The Urban Effect: China
Here come the 3D printed cars, courtesy of Canada
The car in this case is the Urbee, a tiny three-wheeled economy car with an electric motor, internal combustion engine, and 3D-printed frame. Designed by the Manitoba-based Kor EcoLogic, the Urbee was manufactured using a Stratasys Fortus printer, which is able to cut down on parts by printing the Urbee in roughly 50 large blocks.
Full Story: Washington Post
A Scooter That Folds Into a Carry-on Luggage | EarthTechling
Xor Motors, based in Aix-en-Provence, France, is – at first glance – just another electric scooter manufacturer. But it offers a twist. As can be seen seen in this video, the Xor X02 electric scooter can actually be folded small enough to be rolled away by it rider.
Cities are Reaching Their Limits
Africa May Leapfrog the World in Big Data | ReadWriteEnterprise
Africa is already well known for leapfrogging the rest of the world in use of mobile money, but African countries now have another big leapfrogging opportunity: big data analytics.
Across the continent, there’s a tremendous potential for using data analytics in powerful new ways in a wide range of industries and domains, from telecommunications and banking to transportation and healthcare.
“Going forward, data is going to be THE source of competitive advantage” - IBM Chairman and CEO, Ginni Rometty at the IBM CIO Leadership Exchange in Johannesburg, South Africa
Bikes and Buses Propel Mexico City to Prize in Sustainable Transport | National Geographic
Bicycles, pedestrian-friendly plazas and walkways, new bus lines, and parking meters are combining to transform parts of Mexico City from a traffic nightmare to a commuter’s paradise. The Mexican capital, one of the world’s most populated urban areas, has captured this year’s Sustainable Transport Award, the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP)
Increased amount of rail freight requires cities to change
When switching to a sustainable transport system, one key factor involves shifting more freight transport from road to rail. This change, however, can result in increased environmental problems in the local urban environment – primarily due to transshipment from train to lorry, that must almost always take place in order to transport the freight the last mile.
For historical reasons, intermodal freight terminals are generally located in close vicinity to the passenger train station. An increased level of rail freight leads to more local air pollution, noise and congestion at these central locations. If, on the other hand, freight is transported by road the entire distance, the negative effects inside cities may diminish, for instance because many lorries do not need to enter the urban core.
So the question is: how can this dilemma of global sustainability versus local sustainability be resolved? Sönke Behrends investigated the issue in his thesis at Chalmers University of Technology.
“Local politicians and authorities must take rail freight more into account when planning cities; in part to create a better city for residents, and in part to increase the competitiveness of rail, which is currently limited by freight terminals that are difficult to access and that have a low degree of efficiency during transshipment to lorry,” he says.
Join the Mobility Revolution with These Five Apps - Technology Review
Just in time: When’s the bus coming? NextBus takes away the guesswork: the app tells you exactly how many minutes away your bus is. It works using GPS signals from devices installed inside city buses. Boston has signed on, and so has San Francisco, where the app also keeps track of trolleys and cable cars.
NextBus is a 15-year-old company, and it was “tough going” for many years, says chief technology officer Michael Smith. Originally, riders got updates by calling a number or consulting bus-stop displays. Now the rise of smart phones has made the system much more powerful. About 30 percent of NextBus’s 800,000 daily users access the app via iPhones or other smart devices.
NextBus charges transit agencies a few hundred dollars per bus per year to use its service, and more if the buses don’t have GPS yet. The fee Los Angeles pays to use the software in its 2,500-vehicle fleet: $1.5 million over three years. But that’s quickly made back in increased ridership. Bus-stop haters can now arrive just in time.
In traffic-choked L.A., a car lane is given to bicycles: City officials unveil a new 2.2-mile path stretching along 7th Street from Catalina Avenue in Koreatown to Figueroa Street downtown. All that was needed was paint, a few signs and some traffic light adjustments.
Photo: A cyclist uses the new bike lane on 7th Street in downtown Los Angeles. The lane used to be for cars only. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times
(via captainplanit)
Mapnificent is a tool that visualizes the places you can reach on public transportation given a certain amount of time. Custom settings let you note how long it takes you to get to transit stations, with an experimental option to calculate traffic by adjusting for time of day (though it doesn’t seem to account for L.A.’s gridlock).
There are maps for Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento and the Bay Area. (via highcountrynews)
Map: Shows areas available by public transit within 15 minutes from the Los Angeles Times. Credit: Mapnificent
via latimes:
(via wnyc)
