Trains and trams get most attention, but ‘tweaking’ bus transit can transform cities. Buses can be more cost-effective and deliver better service, especially for small to mid-sized cities.
Police march down Swanston Street in Melbourne.
Nils Versemann / Shutterstock.com
Security in cities can make some people feel safe while excluding others. New ways of planning and policing public space are needed to ensure cities are safe and accessible for all.
Young southern brown bandicoots (Isoodon obesulus obesulus), an endangered marsupial species living in outer Melbourne.
Sarah Maclagan
Expo 88 helped to create Brisbane’s South Bank Parklands by raising expectations of what the city could be like.
Originating in the Netherlands, the concept of ‘woonerfs’, areas designed to invite walking, playing, socialising and cycling while curbing motor vehicles, has spread to cities in other countries, including Berlin.
Eric Sehr/Flickr
All around us, the places we inhabit send us physical and visual cues that influence our behaviour. Good design can tilt the balance so our surroundings help us act in ways that fulfil our needs.
Riot police drill outside Saint Petersburg’s new soccer stadium ahead of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky
In the 1970s, both Kyoto and Melbourne made fateful decisions about their transport networks. Melbourne today enjoys the benefits of trams, while Kyoto lives with the consequences of losing them.
In contrast to most big airports where public transport provides a large proportion of passenger access, 86% of access to Melbourne Airport is by car.
David Crosling/AAP
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.
Millennials can’t count on MPs to act in their interest – unless more of them take to the ballot box.
Being a property investor or house hunter appears to make Sydneysiders more supportive of foreign investment in residential real estate.
Tracey Nearmy/AAP
You’d perhaps expect property investors not to mind foreign investors who might push up prices. More surprisingly, house hunters are also more supportive than those who are not looking to buy.
Tel Aviv has a reputation as a “non-stop city” but is also known for its local government’s use of smart technology to listen to and respond to residents’ needs and concerns.
Alexandra Lande/Shutterstock
To be a smart city is to know what your people want and need. And smart city leaders make sure residents can tell them by using technology to maintain a constant two-way flow of information.
Dozens of US cities have launched bike-share programs in the past decade. There have been bumps – critics want wider access, and cities want bikes stored out of the way – but bike sharing is on a roll.
Sydney’s WestConnex is being constructed as a “high priority” project, despite its business case failing to meet Infrastructure Australia’s stated requirements.
Ben Rushton/AAP
Analysis of the business cases for three of the biggest projects deemed “high priority” by Infrastructure Australia raises questions about the process.
Torre Glòries in Barcelona is an obvious example of statement architecture, but much of the gender bias built into cities is more insidious and pervasive.
Wikimedia Commons
Women encounter many difficulties in cities that are products of male design and planning. We need to move past the practice of one group shaping our world on behalf of everyone else.
A mother and daughter stroll through a Johannesburg suburb.
Shutterstock/Richard van der Spuy