Environmental Literacy Initiatives for Urban Kids
Environmental literacy programs often target urban kids to inspire connections to the natural world.
A Contest to Fight Urbanisation
What can a bunch of grad students do to try to combat urban sprawl? We’ll find out as the entries for The Geneva Challenge arrive on July 31, 2016.
Urban Renewal: The Greening of Cities
If you imagine a green city, you might not first think of Houston, Texas, but according to a green building index, over half of the commercial square footage there has an EPA Energy Star or LEED rating. In fact, Houston has ranked as high as number 3 in the US for LEED-certified commercial space. “Since Houston is the energy capital of the world, sustainability is paramount to all aspects of our economy. This is evident in the way real estate has been consistently…
Urban Living 101
Urban living offers a number of advantages, but you may not be aware of what they are and how to enjoy them. Not owning and operating a car can save you thousands per year. Of course, the amount you save will vary depending on your living situation and lifestyle choices. If you are considering going carless, you may not be extremely wealthy, so the annual savings could be exactly what you want. In fact, if you can go carless for ten years, how…
Bike Commuting 101
There are two main benefits of bike commuting: saving money and gaining fitness. People who don’t own cars and employ a combination of biking, walking, and the use of public transportation can save thousands of dollars each year. You might be most interested in the financial details, so let’s get to that first. A Forbes contributor wrote that the average cost of owning and operating a car per year is about $8,000, but the same cost for a bike is only $300 or…
Tech is Good, But We Need Transportation Planning for the City of the Future
By Paul Mackie and Howard Jennings What does transportation in the U.S. city of the future look like? Mobility Lab gets asked this a lot because it’s clear that people have had it with the crushing traffic that dominates most of our cities, and 3 out of 4 people are frustrated by their lack of transportation options. As Forbes recently pointed out, the average traffic delay – time spent in stop-and-go traffic – per commuter is 42 hours each year,…
Do Millenials Prefer Urban Living Or Suburbs?
Do millenials prefer urban living or the suburbs? It depends on who you ask. But one thing is clear. Living close to the city is popular with lots of people
Slow Streets Advocates For “Complete Streets”
Slow Streets in Vancouver advocates for “complete streets” that slow the pace of travel and protect bicyclists and pedestrians from vehicles.
Urban Living And Retirement
Urban living has benefits and drawbacks for seniors contemplating retirement. Here are some things for elder citizens to consider about city life.
Imagining Paris As A Green City
Architect Vincent Callebaut has revealed his designs for a sustainable Paris of 2050. His ideas include vertical gardens and net zero buildings.
World’s Tallest Buildings Will Purify The Environment
The world’s tallest buildings in Wuhan, China will also help clean the environment. They will generate solar, wind and hydrogen power and vertical gardens.
Wind Tree Project Turns Street Art into Electric Power
A new French start-up, NewWind, is making wind power beautiful! Their new Wind Tree offers almost a hundred mini-windmills on an apparatus designed to look like a tree. Due to the light construction of the “leaves,” the Wind Tree generates power at wind speeds as low as 4.4 miles per hour! This translates into sustained operation times (an average of 320 days a year) that are almost double those of standard windmills that need higher wind speeds in order to…
Singapore Airport Getting its Own Bio-Dome
Construction has begun on a new BioDome for Singapore’s JewelChangi Airport. Designed by Moshe Safdie Architects, the glass dome will cover nearly 1.5 million square feet of space and have retail, leisure and entertainment facilities as well as green spaces open to travelers and local residents. A Canopy Garden will hover over the main floor on tree-like columns and feature a natural environment filled with plants and flowers. Its focus will be an enormous waterfall at the very center. The Singapore BioDome will be constructed from glass panels…
Babies and Beer Gardens: a New Urban Dynamic
Beer gardens and beer halls are popping up in cities all across America and they are discovering a new category of customer – moms with kids. In traditional German beer gardens, whole families would gather to quaff the ales, munch bratwursts, and socialize with their families, neighbors, and friends. At one time, there were over 3000 beer halls in New York City, alone. On Sunday afternoons, it was common to see families with young children in attendance. “It was part of…