This tallies with my intuition for why it’s often more profitable to leave commercial properties vacant. The operating costs to maintain an empty office building are really not that high.
The whole point of driverless cars is that they can be programmed to follow the law even if the people in them don’t want to. There’s no point in deploying this technology if the code in it will break the law.
Ik weet nog dat we na een bezoek aan Kopenhagen ook dit idee hadden om Amsterdam een watertaxi te geven die over het IJ zig-zagt en inderdaad ook de Amstel af gaat. De kans dat dit gebeurt is natuurlijk heel klein maar misschien ooit.
This Tokyo last train (終電) visualizer is a fun concept but given that all the trains disappear at roughly the same time, it’s usefulness is somewhat limited.
A thought-provoking article about how to counteract car bloat. I would add that driving a SUV is even worse than smoking because it mostly harms others, not the person doing the driving themselves.
I don’t really buy this idea that Japan’s urban environment has been the key factor to create its immense specialization in crafts. Compare it to Berlin where rents have been incredibly cheap and zoning mixed but without the necessary human capital the only thing those factors generated were cheap bars.
We have housing crises in many places and it’s remarkable how pernicious this issue is given the number of problems it would fix for us to have enough affordable homes for everybody.
It is beyond funny that the right wing conspiracy theorists have latched onto the idea of creating liveable, walkable cities as the next threat to humanity.
Crucially, at street scale, on-street parking is not allowed, which opens up the streetscape for people, on foot and on bike, for conversation and activities, and yes, for moving goods and people around but as a secondary ‘enabling’ activity to the life of the street itself.
“There must be agreement on a coalition between labor and capital, whose interests are aligned in seeking taxation from landowners rather than workers or productive activity.”
Every place that turns car free like the city center of Ghent here is incredibly well received by the residents. The people who seem to be against it don’t live there, they just want to drive through.
Een lang en grondig interview met Cody Hochstenbach over de wooncrisis in Nederland. Studio Tegengif is een favoriete podcast wat een soort Nederlandse versie van The Weeds lijkt te worden.
I used to know Wytze and the foresight and innovation that he put into the Urban Arrow back in the day (2010) which is still going strong is nothing short of mind-boggling.
Read this post by Dan Hill if only to see the highway cutting through Enskede (I had to gasp) which if you consider it is a criminal act in the form of urban planning.
BMW thinks it’s a funny marketing gimmick to paint one of their worst cars in Vantablack. Dark coloured cars have been proven to be more likely to cause accidents. Black cars should be forbidden to participate in traffic, that should be what people are talking about here.
Pollution from internal combustion engines is killing everybody slowly and here we are in a country that can’t be bothered to regulate diesel engines into oblivion.
Berlin right now is the frontline for transportation applications with 4 scooter services alone. I’m glad that Jon has made a comprehensive overview of multi-modal transportation apps because I sure as hell wasn’t going to have the time for it.
OV-Fiets is the bike share avant-la-lettre, but it’s so locally Dutch that it always has been a bit hard to explain. The popularity of OV-Fiets has increased, now coinciding nicely with the international boom in mobility.
As the blisters develop and his feet start to bleed, Walton asks the right questions. What are the human and environmental costs of Singapore’s success, and are they sustainable?
“It’s no coincidence that co-living start-ups have gravitated to cities like Berlin, San Francisco, London and New York. Ostensibly ‘winning’ the battle for capital and talent, they are urban testing-grounds, where rootless and cashed-up tech workers, heated real estate markets, and rising housing pressures add up to a recipe for experimentation.”
Innisfil, Ontario’s troubles filling in their public transit with Uber is a great example of how governments should not outsource things to private contractors whose unit economics do not make sense.
Looking forward to the Micromobility Summit coming to Berlin this year. I hope we manage to have some serious progress on infrastructure and street legal scooters by then.
If Berlin votes to expropriate Deutsche Wohnen, it will be a welcome step towards decommodification of housing. Not to mention the long overdue correction that it will give the local housing market.
A very necessary housing revolution is underway in Berlin that has the potential to halt market forces that are running amok. After Barcelona, now Berlin. Who’s next?
The great Peter and Michelle have written a book called “Understanding the Connected Home” based on current developments around the topic and both of their professional interests.
Geconfronteerd met het feit dat de meeste dertigers die in de stad wonen geen auto meer willen hebben en veel twintigers niet eens meer hun rijbewijs halen, zetten automakers zichzelf opnieuw in de markt. Ze zijn niet meer verkopers van een statussymbool, maar aanbieders van vervoersoplossingen in een toekomstvisie waarin de auto een plek heeft naast de fiets, het openbaar vervoer en alle andere dingen die steden leuk maken. Audi komt in Londen binnenkort met haar Audicity en BMW toert in samenwerking met het Guggenheim langs de wereld met haar lab. Eerst New York, nu Berlijn en straks in Mumbai. (Daimler is MIA.)
This article by Good about people my age and younger driving less strikes me as very true. Just one point: I have a driving license, but I’ve never owned a car. My brother does not even have a driving license because if you never leave Amsterdam having a car is ludicrous. I try to minimize my driving except for the occasional road trip because I think my time is too valuable to spend many hours doing something unnecessary.
We live in perhaps one of the nicest parts of Berlin I am finding out. It has every thinkable amenity: highly specialized stores, a diverse assortment of restaurants and cafés with some real gems. Our house is smack in the center of this in walking distance of three major U lines. If you talked to me recently you probably know where this is at, but for the purpose of this blogpost I’m going to play mum.