NewsFebruary2018

"Growing Green City Routes" is an inspirational conference that gives the floor to important stakeholders in city logistics to exchange operational experience, knowledge and innovations on European Urban Freight consolidation.
https://growinggreencityroutes.eu/

ELIPTIC Workshop - Charging Infrastructure & Policy recommendations

The ELIPTIC project is cordially inviting local and regional authorities to a workshop organised in cooperation with other European projects. The meeting will take place at Polis (Brussels) on 19th March 2018 afternoon (12.00 - 4.00 pm), one day before the ZeEUS Final Conference.
https://www.polisnetwork.eu/publicevents/515/61/ELIPTIC-Workshop---Charging-Infrastructure-amp-Policy-recommendations

How do city leaders get things done? Learning from mayors in Japan

The task of mayors and city leaders is no longer limited to providing efficient urban services to their citizens. Job creation is at the forefront of the economic development challenge globally.
Cities need jobs and opportunities for their citizens and the means to generate tax revenues to fund projects that meet their populations’ growing demand for basic services. The WBG flagship report on Competitive Cities outlines how creating jobs in urban areas – urgently but also at scale– is essential.
http://blogs.worldbank.org/sustainablecities/how-do-city-leaders-get-things-done-learning-mayors-japan

Vienna signposts shortcuts for pedestrians

The streets of Vienna have a unique feature known as, “Durchhäuser” (which translates to “through-houses”) that are traditional, pedestrian-friendly shortcuts through the city. These through-houses offer pedestrians public passage through the building, itself. There are thought to be more than 700 of these shortcuts in Vienna and although some of these walking routes are well known, most have been forgotten and are only used by people who live in the neighbourhood.
http://www.eltis.org/discover/news/vienna-signposts-shortcuts-pedestrians

ICLEI World Congress - Registration Open

The ICLEI World Congress is the premier global gathering of hundreds local and regional governments and their strategic partners steering the course of the global urban agenda.
It is attended by Mayors, governors, city staff, community members, international organizations, businesses, researchers and other stakeholders with a key role in advancing urban sustainability.
Connect with partners, share your ideas, track innovations, discover and drive progress towards a more sustainable urban future.
https://worldcongress2018.iclei.org/

Host Europe's premier sustainable mobility conference

The call has opened for cities to host the CIVITAS Forum Conference in 2019. All European cities interested in doing so are invited to apply.
The Conference is the annual flagship event of the CIVITAS Forum Network of cities and Europe's premier conference in the field of sustainable urban mobility.
Hosting it offers a city an excellent opportunity to showcase and share its successes and achievements in the field of clean and sustainable urban transport. With high media interest and the presence of high-ranking politicians, a city has the chance to place itself at the forefront of the sustainable urban transport community and on the international map.
http://www.eurocities.eu/eurocities/news/Host-Europe-s-premier-sustainable-mobility-conference-WSPO-AVWKQT

More to cities than skyscrapers - new U.N. urban chief

The United Nations chief in charge of cities says urbanisation is about much more than building skyscrapers.
It is people that really get her going.
In her first media interview since becoming head of the U.N.'s urban agency, the ex-mayor said it was city dwellers who make for good urban outcomes, not buildings, and her mantra was to listen to the people so as to design better lives for them.
http://www.thisisplace.org/i/?id=b5b295cf-34a3-4041-ac0b-3eede26c92f2

What would a truly disabled-accessible city look like?

Most cities are utterly unfriendly to people with disabilities – but with almost one billion estimated to be urban-dwellers by 2050, a few cities are undergoing a remarkable shift
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/feb/14/what-disability-accessible-city-look-like

CIPTEC Final Conference

The H2020-project CIPTEC is coming to an end. Now, it’s time to share our findings with the community. CIPTEC has created innovative concepts and tools for Public Transport that lead to more passengers at reasonably low cost. Also, CIPTEC tested collective intelligence methods to improve the overall understanding of urban public transport demand. Do you wish to know more about the CIPTEC innovation tools, gain new insights in user needs and find out how to nudge people towards more PT use? Then save the date and join us in Brussels on 24 April 2018!
http://conference.ciptec.eu/

Summary of the Ninth Session of the World Urban Forum

The ninth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF9) took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from Wednesday, 7 February, to Tuesday, 13 February 2018, on the theme “Cities 2030 – Cities For All: Implementing the New Urban Agenda.” WUF9 was the first Forum to convene since the adoption of the New Urban Agenda (NUA) at the Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador, in 2016
http://www.urbangateway.org/news/summary-ninth-session-world-urban-forum

How (and Why) Cities Are Marketing Bikes to Poor People

Bike sharing may be the ultimate symbol of gentrification, the province of avocado-toast loving, espresso-swilling — and mostly white — millennials.
But some cities are taking measures to combat that, by making it easier for low-income riders and those without a credit card or smartphone to take a two-wheeler for a spin.
They’re calling it bike equity, and to achieve it, cities are trying a number of things: steeply discounted memberships for food stamp recipients; bike-riding classes; pay stations that accept cash; and recruiting riders from underserved neighborhoods.
http://www.governing.com/topics/urban/sl-bike-lane-equity-equality-income.html

Urban robotics and responsible urban innovation

In this article, Michael Nagenborg explores how robotics can be integrated into the urban landscape and distinguishes two perspectives: (1) the responsible design and use of urban robots and (2) the robots as part of responsible urban innovations. Highlighting the spatial dimension of robots and the issue of integrating them in the urban environment, Nagenborg focuses on the concept of urban justice and questions the concept of smart city as well as the idea that maybe robots are not the answer to the needs of cities
http://www.urenio.org/2018/02/03/urban-robotics-responsible-urban-innovation/

Welcome to Smart City Seminars

Welcome on board! On June 20th, as the world’s toughest sailing competition, Volvo Ocean Race, heads towards its exciting conclusion, the City of Gothenburg and Volvo invite you to share the inventive thoughts of world-leading innovators and renowned specialists on the topics of digitalization, mobility, autonomous vehicles and circular economy, and how these affect the urban development of smart cities. Find out about collaborations for innovations and testbeds!
https://www.cometogothenburg.se/

Urban GreenUP Project workshop outcomes

Izmir organized its first International Green Infrastructure Workshop to highlight the governments’ role in moulding policies that support nature-based solutions and to announce its Green Infrastructure Strategy.
A total number of 150 attendees coming from the local and national academia, municipalities, professional chambers, NGOs and the ministries attended the workshop. It was an avenue for them to listen to international experts’ experience on developing green infrastructures in various cities.
During the first part of the workshop, a series of talks were made by URBAN GreenUP’s experts from the academia. They made use of theoretical frameworks coupled with several case studies – a holistic and systematic approach, which suggests that implementing nature-based solutions to cities definitely makes sense in theory and in practice.
http://www.urbangreenup.eu/news--events/news/good-governance-a-key-to-re-naturing-urban-plans-success.kl

Self-Driving Cars Will Kill Things You Love

Electric cars, robo taxis and self-driving trucks are coming to change the society we live in—possibly sooner than you think.
Limited tests of driverless cars are already happening today and they’ll be in use everywhere within six years, according to Carlos Ghosn, CEO of the Renault Nissan Alliance. A change on that scale would reach far beyond the automotive industry to upend businesses, transform our daily lifestyles and reshape cities.
Even if the skeptics are right and the technology necessary for full level-five autonomy develops more slowly, the revolution could still claim many victims.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-13/self-driving-cars-will-kill-things-you-love-and-a-few-you-hate

Public review launched for three new Urban Agenda Partnerships

The Urban Agenda for the EU was launched in May 2016 with the Pact of Amsterdam (link is external). It represents a new multi-level working method promoting cooperation between Member States, cities, the European Commission and other stakeholders in order to stimulate growth, liveability and innovation in the cities of Europe and to identify and successfully tackle social challenges. Thematic Partnerships and their action plans represent the key delivery mechanism within the Urban Agenda for the EU.
http://www.eltis.org/discover/news/public-review-launched-three-new-urban-agenda-partnerships

European Startup Prize for Mobility Awards

The European Startup Prize for Mobility Awards Ceremony on 22 February 2018 in Brussels will crown Europe’s most innovative, sustainable mobility startup. With 10 dynamic startups representing 7 countries and offering solutions over a variety of mobility themes including multimodality, parking, MaaS, connected vehicles and shared mobility, the contest for the top prize could not be more competitive.
https://startupprize.eu/

Heritage and New Towns Seminar

On March 23, INTI will be hosting a seminar on the value and the future of heritage in Dutch New Towns (groeikernen).
The event will be a full day of presentations and panel discussions about challenges facing New Towns, such as their perceived lack of history and identity, and adapting the original masterplans to growing and changing populations.
www.newtowninstitute.org/spip.php?article1242

Join the International Urban Cooperation (IUC) city-to-city cooperation programme

Cities and towns in the member states of the European Union who wish to exchange with a city facing similar challenges in another global region are encouraged to apply for the International Urban Cooperation (IUC) city-to-city cooperation programme on sustainable urban development. The programme aims to foster links between EU cities (in particular those with more than 100,000 inhabitants) and those in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North America. Through the programme, local leaders will be able to connect and gain new perspectives on pressing sustainable urban development issues.
Submissions from EU cities to apply for pairings with cities in China, Chile, India, Japan, Peru and the USA are now open until March 8, 2018 (Thursday night at midnight CET).
https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/iuc_applic_form_2

London gears up for six new cycle routes

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan has confirmed how the next stage of his record investment into new cycle routes will be spent and announced routes where design work will begin immediately.
The six new routes, across nine London boroughs, have some of the highest potential for cycling but currently lack safe infrastructure. Transport for London’s (TfL’s) innovative Strategic Cycling Analysis identified the top 25 connections where new cycling infrastructure is required to enable more people to cycle. Further work between TfL and the boroughs has identified these six routes as the initial routes to take forward to the design stage.
http://www.eltis.org/discover/news/london-gears-six-new-cycle-routes

Save the date: 2018 Polis Conference on 22-23 November 2018

We are pleased to inform you that the 2018 Annual Polis Conference "Innovation in transport for sustainable cities and regions" will take place on 22 and 23 November in the Manchester United Old Trafford Stadium, Manchester, United Kingdom.
https://www.polisnetwork.eu/2018conference

Kuala Lumpur Declaration On Cities 2030

We, the participants of the Ninth session of the World Urban Forum — representing national, subnational and local governments, parliamentarians, civil society, older persons, women, youth, children, persons with disabilities, grassroots groups, indigenous peoples and local communities, private sector, foundations and philanthropies, international and regional organizations, academia, professionals and other relevant stakeholders — gathered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to localize and scale up the implementation of the New Urban Agenda as an accelerator to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
http://www.urbangateway.org/news/kuala-lumpur-declaration-cities-2030

Urban Europe and Belmont Forum joint call

The Sustainable Urbanisation Global Initiative (SUGI) Food Water Enery Nexus approach provides a unique collaboration framework for technical and social scientists, small and large businesses, cities and non-governmental organisations, to tackle the urban challenges of food, energy and water nexus.
http://www.sugi-nexus.org/

How municipalism introduces another relationship to political power

Municipalism demonstrates a positive democratic renewal which repositions the players in regards to their power and that of those around them in public municipal action. It destabilises the image and practices of power inherited from a tired representative democracy, while at the same time coping with the contrary winds of a resurgence of interventionism and withdrawal. It contributes to effecting deeper change, from individual action to collective and institutional action. In this way, municipalism is subversive and questions our liberty and our responsibilities for the democratic quality of our societies and our institutions. It is a favored route towards the democratic transition that IRG strives for.
http://www2.institut-gouvernance.org/squelettes/infolettre_irg_janvier2018_en.html

All WUFed out, but What Comes Next?

The stacks of business cards have grown high and the days have blurred together. The Ninth Session of the World Urban Forum has been closed today. The biennial event has cemented its status as the premier place on the planet for anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of cities to immerse themselves in nearly every aspect of urban issues, from technical data collection methods to complex legal questions to heartfelt activism. As a weeklong crash course in urbanisation, there is no doubt that WUF9 is worth the journey for urbanists of all stripes.
http://www.urbangateway.org/news/all-wufed-out-what-comes-next

5th European Conference on Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans

Registration has just opened for the European Commission's 5th European Conference on Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) on 14-15 May in Nicosia, Cyprus. This is Europe's leading annual event for all those involved in putting the SUMP concept into practice.
http://www.eltis.org/sump2018

How to Create More Play Space and Less Parking at City Schools

For urban schools with limited land area, teacher demands for car parking often conflict with kids’ needs for space to let loose and play. Too many times teacher car storage wins out, depriving students of places where they can get much-needed physical activity.
When that happens, it also hurts the surrounding neighborhood. Instead of a shared public resource, they get an asphalt lot that sits empty much of the time.
A community coalition in D.C. has proposed a different way of doing things. The idea is to let kids have more play space at school by reserving on-street parking for teachers, who would use the curb space at times when fewer residents need it.
https://smartgrowth.org/create-play-space-less-parking-city-schools/

Walkable Cities Reduce Blood Pressure and Hypertension Risk

The pedestrian-focused North Laine area of Brighton. (Photograph: Alamy)
?The largest-ever study of the link between city walkability and blood pressure has been held up as evidence of the “intangible value of urban design” in improving long-term health outcomes, say researchers.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/feb/05/walkable-cities-reduce-blood-pressure-study-finds

Local Renewables 2018: Urban Transformation To A Circular Economy

The City of Freiburg, the City of Basel and ICLEI Europe are pleased to invite you to the Local Renewables Conference 2018. The conference will take place on 24-26 October 2018, in Freiburg (Germany) and Basel (Switzerland).
Rising global energy needs remain a major challenge, with cities and regions being central players in making energy more secure, clean and sustainable. To transform from a linear to a circular economy there is a growing need to take advantage of renewable resources, including energy.
http://local-renewables-conference.org/freiburg-and-basel-2018/home/

World Built Environment Forum

The RICS World Built Environment Forum Summit reconvenes in London in 2018. These two days of cutting edge debates will focus on the commercial strategies needed to harness the enormous potential of the 21st century’s people and places.
https://wbef.rics.org/wbef/the-summit/

Municipal Financing Is Adapting to a World of Bigger Cities

As the dust settles from the first World Urban Forum since the adoption of the New Urban Agenda, a trillion-dollar question looms large: How will the world pay for the UN’s ambitious vision of sustainable cities?
While no economist has ever put a price tag on the 20-year quest to implement the New Urban Agenda, a 2015 report called “The State of City Climate Finance” estimated a $4.5-5.4 trillion need in urban financing at the global level. With very few financial pledges made in Quito during Habitat III, it’s clear that countries will not be opening their foreign aid wallets to fully foot the bill.
https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/urban-municipal-financing-growth

How to Design Cities for Children

There’s a device called the Mosquito that emits an annoying sound at a very high frequency—so high that only young people can hear it. It’s marketed by its manufacturers as a means of discouraging kids from loitering in streets and other public spaces. (Shopkeepers have blasted Barry Manilow, to similar effect.) The UK’s first children’s commissioner, Sir Al Aynsley-Green, called it “an ultrasonic weapon designed to stop kids gathering,” and cited its use as proof that the nation’s attitude toward its youngest residents was fundamentally wrong. “This country is one of the most child unfriendly countries in the world,” he said in 2010.
https://www.citylab.com/design/2018/02/how-to-design-cities-for-children/552086/

Welcoming Cities Symposium

The continued success of multicultural Australia will depend on our ability to foster social cohesion as our population and cultural diversity grows.
Join government leaders (Local, State & Federal), peak bodies, NGO’s, researchers, and business innovators for the 3rd Welcoming Cities National Symposium.
http://symposium.welcomingcities.org.au/

INTA41 Congress 16-17 April 2018 in Malmo

INTA, together with the City of Malmö and the Nordic City Network invite you to the 41st INTA World Urban Congress, 16-17 April 2018 in Malmö, Sweden.
The ambition of INTA41 is to facilitate discussions about the challenges that remain after the implementation of the New Urban Agenda that was adopted by the UN Conference Habitat III with a focus on Sustainable development goals 11 and 17, about the creation of sustainable cities and communities through partnerships. Initiatives that allow for a collaborative, inclusive and participatory approach to decision making, implementation and monitoring of projects play a crucial role in this.
https://inta-aivn.org/en/activities/exchange/congress/inta41/inta41-homepage

Cities are “laboratories” of communal life

Germany has long been the country of immigration that it doesn’t yet officially want to be. An unbiased reality-check of one’s own personal environment as well as countless social-science studies provide ample proof of this.
Yet Germany’s status as a country of immigration didn’t begin only when the “guest workers” invited from southern and southeastern Europe in the 1960s simply stopped returning to their home countries. And it certainly didn’t begin as those fleeing starvation and war in Africa and the Middle East fled to Germany in recent years. “Foreigners” have always been drawn to the territory that is today called Germany. And they have always brought their gods, rituals, food and customs with them.
http://citiesofmigration.ca/ezine_stories/cities-are-laboratories-of-living-together/

Sustainable and Liveable Cities and Urban Areas

Joint Call for Proposals
The pilot call Sustainable and Liveable Cities and Urban Areas organized by JPI Urban Europe and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), inviting interdisciplinary Sino-European consortia is now open.
In answer to the global urbanisation challenge, NSFC and JPI Urban Europe have agreed to a long-term cooperation under the strategic theme Sustainable Urbanisation in the Context of Economic Transformation and Climate Change. The pilot call is a joint initiative of nine European funding agencies participating in JPI Urban Europe and NSFC in China.
https://jpi-urbaneurope.eu/calls/sustainable-urbanisation-china-europe/

Declaration of the Intercultural cities’ Milestone event

One of our priorities for the next 5 years will be to work systematically with national authorities, with support by the Council of Europe, to design and implement coherent inclusive integration policies.
https://rm.coe.int/declaration-of-the-intercultural-cities-milestone-event-urban-policies/1680768795

City challenges discussed in unique concept

Cities are rapidly expanding and water resources are under increasing pressure. We need to find ways to do more with less, while ensuring that cities are resilient to floods, droughts and the challenges of growing water scarcity. Transitioning cities to address these challenges has never been more urgent. The journey towards water-wise cities is in full motion. IWA will use the momentum of the IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition 2018 in Tokyo (16 – 21 September 2018) to put the water-wise cities initiative on stage in both the congress and the exhibition. The exhibition will be host to a Cities Pavilion powered by the IWA water-wise cities initiative partners. It will be the place for utilities, cities and their basins to exchange and discuss actual cities challenges and solutions globally.
http://www.iwa-network.org/projects/water-wise-cities/

Snow and the Walkable, Bikeable, Accessible City

Like many good things in life, many of us tend to underappreciate sidewalks until they’re buried beneath 2 feet of filthy, compacted, urban snow.
It’s a common winter scene that should remind us just how valuable these public assets are. After major storms, while roads are still impassable and public transit service is often curtailed, walking may be the best, safest — indeed sometimes the only — option for people to get around. Clearing sidewalks quickly is especially important for wheelchair users, the elderly and others with limited mobility who can’t easily navigate mountains of crusty snow.
https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/snow-mayors-biking-cities-walkability

What Amazon Does to Poor Cities

San Bernadino, Calif.—This community was still reeling from the recession in 2012 when it got a piece of what seemed like good news. Amazon, the global internet retailer, was opening a massive 950,000-square-foot distribution center, one of its first in California, and hiring more than 1,000 people here.“This opportunity is a rare and wonderful thing,” San Bernardino Mayor Pat Morris told a local newspaper at the time.
https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/02/what-amazon-does-to-poor-cities/552101/

Smart City Expo World Congress 2018 - Call Open

Share your experience, insights or initiatives at the world’s leading event for cities
Become a speaker at Smart City Expo World Congress 2018 and add your voice to a global dialogue on creating a better future for our cities. Submit your proposal in connection with one or more of the topics listed below and present your projects and ideas in front of our international audience, made up of more than 18,700 professionals from a variety of key sectors.
The deadline for submissions is March 1st 2018.
http://www.smartcityexpo.com/en/callforspeakers2018

CityLab workshop "City deliveries using micro-hubs and innovative freight bikes"

The Citylab project invites you to the workshop "City deliveries using micro-hubs and innovative freight bikes", 8th March 2018, Amsterdam
http://www.citylab-project.eu/amsterdam_workshop.php

Walkable streets are more economically productive

What is the value of a street where people can walk safely? Why build streets that are constructed with the needs of people in mind, not just the needs of cars?
Many people concerned with pedestrian safety and "walkability" care about these issues because they feel that walking is good exercise or that walkable places are more attractive or that walking is better for the environment than driving.

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/1/16/why-walkable-streets-are-more-economically-productive

Five IT capabilities to transport smart cities in 2018

How can big data be optimised to effectively manage increasing urbanisation, congestion and complexity associated with smart cities?
Cities around the world feature different cultures, cuisines and tourist attractions, but most of them face similar challenges in relation to increased urbanisation, congestion and complexity.
http://www.information-age.com/five-capabilities-transport-smart-cities-2018-123470571/?es_p=5990987

Move Public Transport Through Innovation - CIPTEC Final Conference

The H2020-project CIPTEC is coming to an end. Now, it’s time to share the project's findings with the community. CIPTEC has created innovative concepts and tools for Public Transport that lead to more passengers at reasonably low cost. Also, CIPTEC tested collective intelligence methods to improve the overall understanding of urban public transport demand.
http://ciptec.eu/

Registration open for the Mobility forum - Multimodal cities

The next Mobility Forum is going to be held in Prague, Czechia in cooperation with the City of Prague. In relation with the "2018 - The year of Multimodality" initiative the topic this year is Multimodal cities: common vision, multiple strategies. All the member cities are welcome to register and participate on the Forum to share knowledge and build partnerships on Mobility.
http://www.eurocities.eu/eurocities/news/Registration-is-now-open-for-the-Mobility-forum-Multimodal-cities-23-25-April-Prague-WSPO-ASGGYT

The weight of cities

How do we prepare for the doubling of the global urban population by 2050? By dramatically rethinking urbanism and its governance. That means designing cities for people, not cars; allowing everyone access to urban opportunities; investing in resource-efficient buildings, transport, energy, water and waste systems; and enabling cities to experiment and to learn from each other.
https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/weight-cities

How to capture public life in public spaces?

Urbanization and economic growth go hand in hand. Cities are turning into centers of attraction in developing countries and their population is rising constantly. In such cities, we often see in a city a mix of old and new, slow and fast: Street vendors hawking their wares by luxury shopping malls; highways segmentizing parks and walkways; high-rise crowding out traditional neighborhoods, etc. However, we do not often see a well-balanced mix that serves all urban dwellers with a wide array of needs, economically and socially.
http://blogs.worldbank.org/sustainablecities/how-capture-public-life-public-spaces

Utrecht Spring Conference: Managing Urban Change and Growth

Polis member Utrecht has announced the upcoming Utrecht Spring Conference 2018 (23-25 May), organised in partnership with Metrex. Building on the “Learning Cities Platform” event held in Utrecht in 2012, the conference will provide professionals and thinkers from all around Europe with a unique opportunity to explore new ways to approach urban development.
https://www.polisnetwork.eu/publicnews/1584/45/Utrecht-Spring-Conference-2018-Managing-Urban-Change-and-Growth-Connectivity-Lifestyles---Governance

Olivier Van Duüren keynote speaker at IT Trans

UITP is pleased to announce leading industry executive, author and inspirational speaker Olivier Van Duüren as keynote speaker for IT-TRANS Conference & Exhibition (6-8 Mar 2018, Karlsruhe)
Olivier worked in the senior executive ranks at Microsoft for 22 years, providing him with a unique perspective on the intersection of innovation, transformation and human behaviour - with his latest mission leading the “digital transformation” of the company.
In September 2016 Olivier launched ‘The Dualarity’, a business and a book, on how to find the correct balance between performing and transforming.
https://www.it-trans.org/en/

Street wars 2035: can cyclists and driverless cars ever co-exist?

Driverless cars appear unstoppable – except of course you can simply walk in front of one and force it to brake. Could this conundrum eventually mean a return to a dystopian world of segregated urban highways?
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/jun/14/street-wars-2035-cyclists-driverless-cars-autonomous-vehicles

Why Transit Ridership Is Falling

In Los Angeles, the number of bus and rail trips taken last year was the lowest in more than a decade. Over just the last five years, transit ridership has declined 15 percent.
What's behind the huge drops?
Cars. More specifically, the fact that a lot more people who might otherwise ride the bus or train now own cars.
http://www.governing.com/topics/transportation-infrastructure/gov-los-angeles-transit-ridership-study.html

Join the ClairCity Project Annual Conference

The ClairCity project team warmly invite you to the project’s annual conference on 25 April 2018 in Sosnowiec, Poland. The conference theme for 2018 is “Protecting citizen health: Mitigating air pollution from domestic heating and transport.”
http://www.claircity.eu/get-involved/conference-2018/

Urban C-ITS workshop - Dublin - 22/03/18

The final workshop of the CODECS C-ITS City Pool will be hosted by Dublin City Council on 22 March 2018. The workshop will provide an opportunity to continue the city-focused discussions about C-ITS, including, what is the deployment status and prospects today, where can C-ITS bring benefit for transport authorities and what role could they play in the connected/C-ITS world of tomorrow.
https://www.polisnetwork.eu/publicnews/1588/45/Urban-C-ITS-workshop---Dublin---22-03-18

A healthy home: the key to urbanization

As communities around the world hurtle toward urbanization, authorities have the opportunity to embrace the challenge of improving housing and its effects on the health of urban populations.
Increasingly, people around the world are living in urban areas. By 2050, 66 percent of the world’s population will be urbanized. But according to the United Nations, at least a third of the global urban population suffers from inadequate living conditions. Urbanizing areas can experience severe overcrowding, the spread of communicable diseases, urban sprawl and poor environmental conditions impacting the quality of life and health of residents.
http://www.themarknews.com/2018/01/22/a-healthy-home-the-key-to-urbanization/#.Wmadf8f0cX8.twitter

Who Will Own The Infrastructure In The Smart City?

There is great enthusiasm for the smart city concept. Integration of autonomous vehicles, drones and networked communications are expected to manage congestion, lead to fewer accidents, reduce pollution and enhance quality of life.
The smart city was a major theme at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (#CES2018), hosted by the Consumer Technology Association.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/waynecrews/2018/01/11/who-will-own-the-infrastructure-in-the-smart-city/#5e3e14d61ab4

What to expect at the Beyond Data Event 2018?

This edition we take a step into the future and we dare every speaker to take the public by the hand, guiding us into the world Beyond the Data. Our keynotes will challenge, scare and enchant the audience using their powertalks and data-oriented personalities! What if we go beyond urban planning, will we live in a city with only sensors? And what are the consequences for mobility? Who programmes our cars and validates decisions? What if we can predict crime by statistics? What if we can prevent poverty using data? Or what happens when the citizens are in charge of their own data?
https://www.smart-circle.org/beyonddata/

Smart Cities Exchange Conference

The Smart Cities Exchange Conference (SCiX) offers City Mayors, City Managers, Chief Technology Officers, Economic Development Secretaries, Investors, Entrepreneurs, Urban Planners, Energy and Infrastructure Agencies and C level Executives the opportunity to explore and learn what is working in the most successful Smart Cities of the World, establish international collaborative networks to support their own Smart City transformations and interact with the latest technology innovations, disruptive leaders and business models fueling the cities of the future.
https://www.smartcitiesx.com/

Can Smart Cities be Smart Green Cities? We’ll See

As yet, there are no smart cities. I read of plenty of people and organisations working hard to create them. However, so far, we have had initiatives, policies, strategies, and some projects, but no examples of cities where it all comes together in a genuinely city-wide way. In addition, most of us are still wondering what is meant by the term “smart city”. When I read that Bill Gates was planning to build a smart city from scratch in Arizona[1] and that the global market for smart cities will be more than a trillion dollars per annum by 2022,[2] I thought I should find out more.
https://www.thenatureofcities.com/2017/12/18/can-smart-cities-smart-green-cities-well-see/

Smart Cities Predictions for 2018

As 2018 begins, the following are my highly unreliable, wet-finger-in-the-air guesses for what might happen in the smart cities arena, for better and worse, over the coming year.
As a general prediction, while there is no single rationale for a smart city, certain themes such as efficiency and cost, environmental impact, and the ever-intangible quality of “livability” have historically predominated. They will continue to so, simply because there is no reason for them to change – they reflect common-sense concerns that cities and their citizens continue to have. However, as smart cities invest in the underlying IOT and analytics technology, I predict that two other goals will increasingly join them.
http://meetingoftheminds.org/smart-cities-predictions-2018-24410

G-50 Global Smart City Summit

The Problem: Roughly 54% of the world’s population lives in cities, and is responsible for producing 80% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide – resulting in an environmental crisis on a global scale. While governments on a national level may not agree on the action required to reverse this impact, governments on the local level can come together to develop solutions that address urgent sustainability and environmental issues.
http://www.g50scs.org/

Future Urban Mobility 2018

On Thursday 12 April you are welcome at the annual conference ' Future Urban Mobility 2018 '.
With the theme The resilience of the future city , we look at important developments in the area of ??mobility, infrastructure and living.
Challenges in urban accessibility
Mobility as a Service
Inner city construction logistics
The power of data
These themes are central to which we talk about with experts and experience experts.
http://www.managementproducties.com/nl/mobility-infra-building/future-urban-mobility

Participation and Democracy in the Digital Age in Cities

In the face of the growing ubiquity of new technologies and digitalization, cities across the globe are experimenting with new ways of governance tools for civic engagement. Digital transformation offers the ability to reach a higher number of people and interact with them in innovative ways. Cities and municipalities are taking advantage of these opportunities to develop new instruments to enhance civic participation and public consultation in planning, decision-making and implementation processes.
http://blog.iese.edu/cities-challenges-and-management/2018/01/10/participation-and-democracy-in-the-digital-age-in-cities/

How great cities enable you to live longer

Low income people live longer in dense, well-educated, immigrant-friendly cities
Some of the most provocative social science research in the past decade has come from the Equality of Opportunity Project, led by Stanford economist Raj Chetty. The project’s major work looks at the factors contributing to intergenerational economic mobility–the extent to which different communities actually enable the American dream of people in the lowest income groups being able to move up economically. In another research project, Chetty and his colleagues have looked at how life expectancy varies by community.
http://cityobservatory.org/spillover_benefit_life_expectancy/

Urban Agriculture Forum

The Australian Food Network is pleased to announce that the 2018 Urban Agriculture Forum will be held on the 23rd & 24th of February at The William Angliss Institute, Melbourne.
The second UAF will build on this success, emphasising the role urban agriculture can play in creating more liveable cities and homes, and thereby contribute to meeting the global Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 11, 'Sustainable Cities and Communities.'
http://www.uaf.org.au/uaf-2018/

Save the Date: Local Renewables Conference 2018

http://www.local-renewables-conference.org/freiburg-and-basel-2018/home/

A Water-Secure Future for Cities

By 2030, 5 billion people will be living in urban areas with hundreds of millions living in one of the world’s 41 mega-cities, up from 28 today. At the same time, global demand for water is projected to outstrip supply by 40%. As such, cities around the world are at risk of water insecurity, which is the inability of a population to access good quality water of sufficient quantity necessary for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being and socio-economic development.
http://meetingoftheminds.org/water-secure-future-cities-17710

In A Shared Economy, Who Will Own Cars?

Cracks in the business model that has guided the auto industry in the past century are becoming more visible by the day. Individuals in the future are less likely to buy and own their own cars; they are more likely to share and rent them. Vehicle occupants aren’t as likely in the coming years to be behind the wheel themselves, and, as a result, may be more indifferent to snazzy brands. The appeal of the shared model will get a big boost by the increasing ease of digital payments. The “closed model” of an auto industry dominated by several giants is giving way to one in which Internet businesses will play a bigger role.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2018/01/21/in-a-shared-economy-who-will-own-autos/#319ecf882219

Le Monde Smart Cities Urban Innovation Awards

Le Monde newspaper launched the 3rd edition of the Urban Innovation Awards Le Monde Smart Cities, on 17 November 2017, during a conference on metropolises and their relationship with their territories, named Where can the city go? Metropolis, networks and territories.
The awards are divided into different categories: civic participation, habitat, energy, mobility, cultural action or urban innovation (social, and/or circular economy). The project can be european or non european, based on where the it is set.
Companies, municipalities, associations or even individuals, from all countries, can submit their project. Applications are open since 17 November 2017, and until 25 February 2018 for european projects, and 13 May 2018 for non europeans.
https://inta-aivn.org/en/news/inta-news/2569-le-monde-smart-cities-urban-innovation-awards

Save the Date - 5th European Conference on Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans

Registration has opened for the European Commission's 5th European Conference on Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) on 14-15 May 2018 in Nicosia, Cyprus. This is Europe's leading annual event for all those involved in putting the SUMP concept into practice.
In line with the European Commission having dedicated the year 2018 to the promotion of multimodality, the theme of this year's conference is multimodality, with a focus on the integration of transport modes and combined mobility solutions for passengers and freight in cities and regions.
For more information, visit www.eltis.org/sump2018.

A Plan to Prevent Bike-Share Blight

Sacramento, California, came late to the bike-sharing game. Because city officials never created a publicly funded municipal system (and because they’re in Sacramento, seat of California’s notoriously regulation-happy government), they’re having to put the cart before the horse, somewhat — or the bike-trailer before the bike, as the case may be — and devise a system of laws tailored to a changing and increasingly privatized industry.
https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/sacramento-has-a-plan-to-prevent-bike-share-blight

Great Idea: Freeways Without Futures

Freeways Without Futures—a decade-long campaign by CNU—has been at the vanguard of removing unnecessary freeways from cities. Ramming freeways through city neighborhoods did astronomical damage to cities in the 20th Century. While many of these freeways are probably here to stay, others could be removed and replaced with surface streets. Whenever this has happened—whether in San Francisco, New York City, Rochester, Milwaukee, or Seoul, Korea—the city always has improved economically and environmentally.
https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2017/11/22/great-idea-freeways-without-futures

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Further archived news available on request from: Kate More