-
Tech News10,000 NYC Vehicles Are Going To Test the Government’s Connected Car Tech
We knew that the US Department of Transportation was testing connected vehicle technology in the relatively small town of Ann Arbor, Michigan. But now that tech is getting a big test in a big city: New York. This afternoon a group of city and federal officials announced the funding of a pilot project that will … Continued
-
Tech News
Houston Will Dethrone Chicago as America’s Third-Biggest City Within a Decade
It’s Space City versus the Second City: According to new reports, massive job growth in Houston will soon propel it above Chicago in US rankings for biggest population. Currently, according to US Census estimates for 2014, Chicago’s population is estimated be around 2.7 million people, and Houston’s is only 2.2 million. But those numbers are … Continued
By Bryan Lufkin -
Tech News
Cupertino May Replace Its Dead Mall With the Biggest Green Roof Ever Built
Like most suburbs that were built in the 1950s or 60s, Cupertino has a once-hopping mega mall that’s now a crumbling eyesore. But unlike most suburbs, Cupertino is now a very affluent hub of Silicon Valley capitalism. Cupertino’s mall is called Vallco, and it was built in the 1970s. For a long time, it was … Continued
-
Tech News
The Four-Ton Head of a Lenin Statue Was Dug Up In Berlin Today
Berlin is a city that’s been dramatically shaped by the recent past, where history is a living part of the urban fabric—or in some cases, rests just below its surface. When the Berlin Wall fell in the 1989, it marked the beginning of a decades-long process that saw the dismantling of many Soviet monuments around … Continued
-
Tech News
This Website Lets You Study Cell Phone Use In Cities Around the World
Mobile phone data can provide a rich source of information for understanding human activity. Now, researchers from MIT have built a tool that visualizes cell phone use in cities around the world, for any of us to study. The new tool, called ManyCities, is a collaborative effort between the SENSEable City Laboratory at MIT and … Continued
-
Tech News
How Should We Design Cities to Make the Most of Urban Ecosystems?
Back in 1839, public health expert J F Murray published his article The Lungs of London, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine. Even then, city dwellers appreciated the advantages of open, green spaces. Murray described the benefits of the parks of London as “great vehicles of exercise, fresh air, health, and life to the myriads that congregate … Continued
Philip James -
Tech NewsThe Surgeon General’s New Prescription for America: Get Off Your Butts and Walk
Every few years, the US Surgeon General issues a recommendation for the country, like encouraging Americans to use sunblock or breastfeed their kids. These are usually public health no-brainers, where the science has determined that Americans would absolutely be better off if they all followed this medical advice. Today the Surgeon General said that simply … Continued
-
Tech News
Man Spends 14 Hours Riding the Longest NYC Subway Route
New Yorkers aren’t exactly known for taking leisurely strolls, but leisurely subway riding? The concept is as foreign as ketchup on pizza. That’s why most city slickers will have no idea that the longest non-repeating subway route is 155 miles and includes over 54 transfers. Why should they? Who on Earth is ever going to … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
Check Out These Fantastic Urban Makeovers Documented By Google Street View
Everyone loves a good before/after image, whether it’s a house flip or themakeover montage from Clueless. A group of Brazilian urbanists are expanding the genre to include public space transformations—as documented by Street View. It’s called Before | After, and it’s an ever-growing collaborative database of urban spaces that have been dramatically improved by shifting … Continued
-
Tech News
Are These The Ugliest City Flags on Earth?
Yesterday, New Zealand announced four finalists for its flag redesign contest, which got us thinking about which other places need new flags immediately. The answer was all cities, which tend to have really bad flags. So we asked you, our fair readers, to share the worst city flags to ever ascend a pole. As usual, … Continued
-
Tech NewsLos Angeles Is the New US Bid City for the 2024 Olympics
After a dramatic few months, Los Angeles has replaced Boston as the US contender for the 2024 Summer Olympics. I think you know what this means—JETPACK DUDE HERE WE COME! At at a press conference today that was spilling over with Olympians like Janet Evans, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the official awarding of the … Continued
-
Tech News
Which One of These Flags Should New Zealand Pick?
It’s down to four: These are the designs that will advance to the next round of New Zealand’s flag referendum. Now the public will rank these four designs in a November vote. But which fern will win? As you might remember New Zealand narrowed over 10,000 entries to40 contenders last month, and a panel of … Continued
-
Tech NewsHelp Us Find the Ugliest City Flag
There sure has been a lot of discussion about flags lately. Flags that are appropriate to fly. Flags that need to be changed due to geopolitical shifts. Flags that represent pride. But most flags are actually horrible, from a design perspective. Specifically: Most city flags are essentially barf on fabric. Radio host Roman Mars is … Continued
-
Tech News
Trove of Architectural Photos Shows When LA’s Skyline Became Modern
At the dawn of the 1960s, Los Angeles lacked a true city skyline. A longstanding 13-story height restriction, in force since 1904 and only recently repealed in 1956, had created a downtown whose only vertical accent was the 32-story City Hall. And then a flurry of new high-rise construction in the 1960s, ‘70s, and 80s … Continued
-
Tech News
Paris Will Ban Cars for One Day
Most major cities now have their own versions of open streets events that temporarily transform streets into car-free freeways for the day. Some of these have gotten quite expansive: Each Sunday, Bogóta famously closes about 80 miles of streets. But Paris is hoping to best everyone next month by closing a large, contained portion of … Continued
-
Tech News
If You Want Better Public Transit, You Probably Shouldn’t Use Uber
I’m writing this from a train. Without access to a car, I had to make a plan this morning for how to get to an interview: rent a car, ride a bike, take a train and a bus, use an on-demand ride service. I chose the train for a few reasons. But mostly because I … Continued
-
Tech News
This Google Street View Car Drove Through a Tomato-Throwing Festival In Spain
Apart from the Running of the Bulls in San Fermin, Spaniards enjoy some other wild festivals from time to time. One of them is called “La Tomatina.” Once a year, locals in the small village of Buñol engage in a massive battle with 150 tons of tomatoes as their only weapon of choice. Doesn’t seem … Continued
Carlos Zahumenszky -
EartherClimate Change
Pruning the Mississippi River Could Protect New Orleans From the Next Katrina
When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans a decade ago, its destructive power was unprecedented. But these days, extreme weather events are becoming eerily common. How to prevent the next big storm from walloping the Big Easy? We might need to let the mouth of the Mississippi die. That’s the startling conclusion of two winning engineering … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
I Kayaked the Part of the Los Angeles River That Actually Looks Like a River
It was 90 degrees at 10:00 a.m. when I stepped off the Orange Line in the LA neighborhood of Van Nuys. A perfect day for the beach, or for the pool, or for positioning yourself directly beneath those little misters you can find at finer restaurants in the Valley. But I was about to embark … Continued
-
Tech News
9 Awful Things That Should Be Removed From Times Square
Converting a busy street in Times Square into vibrant pedestrian plazas is one of the most celebrated ideas in New York City’s history—a bold urban move which has been mimicked around the world. Now New York’s mayor and police commissioner want to remove the plazas and restore Times Square back to its original car-congested glory. … Continued