In Sydney, a 'latte line', that runs from the airport to Parramatta and up to the northwest, divides white-collar jobs from blue-collar jobs. This perpetuates inequality.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Analysis and Comment
It's easy to be cynical about charity drives like the Vinnies CEO Sleepout. Are they just PR stunts or can they make a difference beyond fundraising? Our study shows they can, and they do.
The standards we use today were designed to help avoid the overcrowded housing that blighted cities in the past. But severe overcrowding is again on the rise, so what needs to be done?
The combination of higher-density living and increasing cultural diversity means we need to think about how to build social cohesion and make the most of the opportunities of apartment living.
Australia has guidelines for designing safe parks, but the stories of many women show these are not enough. We must involve women in co-designing these shared public spaces.
The largest cities in Australia and the US are both the richest and the most likely to push out low-income earners. Having cities of all sizes will increase people's choices of where to live and work.
Laws providing for safe access protect the dignity and safety of staff who need access to their workplace and women who need access to health-care services without harassment and intimidation.
Dockless or stationless bike sharing is risky business, relying a bit too much on common decency. Bike sharing schemes can work, but they may need to forego user convenience for bike safety.
Regional areas are expanding, and yet not enough attention is being paid to improving rail access to capital cities. This affects the liveability of the areas.
The NDIS has started to reduce the admissions of young people with disabilities to aged care facilities, but more than 6,000 are still waiting for more suitable accommodation.
Marketers once liked to think they could virtually steer people through shops and malls. But it appears shoppers' movements, possibly driven by primal instincts, aren't so easily directed.
Collisions at intersections between motor vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians cause many deaths and injuries. Design that considers how each group approaches intersections improves everyone's safety.
Everyone doesn't simply wait their turn at traffic lights. Signals are set up to enable a 'green wave' for cars and adjust to heavy traffic, making walkers wait longer no matter how many there are.
By identifying and applying the key rules governing the behaviour of each individual, agent-based modelling offers insights into complex phenomena like traffic jams and flocking.
Insects aren't known for having big brains, and slime moulds and fungi don't have any. So how do they solve challenges that test the ingenuity of human transport engineers?
There's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all plan for sustainable, healthy urban living. Urban diaries help identify what works – and doesn't work – for tropical cities like Cairns or Townsville.
One problem with Airbnb is that it isn't transparent about how many properties are truly 'shared' and how many are just part of a letting business. Regulators need to know that to manage the impacts.
Businesses are weighing up the costs of queuing and using innovative ways to minimise these costs by doing away with queues.
Cities are expanding upwards and downwards, as well as outwards. With urban density also increasing, moving people efficiently around the city, often using ageing infrastructure, is quite a challenge.
Western Sydney Aerotropolis is Australia's first publicly funded airport project in more than three decades. It has bipartisan support, but its fate also depends on getting the policy settings right.
To deliver better housing for health, we must go back to what we know works, to the proven evidence-based solutions for design, construction, delivery and maintenance.
Research into food sharing in Melbourne shows these networks are highly productive and produce many benefits. But policy and the law have yet to catch up.
Moving the Masses
Insects aren't known for having big brains, and slime moulds and fungi don't have any. So how do they solve challenges that test the ingenuity of human transport engineers?
Businesses are weighing up the costs of queuing and using innovative ways to minimise these costs by doing away with queues.
Collisions at intersections between motor vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians cause many deaths and injuries. Design that considers how each group approaches intersections improves everyone's safety.
Liveable cities
Regional areas are expanding, and yet not enough attention is being paid to improving rail access to capital cities. This affects the liveability of the areas.
There's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all plan for sustainable, healthy urban living. Urban diaries help identify what works – and doesn't work – for tropical cities like Cairns or Townsville.
Cities for Everyone
Australia has no policy designating English as the official language, but an explicit 'English first' policy for shop signs would treat speakers of every other language as second-class citizens.
Chinatown Haymarket has emerged as an evolving site where Asian urban modernity is introduced into Sydney.
Affordable housing
The standards we use today were designed to help avoid the overcrowded housing that blighted cities in the past. But severe overcrowding is again on the rise, so what needs to be done?
Tasmania has an estimated rental housing shortfall of 29,200 households across the state. Especially in disadvantaged rural areas, local councils have had to step in to help house residents locally.
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NDIS
The NDIS has started to reduce the admissions of young people with disabilities to aged care facilities, but more than 6,000 are still waiting for more suitable accommodation.
China's cities
Xiong’an is called China’s No.1 urban project. Orchestrated by President Xi Jinping, the mega-city to be built just over 100 kilometres south of Beijing is also very much a political project.
Housing
Housing affordability is one of Australia’s great unsolved problems. Some households can make adjustments to cover high housing costs, but the ones deprived of essentials are under real stress.
Indigenous housing
To deliver better housing for health, we must go back to what we know works, to the proven evidence-based solutions for design, construction, delivery and maintenance.
Diversity
Australia has no policy designating English as the official language, but an explicit 'English first' policy for shop signs would treat speakers of every other language as second-class citizens.
Homelessness
A decade after the launch of a national campaign against homelessness, the trends are all going the wrong way. A new annual report highlights what's gone wrong and what must be done.
Airports
Good public access for Melbourne Airport and others like it depends on not fixating on one solution, like a single rail line, but instead developing multiple options integrated with the city's needs.
Infrastructure
Analysis of the business cases for three of the biggest projects deemed "high priority" by Infrastructure Australia raises questions about the process.
Heritage
Of the thousands of churches erected to serve the fast-growing communities of post-war Australia, very few are protected. Are we happy to lose buildings that are so much part of our modern heritage?
Transport funding
New analysis reveals just how little is spent on cycling and walking projects around Australia. No state's spending on cycling is more than 1.5% of its road funding.
New cities
Business-as-usual projections assume our four biggest cities must absorb three-quarters of Australia's population growth over the next 30 years. Might new cities be a better way to deal with it?
Recycled water
Perth is looking at recycling all its sewage in the city's future water supply. But many Australians' drinking water already contains indirectly recycled treated sewage.
Toilets
Public toilets are an essential amenity, but most of them aren't places we'd want to go to unless we have to. What does the failure to provide more restful and inviting places say about us?
Self-driving cars
Self-driving, shared, electric vehicles and increasing urban density represent four disruptions that will transform city life. But a transport utopia isn't a guaranteed outcome of their interactions.
Parking
Looking back through all Melbourne's strategic plans from 1929 onwards, it becomes clear that the 20th-century legacy of car-centric planning and its focus on parking is still deeply entrenched.
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- To design safer parks for women, city planners must listen to their stories
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- Take heart, charity stunts can make CEOs better people
- With apartment living on the rise, how do families and their noisy children fit in?
- Overcrowded housing looms as a challenge for our cities
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