The Life-Sized City Blog

Brilliantly simple and effective video about the societal costs of automobile use. Filled with nuggets of wisdom, effectively communicated. Love the bit about how cars are like gasses - it doesn't matter how large the container grows, the molecules will still occupy the whole space. Build more roads, more cars come. Welcome to Square One. Amazing how after 75 years of traffic engineers and planners failing constantly and consistently at solving traffic problems, we still give them outrageous amounts of funding to keep... failing. Seriously, what other vocation in the world gets so much money to play with without having produced ANY results for three quarters of a century? The Mexican office of the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy (ITDP) produced this film - in Spanish with English subtitles. Thanks to Ludwig from UITP for the link .

Cyclists in Guangzhou, China. Much is said about the rise of Chinese car culture at the expense of the once proud Chinese bicycle culture. Reports from the front lines in the Far East are generally negative, despite Katie's crooning about the 9 million bicycles in Beijing. The country does have problems that need immediate attention. No doubt about it. What we don't hear as often is that many cities are, in fact, addressing the problem. To their credit, they are acutely aware of the rapid onslaught of automobile traffic and are seeking solutions. A colleague of mine, Troels Andersen, is the Danish consultant on a project in Guangzhou, in Southern China, with The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy [ITDP] . Troels is one of Denmark's most experienced traffic consultants and him and I have been invited to speak at many of the same international conferences over the past couple of years. At the most recent one , we did what we usually do - drink beers...