News
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EMBARQ Turkey hosts second annual Livable Cities Symposium in Izmir
The second annual Livable Cities Symposium highlighted the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to define urban livability and outline best practices for bikeable, walkable cities with high quality of life. Photo by Mehmet Aktugan/Flickr.
How can cities harness urban mobility solutions to become more livable?
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Conference explores how to reinvent cities for strong leadership in the urban century
As the host city of the International Congress for Sustainable Transport, Mexico City has made substantial progress improving sustainable mobility in the past decade. Photo by Javier Hidalgo/Flickr.
With great satisfaction, EMBARQ Mexico celebrated the International Congress on Sustainable Transport (“X Congreso”) from October 13 - 15, 2014 in Mexico City. Now in its tenth year, Congreso is one of the largest forums in Latin America for sharing best practices in sustainable mobility and urban development locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally.
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EMBARQ Turkey to co-host the second Livable Cities Symposium, focused on creating bikeable and walkable cities
İzmir, pictured above, will host the Livable Cities Symposium 2014 - an international conference that will help spread best practices in shaping walkable, bikeable and livable cities. Photo by 350.org/Flickr.
Over the past half-century, the world has urbanized at an unprecedented pace. In 1970, about 37% of the world’s population lived in urban areas. This number rose to 45% in 1990, 54% in 2014, and is expected to reach 66% by 2050. Much of this urban growth is occurring in less wealthy cities, and has created distinct challenges.
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Transit-oriented development, shared mobility services, and information technologies among key transport solutions for Chinese cities
With the right government leadership, the new normal for sustainable transport in Chinese cities will include more transit-oriented development, shared mobility services, and transport innovations from the private sector. Photo by Taro Taylor/Flickr.
Transit Metropolis – administered by the Ministry of Transport – is a national program that aims to promote transit-oriented development (TOD) and high quality transit services. On October 15 and 16, 2014, the Ministry hosted the 4th Transit Metropolis Forum as one of the program’s regular capacity-building efforts.
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EMBARQ Brasil and WRI Brasil explore how urban mobility can support economic development during São Paulo’s Virada da Mobilidade
Making better use of urban data, learning from best practices, and investing in new creative ideas can help improve sustainable mobility in cities across Brazil. Photo by Darwin/Flickr.
“The New Urban Mobility Economy” seminar, co-organized by EMBARQ Brasil, WRI Brasil, and Caronetas, brought together transport experts from Brazil and abroad to discuss new perspectives, solutions and
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U.N. Climate Summit puts spotlight on Mexico’s efforts address climate change
Prioritizing sustainable mobility can help Mexico reach its greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. Photo by Maks Karochkin/Flickr.
EMBARQ Mexico is working to ensure that the country capitalizes on the momentum from last month’s United Nations Climate Summit in New York City. In the lead up to the Summit, EMBARQ Mexico, along with a number of other civil society organizations, authored an open letter to President Peña Nieto, urging him to recognize the need for concrete actions to mitigate climate change.
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EMBARQ Brasil helps Ministry of Cities establish criteria to evaluate federally funded infrastructure projects
New guidelines for urban mobility projects will help Brazilian cities improve sustainable mobility, reduce carbon emissions and improve quality of life. Photo by Mariana Gil/EMBARQ Brasil.
During the last decade, Brazil has witnessed unprecedented federal investment in public and non-motorized transport projects.
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EMBARQ Turkey gathers cycling solutions for Istanbul’s Transportation Master Plan
Istanbul is far from having a cycling culture, though EMBARQ Turkey is helping address factors limiting bike use to help the city meet its ambitious goals for increased cycling. Photo by Monique Stuut/Flickr.
Istanbul – Turkey’s most populous city with approximately 17 million inhabitants – is notorious for its congestion. While the city has taken strides to improve sustainable transport, bicycling remains an underutilized alternative to car transport.
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WRI China, EMBARQ China, and city partners launch campaign to educate citizens about benefits of sustainable transport
Beijing transport authorities hope to promote green transport concepts to the public via Tongxin Doudou videos, which feature a lively cartoon character in support of walking, cycling and public transport. Photo by lutmans/Flickr.
Update: 9/30/14: This article has been updated to include information about where the Tongxin Doudou videos have been broadcasted since their launch. This article also previously stated that 22.2% of fine particulate matter in Beijing comes from vehicle emissions. That statistic has been updated to 31.1%, reflecting the most recent estimate from the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau.
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Partnership will help improve sustainability and livability as Qingdao grows
EMBARQ China’s partnership with Qingdao will help provide a model for sustainable growth for emerging cities worldwide. Photo by Hercule le Poireau/Flickr.
As an important port city in northern China, Qingdao has been a key business hub over the past century, and is becoming even more influential as China emerges as a new commercial center of the world. However, rapid urbanization and increasing vehicle use have caused many problems in the city – similar to other rapidly growing cities worldwide – including traffic congestion, increased greenhouse gas (GHG) and local air pollutants emissions, and water shortages.