Urban-Transport

Pedestrians Rushing More and More A study by American Scholar Arianna Salazar-Miranda from Yale University shows something astonishing – and worrying – about our cities. Gone are the days in which people would stroll leasurly through the city centers. Instead, people are increasingly only rushing from A to B, which the study proved by comparing video data from the years 1979-1980 and 2008-2010. They found the average walking speed increased by 15% while the time spent lingering was reduced by 50%. Is it that cities are less attractive nowadays, or do people have less time? My personal theory: Using smartphones, you rarely have to spent some time waiting for someone at a certain place, as you can know up to the minute when the person arrives. But is this really true? More data is needed, but the research direction looks very promising. Will Berlin Become a Car-Free City? Can a big city become completely car free? Paris has made some moves in this direction, decreasing maximum driving speed on many streets and even making some streets car free. Yet the whole city, this would be a completely new level. Do the people in Germany’s capital city want to be the first? This is the proposal of the citizen’s initiative “Berlin Autofrei.” Their idea is that the area within the S-Bahn circle shall become a zone with limited car access. People in this area could use their car only a few times per year - with exceptions for disabled people and first responders. They aim for a referendum, and if the referendum is successful, their initiative could become law. What would be the effect on people if such a drastic change happened in their lifes? Can they adapt their patterns for how to get to work or their kids to daycare in time? Will public transportation be able to cope with the increased demand? Would car ownership really drop? These are interesting questions, but it is also a big experiment. Will the people in Berlin be willing to become part of this experiment? Australias First Rocket Fails Australian Company Gilmour Space launched their first rocket of the type “Eris”. Unfortunately, it failed after only 14 seconds of flight. Yet this flight was enough to put Australia on the list of countries that could soon have access to space. The circle of space nations, it seems to keep growing every day. Title image generated with Stable Diffusion.

The subconscious helps you make sense of an ever changing world. As the name says, you are often not aware of the working of the subconscious. Yet it is always at work, guiding you softly and never stopping. The same is true for what is underneath our cities. The ground under our feet sprouts so many functions that are essential for our lives, but we rarely think about them. There are cables that bring electricity, pipes that deliver fresh water or take away used ones and optical fibres that let us communicate with the world. All of this happens every day, every second, and that is what keeps us alive and functioning. ...

Car traffic increases all over the world. New streets are constructed, existing ones widened. Yet there are streets that don’t follow this trend, like the narrowest street in the world.

A few years ago, a great idea made the rounds: The sharing economy. Why own something if you could share the ownership - and the costs - with others? The idea permeated the auto industry. Many even saw the end of traditional car ownership. Fast forward to 2023, and that vision has yet to manifest. Car sales are booming around the world. There seems to be no trend towards sharing your car with others. What happened to the great idea of carsharing?

Escalators - who would think of them as a means of public transportation? Usually they are the ones doing the work in the background, carrying us down to the subway or up to the airport terminal. But in Hong Kong, escalators are the stars: Enter the Central Mid-Levels Escalator.

Delivery drones have been in the news for the past few years. Now they are starting to be used in the real world. In the Chinese high-tech city of Shenzen, delivery drones are now delivering food.