Tag: Transportation

‘Liveable Streets’ is a seminal 1981 work by the urban designer and theorist Donald Appleyard that compared the experiences of people living on three similar streets in San Francisco. The main variable between the streets was different levels of car traffic: one with 2,000 vehicles per day, one with 8,700 vehicles per day and a third with 15,750 vehicles per day. Appleyard’s key finding was that residents of the high traffic streets were less likely to know their neighbours and more likely to feel lonely and isolated from their community. The evidence of the negative physical, mental and social effects caused by living near busy roads has only grown in the subsequent years. By Mark Watts, C40 Executive Director

Cities around the world are developing innovative projects to improve mobility. These projects are making cities more environmentally-friendly, more inclusive, and more people-centric, while addressing the twin challenges of growing urbanisation and intensifying climate change. 

As mayors of some of the world’s great cities, we are committed to transforming them into greener, healthier, and more prosperous places to live.  Our streets must be safe and accessible for everybody and our air must be clean and free from harmful emissions. This will improve the quality of life for all citizens, and help tackle the global threat of climate change.

20 megacities including Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Johannesburg, Bogotá, Sao Paulo and Jakarta will benefit from a new global industry commitment developed in partnership with ICCT, UN Environment, C40 Cities, and CCAC.

Replacing diesel and compressed natural gas (CNG) buses with low emission buses, such as battery electric and hybrid, can generate significant environmental, health and economic benefits in our cities. To date, 27 cities have signed onto C40’s Clean Bus Declaration committing to switching more than 45,000 buses in their fleets to low emission buses, saving an estimated 1 million tons of GHG emissions per year. If each of these 27 cities switched their entire fleet to low emission buses, the savings could reach 2.8 million tons of GHG emissions each year. This is the equivalent of taking around 590,000 cars off the road.