Enrique Peñalosa, Mayor of Bogota, believes transportation is “a political and not a technical issue.” If this is the case then how do we design innovative and efficient transit systems in democracies? In countries where private property rights are not as strong and participatory planning is not the norm, local governments are able approach transportation planning as almost purely a technical issue. This is often the approach in Chinese cities. However, cities in more democratic nations have the added layers of politics to plan for.
The Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University will attempt to address these issues as they host a workshop on Designing Mobility for Democracy: the Role of Cities. The workshop will examine the role of governance in making cities fairer and more democratically accountable to its citizens by examining recent innovations in Cape Town, London, Bogota, Seattle and New York. Find more information about the workshop here.
Apr 14, 2011 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM NYU, Kimmel Center, Eisner & Lubin Auditorium. 60 Washington Square South New York. 4th Floor
Speakers Include:
- Ricky Burdett – London School of Economics
- Jon Orcutt – Department of Transportation, City of New York
- Richard Sennett – New York University
- Saskia Sassen – Columbia University
- Gerald Frug – Harvard University Law School
- Edgar Pieterse – University of Cape Town
- Diane Sugimura – City of Seattle Planning Department
- Fabio Casiroli – Polytechnic of Milan
- Tim Stonor – Harvard Graduate School of Design
grid turns 200 years old! Hippodamus of Miletus, the ancient Greek urban planner, viewed the urban grid as a manifestation of “the rationality of civilized life.” Urban historian Edward K. Spann believes unlike no other city in the world, “was the triumph of the grid as decisive as in America’s greatest city.” How has New York City’s grid shaped your urban experience?
NYC Grid Turns 200 “Two hundred years ago on Tuesday [March 22], the city’s street commissioners certified the no-frills street matrix that heralded New York’s transformation into the City of Angles — the rigid 90-degree grid that spurred unprecedented development, gave birth to vehicular gridlock and defiant jaywalking, and spawned a new breed of entrepreneurs who would exponentially raise the value of Manhattan’s real estate.” Read more from the 
Lagos to Expand BRT System “Lagos, Nigeria’s bus rapid transit (BRT) system, established in 2008, will expand its services more than 13 miles from Oshodi to Ikorodu… Since its inception three years ago, the BRT between Mile 12 and CMS stations has transported 170 million passengers and reduced travel times by 30 minutes, 
A petition to save Chandigarh, Le Corbusier’s modernist city in India, from being sold off bit-by-bit “With the knowledge of—and in some cases, it is asserted, the complicity of—local ministries, furniture, light fixtures, and architectural drawings have been auctioned off in the international antiquities market. The news the city’s iconic Corbusier-designed manhole covers were fetching upward of US $20,000 at auction in Europe and the United States raised alarms in international modernist preservation and Indian heritage circles. International Herald Tribune design critic 
Kaohsiung Public Transit Push “In 2006, Kaohsiung City recorded a paltry 4.3 percent share for public transportation usage. In the years since, the Kaohsiung City government launched an ambitious plan to increase ridership in Taiwan’s second largest urban area…. Once a culture of public transportation ridership is firmly established, the government will begin to implement policies to discourage specific private transportation options.” Read more from 
Tokyo Subway 3.160 billion (2009)
Moscow Metro 2.392 billion (2009)
Seoul Subway2.048 billion (2009)
Beijing Subway 1.595 billion (2010)
New York City Subway 1.579 billion (2009)
Paris Métro 1.479 billion (2009)
Mexico City Metro 1.414 billion (2009)
Hong Kong MTR 1.41 billion (2010)
