, as I'm used to London prices. The barmaid leaned over to me and asked me for £9.40. No, you've made a mistake, I told her. She hadn't. That's what this round of drinks costs in a very nice pub in Hull, with a pool table, cheese cubes and crackers on the bar, and where they play an eclectic mix of relatively obscure Ian Dury songs and country and western standards on the sound system.

Back in the capital, I went to the pub next to my office in Soho and asked how much that round of drinks would cost. Guess what the answer was. £20.60! Yes, more than twice what I'd paid in Hull.

It came as no great surprise to me, therefore, to learn the next day that, according to a reputable survey, London is now the world's most expensive city, taking over that dubious mantle from Hong Kong. It is now twice as pricey to live in as Sydney and four times more than Rio de Janeiro. Hull, sadly, doesn't figure in the list of comparisons.