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.
Analysis of the business cases for three of the biggest projects deemed “high priority” by Infrastructure Australia raises questions about the process.
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.
Cathy Parker, Manchester Metropolitan University; Simon Quin, Manchester Metropolitan University, and Steve Millington, Manchester Metropolitan University
Weather and online shopping aren’t the main culprits behind the high street’s decline.
The connections between city planning and health are many and varied, but getting health objectives integrated into all aspects of planning in New South Wales has been a long struggle.
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?
Behind the built-up glitz of Surfers Paradise lies a deep history that has been written and overwritten in successive layers that have become thinner and thinner as time goes on.
The problem with most public housing ‘renewal’ programs is that the residents have the least say in what happens to the places they call home. The evidence of housing research is also being ignored.
Commonly used surfaces in play areas, such as “soft fall” materials and Astroturf, can heat up to 80-100°C in the sun. This makes them a hazardous design choice, especially as the climate gets hotter.
Researchers are installing sensors to collect data about the use of public spaces. This can improve the management and public amenity of these places, but will users see the technology as intrusive?
The relationship between weather and our travel choices is complicated. We can’t change the weather, but, with many other factors in play, good policy and design can reduce its impacts.