News
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Pai has helped bring sustainable urban mobility to cities across India
Pedestrians and auto-rickshaws compete for space on the streets of Mumbai, India. Photo by EMBARQ.
Sustainability Outlook, a leading market access, insight and collaboration platform tracking actions related towards sustainability in India, has recognized Madhav Pai, Director of WRI Ross Center in India, as Parivartan Trailblazer of the Year 2015. The prestigious award is a recognition of Pai’s outstanding leadership establishing our Center’s EMBARQ sustainable urban mobility initiative in India.
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New manual from WRI Brasil Sustainable Cities helps businesses develop corporate mobility plans step by step
Highway in São Paulo, Brazil Photo Credit: mlsirac/Flickr
Commutes to and from work make up about half of all daily travel in Brazil. The majority of commuters travel at peak hours, which—coupled with low-quality public transport and sprawl—is harmful for governments, businesses and people. The current model of development centers on private vehicles, which has increasingly resulted in congestion, poor mobility and air pollution. However, both public and private employers can do a lot to encourage employees to commute in more sustainable ways.
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Workshop brought together local officials and experts to share best practices on implementing new policies
Downtown Beijing. Photo Credit: LanguageTeaching/Flickr
According to the Beijing Municipal Committee of Transport (BMCT), the number of vehicles in Beijing has reached 5.591 million, with 30.99 million daily trips within the sixth ring road at the end of 2014. As a result, air quality in the area has declined sharply. Latest data from the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) shows that among local pollutants, emissions from motor vehicles contributed to 31.31 percent of fine particular matter, for example.
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Established in memory of Dr. Lee Schipper, the scholarship has helped advance the field of sustainable mobility for four years
The Lee Schipper Memorial Scholarship for Sustainable Transport and Energy Efficiency is awarded annually to up to two extraordinary candidates to honor the legacy of Dr. Leon J. Schipper, pictured above, co-founder of EMBARQ. Photo by EMBARQ.
EMBARQ, WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities’ sustainable urban mobility initiative, and the Lee Schipper family are pleased to announce Gwen Kash has been selected to receive the fourth annual Lee Schipper Memorial Scholarship.
Established in 2012, the Lee Schipper Memorial Scholarship celebrates EMBARQ founder Dr. Lee Schipper’s vision and contributions to sustainable transport and energy. Last year’s recipients – Erik Vergel-Tovar and Madeline Brozen – studied the relationship between BRT ridership and the built environment and the design of complete streets, respectively.
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Collaboration through the Transit Metropolis program to target private car use and support public transport
Mayor of Suzhou LU Liusheng and WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities Director of Strategy and Global Policy and EMBARQ Director, Holger Dalkmann, inked the MOU to officially launch a series of cooperation on the Transit Metropolis demonstration project between WRI and Suzhou Municipal Government. Photo Credit: EMBARQ China
Currently home 4.16 million people, the city of Suzhou in China is growing at such a rapid rate that its economic activity has nearly reached that of first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. However, rapid economic growth has also produced the same mobility challenges—major traffic congestion, pipe-tail emissions, and increased road incidents--that have plagued the first-tier cities.
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Event will be broadcast live on www.cidadesetransportes.org
Register now for the Cities & Transport International Congress.
Given the widespread challenges of urbanization, mayors need to learn from one another and gain fresh ideas in order to pioneer projects that result in sustainable cities. To inspire city leaders worldwide, WRI Brasil Sustainable Cities is hosting the Mayors’ Summit, which will be attended by Ken Livingstone, Enrique Peñalosa, Mary Jane Ortega, Jaime Lerner, and Sam Adams.
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New publication serves as a practical guide for helping Brazilian cities develop mobility plans
Cycling in Rio de Janeiro. Photo by Benoit Colin.
In 2012, President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil passed legislation that required cities with more than 20,000 residents to incorporate urban mobility planning in their greater development plans in order to receive federal development funding. Known as the National Policy on Urban Mobility, this legislation established principles, guidelines and tools to guide cities in creating urban mobility plans.
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Officials exchanged insights and ideas, identified potential new programs
Two cyclists in Caddebostan, Istanbul, Turkey. Credit: Benoit Colin/WRI.
Bike share has become one of the fastest growing trends in urban transport over the past ten years. From 2004 to 2014, the number of cities with bike share systems increased from 11 to 855. With nine cities already operating bike share systems, Turkey is showing substantial interest in moving toward more sustainable urban mobility.
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Online platform BRTData.org now features 402 mapped BRT corridors and bus lanes
Photo by Mariana Gil/EMBARQ Brasil
August, 2015 marks an important milestone for BRTData.org—an online database that tracks bus rapid transit (BRT) systems worldwide: the number of mapped BRT systems and corridors passed 400.
BRT is expanding globally. Currently, there are 195 cities with bus priority systems, serving approximately 32.4 million people served every day. With the platform’s latest update, the tool registered three new corridors, including Brampton, Canada and Cordoba, Argentina, bringing the total to 402 corridors and systems.
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A week-long case study revealed lessons for sustainable urban development in Brazil
The Busway, a bus service in the UK. Photo credit: Maria Fernanda Cavalcanti/EMBARQ Brasil
To stay competitive on a global level, London reinvents itself every day. Through the London Infrastructure Plan 2050, the Greater London Authority (GLA) is responsible for ensuring that this happens. The GLA implements low-carbon reforms in transport, energy, and waste management, using urban planning to address population growth in the metropolitan area.
