Self-driving cars may someday drop off their owners downtown and then leave to find free parking. What would that mean for cities of the future?
The proposed Quayside neighbourhood in Toronto will collect data from individuals in public spaces, but getting consent is a tricky issue.
Picture Plane for Heatherwick Studio for Sidewalk Labs
A report based on public consultations conducted by Sidewalk Labs has still not answered many pressing concerns about privacy and consent in Toronto’s Quayside development.
An artist’s rendering of the proposed Quayside neighbourhood in Toronto.
Alphabet Inc. Sidewalk Labs
The seemingly ad hoc collection of nine City Deals announced so far falls short of a national settlement strategy that finally gets to grips with where our growing population might live and live well.
Car parking occupies a large proportion of urban areas, and cities cannot keep sacrificing so much space to meet demand.
Neil Sipe
The global trend is to free up valuable city space by reducing parking and promoting other forms of transport that don’t clog roads and pollute the air. Australian cities are still putting cars first.
Grangegorman campus, Technological University Dublin.
Technological University Dublin.
Smart cities are more likely to be defined by quieter upgrades to existing infrastructure and new partnerships that better represent residents.
New York has become a ‘city for the rich’ in recent decades, a shift in its real estate market that impacts policy-making, too.
Alessandro Colle / Shutterstock
New York City’s municipal budget relies heavily on the property taxes of extremely high-value real estate. That drives gentrification and distorts local policy in other ways that hurt residents.
Taxis have traditionally competed for kerbside space in our cities, but they now have many new competitors.
Neil Sipe
Cities must manage all the competing uses for limited roadside space to avoid congestion and maximise efficiency. And that begins with reliable data.
Residents play Pimp my Suburb, an exercise in engaging the community in achieving higher density while preserving what they love about their neighbourhood.
Anthony Duckworth-Smith
Faced with local planning changes like infill development people often fear they could lose the neighbourhood they love. But serious games are proving effective in giving locals a say in their future.
These streets are made for walking.
Laura Cros/Unsplash.
The car revolutionised the way people travel – but at a heavy cost. Now, car-free cities will only work when there’s reliable public transit and access for all.
Bright light does not necessarily make a space feel safer, as seen here where there’s a sharp drop-off into dark shadows at the edge of the path.
grafxart/Shutterstock
Bright lighting alone does not make a space feel safe. It can blind and disorientate and create dark shadows at the edges. Tellingly, ‘unsafe’ places had much higher illuminance than ‘safe’ places.
Towering canyons of concrete and glass are an increasingly dominant feature of fast-growing cities like Melbourne.
ymgerman/Shutterstock
Planning controls in Melbourne were eased 20 years ago, with mixed results, and new limits are now in place. Will other cities that have eased height limits, like Adelaide, avoid the same mistakes?
Sydney CBD is highly accessible and remains clearly the dominant centre in the metropolitan region.
Holli/Shutterstock
When a city gets to a certain size, it starts to make sense to have multiple centres of activity, and three are planned for Sydney. So what needs to be done to bring the city closer to this goal?
Car parking is such a pervasive feature of our cities that we have become blind to how much space it takes up.
Shuang Li/Shutterstock
Australian cities have a glut of parking, even as politicians move to protect parking spaces or promise even more. There are better ways to keep congestion manageable and our cities liveable.
New housing estates on the city fringes might be soulless, cookie-cutter developments, but communities can invest them with layers of meaning that create a sense of place.
Lukas Coch/AAP
A sense of place matters for people and communities. When a suburb is created from scratch, close attention needs to be paid to the cues from the landscape and meanings people attach to the area.
When most inner-city apartment residents don’t use cars to get around, you can expect public transport to feel the impacts of new developments.
Eric FIscher/Wikimedia
Traffic impact assessments required of major building developments mainly focus on the movement of cars, but these account for only 30-40% of trips by inner-city apartment dwellers.
Walking accounts for about 90% of all travel in Melbourne city centre, yet pedestrians are allocated only 24% of street space.
Adam Calaitzis/Shutterstock
A newly released ten-year plan for Melbourne aims for fewer cars, safer streets and more shared spaces. A significant amount of parking and road space would be reallocated to walking and cycling.
In an urban setting like central Footscray, where only 1% of the area is public space, the value of the humble footpath needs to be recognised.
Yvonne Meng
Footpaths are a valuable space for everyday social activity, but their role is often overlooked. In increasingly dense urban areas such as Footscray, footpaths are essential public spaces.
Ferrara, Italy bears some resemblance to da Vinci’s design.
hectorlo/Flickr.
Podcasters are creating new conversations about who and what the city is for. But even in the podcasting world, powerful interests can make it hard for new and previously excluded voices to be heard.