Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of many great North American city parks, understood that ready access to nature made cities healthier places to live.
A cyclist rides in The Mall, London, May 10 2020.
EPA-EFE/WILL OLIVER
We sorely miss our regular haunts during the coronavirus lockdown not only because we like them but also because a healthy society needs places where people can gather, mix and mingle.
Cities are going to be reshaped by the coronavirus pandemic, which has closed public parks, decreased traffic and put pressures on housing.
(Nathan Shurr/Unsplash)
Cities can learn from past pandemics to see how communities and lifestyles are shaped by outbreaks.
A crew works on building a 68-bed emergency field hospital specially equipped with a respiratory unit in New York’s Central Park on March 29, 2020.
AP Photo/Mary Altaffer
The impacts of coronavirus on cities are extraordinarily difficult. Yet around the world, cities are responding rapidly and decisively to the crisis and its implications for urban life.
There is no documented health benefit that warrants banning cigarette sales for 21 days.
Getty Images
Lockdown should be nuanced to the South African context of overcrowded accommodation and high levels of domestic violence. Permitting cigarette purchases and exercise might assist.
An empty street in Turin, Italy.
MikeDotta/Shutterstock
Fare free public transport exists in at least 98 cities and towns around the world.
Montréal is one of the most congested cities in Canada. In 2018, a total of 145 hours per capita were lost by people stuck in rush hour traffic.
(Shutterstock)
Traffic congestion causes more problems than just being stuck in traffic. There are real effects on the health, quality of life and wallets of taxpayers.
Some parks reduce violence in the local vicinity. Other parks attract crime. The difference has to do with how these urban green spaces are designed, programmed and managed, experts say.
A team of researchers has mapped out smart city technologies across Canada.
Shutterstock
Canadian researchers have mapped smart city technologies throughout the country. The interactive map is intended to inform urban residents of the locations of technologies that may affect privacy.
Flexed joints can help dissipate some of the forces when landing a parkour jump.
Sascha Steinbach/AAP
We see the daily commute as a waste of time. But there’s another way to see the experience: a whole life in the events and memories we form during these journeys, which change us as human beings.