Replay: Counterintuitive trues about urban transport

Enrique Peñalosa (former mayor of Bogotá) presented a pleasant lecture at LSE titled: “Politics, Power, Cities”. Listen to podcast here (approx 91 min).

Here are some interesting snippets (They might look obvious to some of you. But do they look obvious to you mayor?)

• What creates traffic is not the number of cars, is the number of trips and the length of trips.
  
• Mobility and Traffic Jams are total different problems that require different solutions. Reducing car use is different than solving Traffic Jams.
  
• To solve Traffic Jams is, in fact, to facilitate car use.
  
• The only way to solve Mobility is with public transport. This will solve Mobility but not Traffic Jams.
  
• The only way to solve Traffic Jams is restricting car use. And the most obvious way to restrict car us is restrict parking.
  
• To park is not a Constitutional right anywhere.
  
• For public transport the most important thing is Density.

*ps. I agree with these statements ("counterintuitive trues" as said Peñalosa). And I don't think they contradict the ideia of polycentric cities.

*ps2. He didn't say much (nothing) about land use... I missed that.

Assorted Links

1. The economics of skyscrapers
   
   
2. Mapping Scientific Collaboration, inspired by the Facebook worldwide friendships mapped which in turn was supplemented by 'Filling in the black holes of the Facebook friendship map')
   
   
3. Picasso’s Light Paint (1949)
   
   
4. The Power of Comparison: Just How Big Is It? Try the BBC tool.
   
   
5. Compare crime rates in different England cities
   
   
6. More than 27 million online house hunters each month use the real estate search site Trulia. And they show you where people have been searching for homes in the USA since 2007.

Soundtrack: Retrato para iaia

Lectureship in Demography at Unicamp (Brazil)

Another opportunity that might be of interest for some of you: now in Brazil at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) and the Population Studies Centre (NEPO).

Lecturer position in Demographic Theory and Methods at Unicamp/Nepo*

(Salary: about U$4,600 per month)

obs. Thank Ricardo Ojima for the tip!

*Again, It's written in Portuguese only.... unfortunately that's the price we pay for being Brazil.

The creation of Municipalities in Brazil

The creation of municipalities in Brazil from 1872 to 2010 (written in Portuguese only…sorry...). Thanks Ernesto and Leo for the tip. How to overcome this issue for historical analysis? One possible answer is here.

Total creation of Municipalities in Brazil - 1872/2010
[Click on the chart to enlarge the image]

Total creation of Municipalities in Brazil by State - 1872/2010

[Click on the chart to enlarge the image]

(Source: IBGE)

Soundtrack: It's Automatic

Москва TimeLapse

Москва (Moscow) TimeLapse (via uhull)

Lectureship in urban sociology at the LSE

Some of you might be interested in this opportunity:

Lecturer position in Urban Sociology at LSE. 

(Salary: from £40,634 to £47,047 p.a. incl.)

Or maybe in this one: studentships within the field of urban and regional studies from FURS (Foundation for Urban and Regional Studies) -  applications must be received by 31 January each year... so hurry up!

Life expectancy changes worldwide

Life expectancy changes worldwide

Assorted links

1. Teamwork !
   
   
2. The Coase Theorem in Land Use
   
   
3. The American Family – A demographic portrait
   
   
4. What cities do top musical tracks come from? (via Tyler Cowen)
   
   
5. PACTS Summer Course 2012 - Policy Analysis of Complex Transport Systems
   
   
6. Imagining a City Without Its Public Transportation
   
   
7. Daytime Population in the United States

soundtrack: Breakbot

SOPA

(via tudo ao mesmo tempo agora)

2011 Global MetroMonitor

The Brookings Institute recently released their 2011 Global MetroMonitor, which analyses the economic growth in the world’s 200 largest metropolitan economies (including five Brazilian metropolitan areas).

It looks pretty interesting. For instance, "ninety percent of the fastest-growing metropolitan economies among the 200 largest worldwide were located outside North America and Western Europe". More here and here. 

View the interactive map for economic statistics on individual metro areas

(via Regional Studies Blog)

soundtrack: que pena

off-topic: Inspiring footnote

via (Alexandre Matias do Trabalho Sujo)

soundtrack: Something About Us

Quote of the day

"However useful they are, digital technologies can not replace the powerful and beneficial effects of the highly connected street grid – the “essential structure” of urban living." Tim Stonor

I am myself not much into 'Smart Cities'. I just can't believe it as the promised solution to urban problems.

soundtrack: Finally Moving

World Population Prospects - 2010 Revision

Have I  mentioned the 2010 Revision of the World Population Prospects? You may download the Data in EXCEL format (all countries). Have fun!

Population by Total Fertility (millions)

Number of Countries by Total Fertility

Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2011): World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision. New York
Note: Only countries with a population of 100,000 or more in 2010 are included

Soundtrack: The Kooks

Assorted links on Congestion

[image credit: Jacob]

1. Why Building Roads Creates Traffic? “The Fundamental Law of Road Congestion: Evidence from US Cities” discussion paper here (HT Leo) 
   
   
2. Congestion costs in Australia
   
   
   
3. Braess paradox: “Put simply, the paradox ... says that adding a new road to a transportation network, rather than making things batter, may actually slow things down for all its users” (Vanderbilt in Traffic). We have just presented a working paper at the 8th Space Syntax Symposium that analyses the relationship between street-network connectivity and travel time variability. Well, It's jus a working paper but the results suggest that the Braess paradox should be the exception.
   
   
   
4. The Case for Congestion Pricing
   
   
   
5. "Congestion is a bit like cholesterol - if you don’t have any, you die"
   
   
   
6. The Brazilian government has just signed a federal law that gives municipalities the legal support to implement congestion pricing schemes (revenue must be provided to public transportation) -  written in Portuguese only. 

Soundtrack: Lenine

off-topic: Spacebird's-eye View

More cities at Night seen from Spacebird's-eye View!

(via Dan Colman from Open Culture)

obs. Did you notice Randstad in the Netherlands?!

Traffic - Why we drive the way we do and....

Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) by  Tom Vanderbilt

I've read this book last year, but finally I stopped procrastinating   got time to write a post about it.

It's a really  interesting book, full of curiosities about traffic bevaiour flirting with sociology and economics. Here is the NYT's review

I selected four quotes that I would like to use as an epigraph:

1. "The problem, as is so often the case in traffic, is that the collective result of everyone’s smart behavior begins to seem, on a larger scale, stupid" p.149
   
   
2. “Traffic patterns are the desire lines of our everyday lives. They show us who we are and where we are going” p. 151
   
   
3. "Traffic is thus a living laboratory of human interaction, a place thriving with subtle displays of implied power. When a light turns green at an intersection, for example, and the car ahead of another driver has not moved, there is some chance that a horn will be sounded. But when that horn will be sounded, for how long and how many times it will be sounded, who will be sounding the horn, and who the horn will be sounded at are not entirely random variables." p.34
   
   
4. "If you look at trip rates by male versus female, and look at that by size of family…the women’s trip rates vary tremendously by size of family. Men’s trip rates look as if they didn’t even know they had a family. The men’s trip rates are almost independent of family size. What it obviously says is that the mother’s the one doing all the hauling." p.135

Behold the future (?)

Quantum Levitation  by 2100 you will probably not be using it to go to work

via uhull.com.br

The Ageing Debate

A simple infographic to understand the ageing debate (particularly in Germany).

via visualizing.org

soundtrack: just like the sun

off-topic: Urban Art

Enjoy your weekend!

[source: streetartutopia]

Soundtrack: Linha de Passe

Assorted links

1. What's the connection between a metro’s size and its success in pro sports?
   
   
2. The new issue of the Journal of Transport and Land Use (JLUT) is out!
   
   
3. Bucerius Ph.D. scholarship program in migration studies "Settling Into Motion" offers up to eight scholarships for Ph.D. theses addressing migration in changing societies (thank Joice Vieira for the tip)
   
   
4. Is America Facing a Housing Shortage?
   
   
5. Jacobs’ lasting “Top 10″ observations
   
   
6. Want a Job? Go to College, and Don’t Major in Architecture
   
   
7. 5th stage of the Demographic Transition (?)

(image credit)

Soundtrack: Jazzual Suspects

Quote of the day

"How do we know 'waste' when we see it? [...] When it comes to land use patterns, the acid test is is simply whether the urbanized area grows or not. Does it attract labor and capital in ways that they can make a go of it?" (Peter Gordon)

It seems to be the case of urban growth in Pittsburgh (increase in urban footprint with no increase in population. and Pittsburgh's economy is not that bad considering the USA context). But could it be more efficient and still make people’s lives better ? The sprawl debate still have a long way to go since it is not a straightforward issue.

In any case, we agree that "You want government policies that make people pay for the social cost of their action, including the environmental cost, but you also want people to make those choices themselves. ... People should be free to choose [where to live] as long as they pay the social cost of their action." (E. Glaeser)

(image credit Don Carter)

Soundtrack: ...looking for flying saucers in the sky

Generational Differences

Generational Differences

via hypeness.com.br

ps. Religion: WTF is that "hello kitty with mustache" doing there?!

ps2. why the hell did I post this?

8th Space Syntax Symposium (2012)

The 8th Space Syntax Symposium starts tomorrow. Plenty of interesting papers !

Unfortunately, I will not attend to the event. However, Frederico de Holanda will present a paper of ours at the conference (break a leg!)

The 

Say Hello to 2012 and

(image credit: tudoaomesmotempoagora)

soundtrack: Born to be alive