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Features
Image: Guangzhou, China's award-winning BRT system integrates bike parking and bike share.
Guangzhou, China Wins 2011 Sustainable Transport Award
Guangzhou, one of China’s fastest growing cities, beat out other cities including Tehran, Iran; Lima, Peru; Leon, Mexico; and Nantes France to take this year’s top honors at the Sustainable Transport Awards.
The committee recognized Guangzhou for its new world-class BRT system that integrates with bike lanes, bike share and metro stations, raising the bar for all cities. Guangzhou’s new BRT attracts 800,000 passengers a day — more than 90% of the existing metro lines in the world.
The Sustainable Transport Award is given annually to the city that made most progress over the year to increase mobility for all residents while reducing transportation greenhouse and air pollution emissions and improving safety and access for cyclists and pedestrians.
Image: Sustainable Transport Award Winners with Enrique Penalosa.
US DOT Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy, Polly Trottenberg gave the keynote address to a packed room of 200+ attendees at this year’s awards ceremony, in Washington D.C. Trottenberg told the crowd that the US is watching the sustainable transit innovations happening in foreign cities as well as monitoring advancements that address the dual challenge of being cost efficient and providing service to growing populations.
Delegations from each of the nominated cities gave brief presentations about their transportation innovations, including the Mayor of Tehran, who at the last minute was forced to cancel his trip and gave his remarks via YouTube instead.
The Sustainable Transport Award nominees and winner is chosen by a committee of leading international transportation experts from institutions including ITDP, EMBARQ/The World Resources Institute for Sustainable Transport, GIZ, Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities (CAI-Asia), International Association of Public Transportation (UITP), TRB Committee on Transportation in Developing Countries, Clean Air Institute for Latin America and United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD).
Euros Discover Perks of Better Parking Policies
A new ITDP report, released last month, is capturing the imagination of policy makers on many continents. ‘Europe’s Parking U-Turn: From Accommodation to Regulation’ uses case studies from ten leading cities to demonstrate how innovative parking policies can provide funding and space for revitalized town centers, lead to less car use as well as drops in air pollution -- all of which come together to improve overall quality of life for urban residents.
The ten cities profiled were: Amsterdam, Antwerp, Barcelona, Copenhagen, London, Munich, Paris, Stockholm, Strasbourg and Zurich.
Our Cities Ourselves Goes Worldwide
Last summer ITDP celebrated its 25th Anniversary with a look forward. We matched the architects with ten of the world’s most vibrant cities to help us show how integrating urban planning with transport can enable cities to thrive, while also combating climate change and managing population growth.. The resulting visions are pulled together in an exhibition entitled Our Cities Ourselves, which showcases the transformative potential of designing our streets and our cities around the needs of people rather than around the needs of private cars. The exhibition was on display at the Center for Architecture in the summer of 2010.
This month the exhibition took off, with openings in Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City. Later this month it will reach South Africa where a traveling version will be on display in Johannesburg and Cape Town. It will open in India, China and Argentina later this year. Each of the cities is using the exhibition as a catalyst to spark civic discussion around urban planning and transportation by inviting in local leaders as well as leading experts from around the globe to take part in opening events, panel discussions and workshops.
Image: Sara Topelson, Vice Minister of Urban Development and Land Order of the federal government in Mexico, Jose Castillo, Architect and Founder arquitectura 911sc, Enrique Penalosa and others explore Our Cities, Ourselves (Nuestras Ciudades, Nuestro Futuro) at the Mexico City opening
Underpinning the exhibition on show are “ 10 Principles for Transportation in Urban Life", a booklet developed with Nelson Nyyguard and Gehl Architects, to help national and city leaders, private and public organizations realize the critical role of transportation in sustainable urban development.
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New video about Guangzhou’s transportation innovations
Upcoming Events
all events are open to the public, and will be held at Museo Franz Meyer, Hidalgo 45, Centro Histórico, México D.F.
February 26th
12 pm
From Utopia to Reality, Considerations on the Exhibition
Panel discussion with the US and Mexico-based architects for Our Cities Ourselves
March 1st
6 pm
Public Private Partnerships in Urban Revitalization, in partnership with the Urban Land Institute with Tim Tompkins
March 5th
11 am
Towards Our Cities 2030
Featuring lecture from Danish urbanist and Principle of Gehl Architects, Jan Gehl
all events are open to the public, and will be held at Centro Cultural Correios, Rua Visc Itaboraí, 20 - Centro, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, 20010-060
February 24th
3 pm
Our Cities - Visions for 2030 with the US and Brazilian-based architects for Our Cities Ourselves
March 3rd
All day workshop
Revitalizing City Centers, Business Investment Districts and Green Investments: Urban Transport, an Essential Asset
March 11th
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The Form of Cities
Featuring a lecture by Sir Richard Rogers
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