What:
For transportation engineers (road and bridge designers, traffic operations, drainage, materials, and construction), environmental analysts, conservation planners, landscape architects, transportation planners, and transportation policy makers - those professionals on the frontline of improving the performance and sustainability of our streets and highways.
SUM-Türkiye Hosts Seminar on Transit-Oriented Development
Dr. Robert Cervero presents case studies of sustainable urbanism at Istanbul Technical University
Car-addicted cities are threatening human health and quality of life, according to Dr. Robert Cervero, a world-renowned professor of city and regional planning from the University of California, Berkeley.
Transit-Oriented Development
Making It Easier to Get Around
What is Transit-Oriented Development?
Transit is popular. People want to live near transit and companies want their employees and customers to commute by transit. It is almost always true that real estate costs more near a subway station. However, urban planners need to ensure that these market forces are allowed to manifest themselves and put more people, jobs and shops near transit.
Pres. Calderon: Sustainable Housing Improves Quality of Life
Transportation also plays a fundamental role
Federal government officials, housing developers and members of civil society met in a forum that addressed the importance of sustainable housing as a way to improve quality of life and increase the competitiveness of Mexican cities.
Tools for Sustainable Urban Growth
CTS-México shares transit-oriented development principles at workshop
CTS-México helped local authorities and land developers develop comprehensive strategies for sustainable transportation and urban planning at the federal, municipal, and local level during a workshop held on July 24 about sustainable transport-oriented development.
The Context
It's easy to think of Washington, D.C. as the monumental core of the United States government. But it's important to remember that the city is also home to nearly 600,000 ordinary citizens living and working at the center of a metropolitan region with 5.4 million people.
Together, this diverse population experiences some of the very best and worst in American transportation. On one hand, extensive suburban sprawl has made residents in "the District" victim to the second-longest average commute in the country and some of the worst air pollution on the East Coast.
On the other hand, the city has one of the best mass transit systems in the world. Metrorail is the second busiest rail transit system in the United States, serving more than 720,000 passengers on average per weekday in 2008, and Metrobus is the nation's sixth most-used bus system. Washington continues to add new heavy and light rail lines, and city officials are exploring bus rapid transit, streetcars and bike sharing as alternative transport options.
From UN-HABITAT:
The United Nations has designated the first Monday in October each year as World Habitat Day. The idea is to reflect on the state of our towns and cities and the basic of all right to adequate shelter. It is also intended to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat.
The United Nations chose the theme Planning our urban future to raise awareness of the need to improve urban planning to deal with new major challenges of the 21st century.
Istanbul - World Heritage Plan
Preserving History
Heavy traffic poses a serious threat to the infrastructure and cultural legacy of Istanbul’s Historic Peninsula, the old city center that holds 8,500 years of human history.
Mexico City - Transit-Oriented Development
Walk This Way
CTS-México is working to establish guidelines for transit-oriented development (TOD), a concept that refers to compact, walkable communities located within one kilometer of high quality mass transit systems. So far, CTS-México has worked with Mexico City to incorporate elements of these guidelines into blueprints for two urban revitalization pilot projects, Avenida Michoacan and Eje Central.
Presented by Toyota
Hosted by JP Morgan Chase & Co.
Organized by Urban Age Institute
Sponsored by Siemens, ZipCar, World Bank, CDIA, UN, ULI, Regional Plan Assn., Alberta Research Cncl. and Metropolis
From the Meeting of the Minds 2009 website:
The vitality of our economy and the conduct of modern life depend upon moving people and goods. Yet, our ability to do so is increasingly complicated by a range of systemic variables: population growth and congestion, carbon contamination and climate change, preservation of the environment, shifting energy sources and economics, and the nation’s deepening fiscal challenges.
