ITS Monday: Edition 1, 2021

The end of the road for vehicles on Victoria Bridge

Yes, Victoria Bridge, in Brisbane. On January 24 cars are gone, and the bridge limits its users to Brisbane Metro buses, cyclists and pedestrians.

Sydney cycling: has the city that ‘hates bikes’ finally turned the corner?

Having grown up in Sydney, the ‘hates bikes’ does ring a little true. It’s a point also driven home if ever you read the comments on a news story involving incidents between bikes and cars. Or stories about cycling infrastructure. This story is an update on what’s gone on for cycling infrastructure in the past six months.

Realising the true value of data

Staying in Sydney, this article is on the SmartCitiesWorld website, and is an extract from its Sydney City Profile, in which it ‘… explore[s] how the city’s Smart City Strategy Framework aims to help transform raw data into actionable knowledge.’

The future of cities is walkable, healthy, resilient places

‘What will the future hold? When—and how—will we bounce back in our cities?’ This is a question being asked the world over. The author’s opinion: ‘COVID-19 will reshape the city, but the bounce back could make them more liveable. Agree?

Make Way for the ‘One-Minute City’

When I first saw this headline it made me think of the scene in ‘Something About Mary’ in which a character was going to revolutionise the fitness world with his 7-minute abs workout, beating the market-leading 8-minuts abs. But this article, it’s about a plan hatched in Sweden – ‘While the “15-minute city” model promotes neighborhood-level urban planning, Sweden is pursuing a hyper-local twist: a scheme to redesign every street in the nation.’

How New Yorkers want to change the streetscape for good

‘The pandemic led to a mass experiment in closing streets to cars. New Yorkers embraced the change and want permanent spaces for playing, dining and performing.’

Paris agrees to turn Champs-Élysées into ‘extraordinary garden’

New York doesn’t have a mortgage on wanting to change its cityscape! Here Paris, a famous street, but a streetscape that in parts doesn’t set the soul on fire. But now the Paris mayor has set aside €250 million to make it a people-happier place.

The Netherlands: The bike-share revolution

Utrecht has plans to go almost completely car-free. ‘The proposed development called Merwede will turn the urban industrial area into a model of sustainable living, in which greenery and solar panels will live up to walls and courtyards.’