Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Literature on Job Mobility in Germany State-of-the-Art of Mobility Research

by Silvia Ruppenthal, Ruth Limmer, and Wolfgang Bonß

When we look at political and societal development, it appears that the mobility demands on workers have increased. This increase is visible worldwide and especially in Europe and consequently in Germany as well. From a political point of view, the barriers to mobility should be decreased on the international level in the course of European unity and social cohesion as well as international migration should be enhanced1. Increased job mobility would essentially help contribute to cultural integration, competitiveness on the world market and the dismantling of social inequality. Employees should foll
ow the flow of money, goods and other transfers to allow for an optimal allocation of workers (for the legal basis of the European job market see Berthold & Neumann, 2004). Highly-qualified workers and management personnel as carriers of knowledge and specific cultures are to strengthen the economy in a knowledge based society on a European level. Concomitant problems, for instance the differences in educational degrees, will thus become an ever more important topic and must be reduced (about inequality and non-transparency of educational degrees in the European Union see, for example, List, 1996 or the anthology of Mytzek & Schömann, 2004).
As on the European level, German politics likewise tries to support job market mobility. For the most part, the debate about the necessity for more mobility in the job market substantially focuses on the process of equalisation between east and west and the problem of unemployment2. The current opinion is that we can fight unemployment in particular by changing jobs (Zühlke, 2000) and by increased inter-regional mobility (Büchel, Frick, & Witte, 2002). Instead, for instance, the basic conditions for the unemployed were altered. To achieve this goal, the sum of 180 million Euro allocated to unemployment offices for “mobility assistance” in 2003 has almost doubled compared to 2001. Comparing these two years, we find that the number of persons, who used this support has also increased by about 75% to 290,000. This increased use of support is also related to the changed criteria of burden. According to the new guidelines, unemployed persons can basically be required to either move, have dual households or commute up to 2.5 hours daily (for full time positions) when starting a new job. Exceptions can only be made for the care of children or other family members.
A special issue with respect to the basic economic conditions of job mobility is the travel expense tax write-off3. This so called ‘Pendlerpauschale’ compensates for travel expenses between home and regular place of work and can be claimed on tax returns. For each full kilometre driven, employees can claim 0.30 Euro on their tax returns. Starting in 2007, however, this tax break will only be granted for travel distances over 20 kilometres. National savings are the goal of this change. An additional regulation that provides financial compensation for expenses with respect to certain living arrangements is the tax reduction for dual households. A result of this reduction is relief for people who live, for instance, in a long distance relationship.


more about Germany:

New German community models car-free living

FIVE PLANNING PRINCIPLES FOR SUCCESSFUL URBAN DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT - RECENT EXAMPLES FROM GERMANY

Lessons from Freiburg on Creating a Sustainable Urban Community

Bicycle policies of the European principals: continuous and integral

Monday, February 27, 2012

SOM wins Beijing Bohai Innovation City Master Plan Competition

By Damian Holmes

A new model of compact, environmentally enhanced urban design by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) for the rapid development of satellite cities along Chinese high speed rail corridors has won an international design competition with its Beijing Bohai Innovation City master plan. The winning SOM plan leverages the economic and lifestyle assets of the Beijing-Tianjin corridor by centering the new environmentally friendly district along the high-speed-rail line linking the national capital to the port city of Tianjin. The city expansion will host 17.6 million square meters of mixed-use development, with a focus on providing a premier headquarters location for advanced industries in the dynamically growing Bohai Rim, a region that already accounts for more than a quarter of China’s GDP. 
With half the 1,473-hectare site allocated to open space and nature, Beijing Bohai Innovation City builds upon SOM’s more than seven years of sustainable, high-performance city design throughout the region – from its award-winning green Beijing CBD expansion master plan to numerous projects in Tianjin, including the rapidly rising Yujiapu Financial District.


more about China:

Can Chongqing's Urbanization Survive China's Shrinking Workforce?

Towards a walkable city: the planning practice of Shenzhen, China

Boredom in a Globalized World

THE ROLE OF SPACE SYNTAX IN SPATIAL COGNITION: evidence from urban China

REMOTE SENSING IMAGE INTERPRETATION STUDY SERVING URBAN PLANNING BASED ON GIS

China's Urban Low Carbon Future in Shanghai

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Call for Papers: 2nd Conference on Environmental Economics and Natural Resources Management in Developing and Transition Economies

17-18-19 October 2012 – CERDI – Clermont University (Clermont-Ferrand, France)

For thematic sessions, you are invited to contribute on the following topics:
Deforestation: macroeconomic policies and deforestation, REDD and REDD+ mechanisms Weather insurance Low - carbon cities in emerging countries: transport, waste management, urban sprawl Economic valuation of the environment : stated and revealed preferences, experimental economics Agri-environmental policies : rural policies, farmers’ behavior, land use conflicts Energy: biofuels, oil rent, energy technology transition and provision of energy services Biodiversity: instruments for conservation, economic value, payments for ecosystem services International trade and the environment: foreign direct investment, competitiveness Institutions and governance: national and international governance, environmental treaties, corruption Resources management: water, fisheries Health and the environment The private sector and the environment Financial, economic and environmental crises.

Important Deadlines:
June 1, 2012 Paper submission
June 30, 2012 Deadline for submission of papers
July 30, 2012 Notification of paper acceptance
September 22, 2012 Deadline for registration
October 17th, 2012, 9 am Beginning of the pre-conference Migration and the Environment
October 18th, 2012, 9 am Beginning of the thematic conference Environment and Natural Resources Management in Developing and Transition Economies
October 19th, 2012, 1 pm End of the conference
October 19th, 2012, afternoon Optional touristic activity “Auvergne's volcanoes”


more calls for papers:

Call for Papers: Smart Applications for Smart Cities: New Approaches to Innovation

Call for Papers: Journal of Urbanism; International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability

Friday, February 24, 2012

Road Safety in the Context of Urban Development in Sweden and California

by Carolyn Ann McAndrews

Road safety is a serious public health issue throughout the world, with more than one million people killed in traffic accidents each year. Despite the severity of its health impacts, the World Health Organization says that traffic safety is a "neglected" topic. Perhaps this is the case in the US, where traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for people up to age 34, and where the traffic safety record is one of the worst among high-income countries. Other highincome countries such as Sweden have much better road safety performance.
Differences in road safety between countries could be explained by the quality of infrastructure, driving conditions, the culture of driving, or the power of enforcement. Each of these elements is shaped by institutional contexts such as design, planning, and policy-making processes. Moreover, research about other technical systems has shown the powerful effect of organization, norms, and communication on safety. This led me to ask: How do our cultural and professional interpretations of safety influence the way we plan, design, and manage streets? Based on field studies, statistical analysis of crash and injury data, and interviews with practitioners, I found that professionals in California and Sweden share similar ideas about road safety, such as the roles of driver behavior, the road environment, and the vehicle in producing hazards. Professionals in both cases also face similar conflicts in road safety planning, such as whether to provide greater mobility for cars, or to reduce the speed of traffic to prevent injury. These similarities reflect shared professional and disciplinary backgrounds and sources of information, as well as similarities in the issues that municipalities and regions face. The main differences are in the interaction between road safety ideas and larger institutional contexts such as suburban land development. For instance, in the middle of the 20th century, Sweden created a multi-modal transportation system that accommodated cars as well as transit, pedestrians, and bicyclists—even in the suburbs. A combination of architects, city planners, and transportation engineers supported this development. Multi-disciplinary policy communities in Sweden found traction for their safety-oriented designs in the relatively integrated transportation and land use planning system. In the US, such integration was not the norm, and efforts to use design and land use controls to create a safe transportation system often meet resistance from the established institutions of the car-oriented road transportation system. Improving road safety in California and the US requires addressing not only the dominance of automobiles, but also recognizing that sectors outside of, but related to transportation, such as housing, public health, and land use planning, need to be key participants in creating a safe road transportation system.

San Francisco Traffic Survey: Fatalities & Personal Injuries (1937), by Eric Fischer


more about urban transportaiton:

Traffic safety and city structure: lessons for the future

Commuter Commotion: 6 Futuristic Mass Transit Concepts

The Effects of Land Use on the Mobility of Elderly and Disabled and Their Homecare Workers, and the Effects of Care on Client Mobility: Findings from Contra Costa, California

Understanding the Impact of Transportation on Economic Development

TRAVEL DEMAND FORECASTING FOR URBAN TRANSPORTATION PLANNING

Traffic safety and city structure: lessons for the future

by Dinesh Mohan

To understand the critical factors that are likely to influence road traffic fatality rates in large cities around the world in the next few decades. Material and Methods. Road traffic fatality data for 56 cities around the world and for cities with a population of greater than 100 000 in the USA were collected and analysed to understand factors affecting differences in fatality rates. Results. There are wide variations in fatality rates across income levels and within similar incomes levels. The risk varies by a factor of about 20 between the best and the worst cities. Conclusions. These patterns appear to indicate that it is not enough to have the safest vehicle and road technology to ensure low road traffic fatality rates. City structure, modal share split, and exposure of motorists and pedestrians may have a significant role in determining fatality rates, in addition to enforcement, vehicle crashworthiness and road design.

A roadside memorial, photo by cactusbones

more about urban transportation:

Commuter Commotion: 6 Futuristic Mass Transit Concepts

Accessibility Measures: Overview and Practical Applications

Underground Prague Highway should save the Wenceslas Square

Residential Areas for Households without Cars The Scope for Neighbourhood Mobility Management in Scandinavian Cities

Challenges to Urban Transport Sustainability and Smart Transport in a Tourist City: The Gold Coast, Australia

TRAVEL DEMAND FORECASTING FOR URBAN TRANSPORTATION PLANNING

Can Chongqing's Urbanization Survive China's Shrinking Workforce?

Chongqing is expected to pass the 10 million population mark by 2025, making it one of the fastest-growing cities in the world. (It currently has about 9 million people, but if you count its massive rural outliers the number is closer to 33 million.) Chongqing’s rapid growth and urbanization is the result of the Chinese government’s “Go West” campaign, which aims to build up the country’s interior region through massive infrastructure investment and business development initiatives.
So far, it’s working. Companies like Ford, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft have flocked to the city. Chongqing’s GDP has quadrupled since 1998 to $86 billion.
Yet can government programs sustain such wildfire growth forever? And, more important, how long can this kind of growth last?

Chongqing, China, photo by Bert van Dijk

more about China:

Towards a walkable city: the planning practice of Shenzhen, China

Urban Transport Trends and Policies in China and India: Impacts of Rapid Economic Growth

Can Beijing regain its status as the world’s “bicycle kingdom”?

Ebook: Great Moments In Architecture

A Chinese eco-city: City of dreams, Still on the drawing-board

THE ROLE OF SPACE SYNTAX IN SPATIAL COGNITION: evidence from urban China

Employment Decentralization as Urban Sprawl Character in 1950-80

by Houshmand E. Masoumi

Employment decentralization is one of the factors, which give a good estimation of the rate of urban and suburban sprawl.
Suburban sprawl as an urban form has received attention more than any other form of development after the World War II. Urban sprawl and decentralization can be considered from several aspects such as housing, transportation, social issues, etc.
A factor, which has always been a good indicator of sprawl, is employment decentralization. The location of jobs shows the attitude of people and industry about the circumstances of communing and living.

 

Employment Decentralization in the 1950-1980 Period

Since 1950s, along with the massive migration of the American affluent, middle-class, and working-class from inner-city to the periphery, the employment location experienced the same trend. The industrial centers and employers gradually transferred the jobs to the suburbs.
As Logan and Golden report manufacturing jobs grew 16 percent in the suburbs from 1958 to 1963, while dropped 6 percent in central cities. Between 1963 and 1977, the manufacturing jobs of the central cities fell by 700000 in metropolitan areas, while the same figure in suburbs grew by 1.1 million.
That is also the story for retail and wholesale employment which fell by 100000, during the aforementioned years. The related suburbs gained 1.8 million jobs.

 

CBD versus Suburbia

In a book written in 1, the authors note that between the years 1960 and 1980 the two third of the jobs created in American cities were in suburbs. Also 60 percent of the metropolitan jobs were located outside the CBD. This transfer of jobs to suburbs caused many empty lots in central cities and Central Business Districts.
The U.S. national statistics of employment indicate that the employment location changes in 1950-1980 have been similar to the spatial development patterns. Of course the relationship between the outward migration of these years and location of jobs had a reciprocal relationship. The people’s migration aroused job decentralization and the suburban employment locations encouraged people to live in suburbs.
However this trend slowed down after 1970s and 1980s and. AT the same time, a generation of urbanists tried to inform Americans about the deficiencies of suburban sprawl and also more sustainable urban forms such as different types of Neo-Traditional Development. This was while cities tried to change the shape of their downtowns with several revitalization and gentrification plans.

 

References

  • Feagin, J. R. and Parker, R. (1989), “Building the American Cities: the Urban Real Estate Game”, Prentice-Hall.
  • Logan, J. R. and Golden, R. M. (1986), “Suburbs and Satellites: Two Decades of Change”, American Sociological Review 51:430-431.

more about urban sprawl:

Call for Papers: Smart Applications for Smart Cities: New Approaches to Innovation

The Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research is planning a special issue on Smart Applications for Smart Cities: New Approaches to Innovation.

Particular topics to be addressed might include, but are not limited to the following:

• User driven innovation facilitating participative urban development
• Innovation Labs facilitating urban planning, development and transformation
• Citizen participation in urban and regional planning and decision-making and governance
• Internet-enabled infrastructures, services and networked applications for smart cities
• Smart applications for innovation based on Internet of Things and Internet of Services paradigms
• Wireless sensor networks and smart sensor-based networked applications in urban areas
• Cloud computing, service models and smart city solutions enabling innovation
• Standardisation and open interfaces of smart city systems, platforms and applications
• Smart applications based on Semantic Web, Linked Data, Ontologies
• Infrastructures and applications for new public urban services such as water, energy, healthcare, environmental monitoring, traffic management, intelligent transportation, egovernment
• Smart grids for utility infrastructures and services in urban areas
• E-work and e-business applications
• Design, implementation and evaluation of smart applications
• Case studies of user driven innovation for smart(er) cities.

Important dates
- Full paper submission: 1 May 2012
- Notification of acceptance: 1 July 2012
- Revised submission: 1 August 2012
- Final acceptance notification: 15 August 2012
- Camera ready version of paper: 15 September 2012
- Publication: December 2012

read more

more call for papers:

Call for Papers: Journal of Urbanism; International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability

Call for papers: Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, Special issue on Planning and heritage

Call for Papers: Journal of Urbanism; International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability

Example Topics of Interest to the Journal:
• The relative impact of design on environmental perception, social justice, affordability, the real estate market, transportation, the environment and urban livability
• Policies designed to promote urbanism: assessments of outcome
• Models and outcomes for public participation methods
• Market performance of mixed-use projects
• Transportation effects of new urbanism
• Affordable housing, new urbanism and smart growth
• The measurement of urban form and pattern
• Studies of living preferences
• Effects of walkable communities on children and the elderly
• Crime and new urbanism
• Post-occupancy evaluation of new urbanist projects
• Environmental performance of low vs. high density development
• The rural-urban transect in theory and practice
• Social capital and the built environment
• The role of historical preservation in the urban sustainability movement
• Theories of urban architecture and urbanism
• Urban Morphology

read more


Call for papers: Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, Special issue on Planning and heritage

Special issue call for papers from Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development



Understanding how plans are developed and implemented in specific important cases would help to develop further consensus on the whole topic. The special issue of the JCHMSD wishes to put together experts and experiences from a variety of contexts: (a) a variety of disciplinary viewpoints: management scholars, archaeologists, city planners, policy makers, geographers, etc.; (b) a variety of experiences and objects of plans: heritage sites, museums, historical cities, cultural projects; and (c) a variety of countries, to avoid ethnocentrism.
A threefold question is addressed for potential submissions:
1 To reconstruct a short but incisive literature review of the planning approach in their specific discipline, aiming to reconstruct commonalities, the genealogy of knowledge, and similar issues.
2 To focus on a specific case study, highlighting issues and results (not necessarily focusing only on ``best'' practices).
3 To bridge to other disciplines involved in the field/case study.
Submission requirements and related information
The closing date for submission is 20 October 2012
Expected date of publication: 2013, second semester

read more


more about social issues:

Systematic Social Observation of Public Spaces: A New Look at Disorder in Urban Neighborhoods

Sense of Community: A Definition and Theory 

Working-Class Respectability in Leicester c.1845-1880

Book Review: Cities for People

Outside Cleveland, Snapshots of Poverty’s Surge in the Suburbs

A Year in Five Minutes: Vancouver 1978


The first 15 Vietnamese refugees from the Hai Hong arrived in Vancouver in November 1978. The Hai Hong, journalist Kevin Griffin wrote, was a “rusty old  freighter anchored off the coast of  Malaysia, unable to unload its human cargo. Hung over the side of the boat was a sign in English: ‘Please Rescue Us.’ Captured by television news cameras, it was an image that showed up on TV sets in living rooms in Europe, the U.S. and Canada. Images of hungry and homeless refugees stuck on what amounted to a floating casket also tweaked the conscience of thousands of Canadians. Vancouverites were no different . . . Former Saigon resident Tzee Kok Wu told of leaving in such secrecy that he was contacted about the boat’s departure only an hour before it left. Wu and his four brothers and sisters made it in time but their parents were delayed a half hour and were left behind. Wu told of being so crowded aboard the boat, he could only sit because there wasn’t enough space to lie down. Of the 2,500 refugees crammed aboard the Hai Hong, about 600 arrived in Canada; 150 eventually arrived in Vancouver.”

Downtown East Side - Van. 1978, photo by Mikey G Ottawa


mroe about Canadian cities:

Skyline photos of Montreal, Canada (2)

Skyline photos of Calgary, Canada (2)

Skyline photos of Calgary, Canada (1)

Pedestrian (and stroller) priority in Vancouver

The Case for Bike-Share

CN TOWER A Monument to Canadian Architecture

Can Ontario deliver the continent's best land-use plan?

Commuter Commotion: 6 Futuristic Mass Transit Concepts


City buses have never been the sexiest form of transportation, but they get you from one place to the next. The Superbus Project aims to bring luxury, on-demand, eco-friendly mass transit to the Netherlands with a bus that happens to look a lot like a stretch limo. With 16 gull wing doors, a pile of safety features and the ability to hit speeds up to 155 MPH, this is definitely not your typical bus. The best part? You can wait inside your home for this bus since it has no set route but instead makes stops after being summoned via web or SMS.
Along with the development of cars that can drive themselves has come the possibility of freeway convoys. An EU-funded project called SARTRE is based around the idea that commuters will happily give up control of their cars on the way to work in order to have a bit of free time during the commute. A lead car would be piloted by a professional driver who would be able to take control of and then release control of personal vehicles, all based on signals given by the driver. When in the convoy, the individual cars in the “train” are all controlled by the lead car, and as such their drivers can simply sit back and enjoy the ride.


more about public transportation:

Increasing the Quality of Public Transport in Prague

Dortmund Light Rail Developments, Germany

Sydney: monorail soon to be scrap metal?

Back to Basics for Detroit Light Rail

Tehran and the challenges of a metropolis in the millennium

 

Book review: Designing for Civil Defense in the Cold War


The Cold War years are usually presented in terms of the military force and an ever expanding resource of military equipment. This of course includes foremost the nuclear weapons both sides the West lead by the U.S. and the NATO and the Communist East lead by Russia.
Architecture however, played an important role in cicvil defence and the preparation for a potential third world war. There was far less attention payed to the fact that all nations had programs running to prepare their societies for the case of escalation. Tensions there were enough.
Nuclear war was the ultimate danger and with images and evidence form Hiroshima and Nagasaki preparation was part of civil defence programs also in the U.S. In a new book Fallout Shelter: Designing for Civil Defence in the Cold War published by University of Minnesota Press, David Monteyne presents these U.S. programs from an architectural perspective. This detailed investigation ranges from the propaganda to built examples and examines closely the role of the architect as the middle man between government and civil society implementing a plan that is further reaching than simply the provision of shelter.  
As Monteyne points out in his introduction it effectively is a contract between citizens and government exchanging provision for shelter and quality of live for cooperative behaviour. He refers to Foucaults biopower as a political relationship. Essentially building shelters was and in some cases still is, as we'll discuss further on, the physical implementation of goals and powers of the welfare state.
The book explores in seven chapters the background, the planning, the implementation and the potential influence of shelter provision programs in the U.S. The programs were mostly about information and education but of course also aiming to build shelter provision. For this the architects were a key alley and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) launched a series of design competitions together with the Office for Civil Defense (OCD). The aim was to promote good planning and preparation for shelter provision. A series of designs were presented as winners, both built and as projects. 


more architecture book reviews:

The Heights: Anatomy of a Skyscraper (Book Review)

The Heights: The Anatomy of a Skyscraper

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Skyline photos of Montreal, Canada (2)

Skyline of Montreal, Canada, photo by RemotelyBoris

Skyline of Montreal, Canada, photo by Aidan Whiteley

Skyline of Montreal, Canada, photo by tomdz

Skyline of Montreal, Canada, photo by Aidan Whiteley

Skyline of Montreal, Canada, photo by stephengg

Skyline of Montreal, Canada, photo by champmol

Skyline of Montreal, Canada, photo by thoth188

Skyline of Montreal, Canada, photo by dafyd
more skyline photos:

Skyline photos of Vancouver 1

Skyline photos of Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Skyline photos of San Diego, California

Skyline photos of Portland, Oregon 1

Skyline photos of Marseille, France

Skyline photos of Hamburg, Germany 1

Skyline photos of Madrid 2

Skyline photos of Calgary, Canada (2)

Calgary skyline, photo by JMacPherson

Calgary skyline, photo by Sean_Marshall

Calgary skyline, photo by Lomacar

Calgary skyline, photo by woychukb
Calgary skyline, photo by Donnay

Calgary skyline, photo by Donnay

Calgary skyline, photo by Muffet

Calgary skyline, photo by Ricky Romero
Calgary skyline, photo by Eric Fortin

Calgary skyline, photo by .Kai
more skyline photos of major Canadian cities:

Skyline photos of Calgary, Canada (1)

Skyline photos of Vancouver 1

Skyline photos of Montreal 1

Systematic Social Observation of Public Spaces: A New Look at Disorder in Urban Neighborhoods

by Robert J. Sampson and Stephen W. Raudenbush

This article assesses the sources and consequences of public disorder. Based on the videotaping and systematic rating of more than 23,000 street segments in Chicago, highly reliable scales of social and physical disorder for 196 neighborhoods are constructed. Census data, police records, and an independent survey of more than 3,500 residents are then integrated to test a theory of collective efficacy and structural constraints. Defined as cohesion among residents combined with shared expectations for the social control of public space, collective efficacy explains lower rates of crime and observed disorder after controlling neighborhood structural characteristics. Collective efficacy is also linked to lower rates of violent crime after accounting for disorder and the reciprocal effects of violence. Contrary to the “broken windows” theory, however, the relationship between public disorder and crime is spurious except perhaps for robbery.


more about urban sociology:

The sociology of urban public spaces

Urban Planning and Cultural Inclusion

Creative Copenhagen: Globalization, Urban Governance and Social Change

URBAN SOCIOLOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

The Missing Organizational Dimension in Urban Sociology

Sense of Community: A Definition and Theory

Working-Class Respectability in Leicester c.1845-1880

Environmental Justice and the Sustainable City

Sense of Community: A Definition and Theory

by David W. McMillan and David M. Chavis

For several years many of us at Peabody College have participated in the evolution of a theory of community, the first conceptualization of which was presented in a working paper (McMillan, 1976) of the Center for Community Studies. To support the proposed definition, McMillan focused on the literature on group cohesiveness, and we build here on that original definition. This article attempts to describe the dynamics of the sense-ofcommunity force-to identify the various elements in the force and to describe the process by which these elements work together to produce the experience of sense of community.


similar posts:

Outside Cleveland, Snapshots of Poverty’s Surge in the Suburbs

Residential Location Decisions: Heterogeneity and the Trade-off between Location and Housing Quality

Healthy Urban Planning The Concept, Tools, and Application

Working-Class Respectability in Leicester c.1845-1880

by Barri Haynes

This paper examines a range of local working-class perceptions and attitudes in order to determine the extent to which an ethic of respectability was a formative influence on the development of workin-class conciousness and ideology in Leicester in the period c. 1845 to 1880. The conclusion is reached that respectability was an increasingly important element in working-class thought in Leicester in the period. At the same time it was an ethic with a distinctively working-class formulation, essentially collectivistic in orientation and committed to working-class independence and defering to no one. The paper also raises important questions for future investigations.


more about urban sociology:

Retail Trade as a Route to Neighborhood Revitalization

Healthy Urban Planning The Concept, Tools, and Application

Is Detroit the new Brooklyn?

Grafitti photos, Los Angeles 1

Book Review: Cities for People

Subsidies in the Suburbs

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Environmental Justice and the Sustainable City

by Graham Haughton

As the debate on sustainable development and environmental justice has gathered momentum, considerable attention has been paid to identify key peinciples. In this paper, I highlight a number of core principles and then move on to examine differing styles of policy approach, which have gained favor among different sources, for moving toward the sustainable city from market-based neo-liberal reformism to deep green ecologically centered approaches. I highlighr four broad categories of approach to sustainable urban development and begin linking those to the core principles of sustainable development.

read more 

more about sustainable development:

Sustainable Urban Forms Their Typologies, Models, and Concepts

The Economics of Sustainable Cities: Four Key Components

FIVE PLANNING PRINCIPLES FOR SUCCESSFUL URBAN DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT - RECENT EXAMPLES FROM GERMANY

The eco-city: ten key transport and planning dimensions for sustainable city development

Sustainability on the Urban Scale: ‘Green Urbanism’

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Sustainable Urban Forms Their Typologies, Models, and Concepts

by Yosef Rafeq Jabareen

This article identifies sustainable urban forms and their design concepts. In addition, it addresses the question of whether certain urban forms contribute more than others to sustainability. A thematic analysis has been used to coop with the vast body of sustainable development and environmental planning literature. The analysis identifies seven design concepts elated to sustainable urban forms: compactness, sustainable transport, density, mixed land uses, diversity, passive solar design, and greening. Moreover, it identifies four types of sustainable urban forms: the neotraditional development, the urban containment, the compact city, and the eco-city. Finally, this article proposes a Matrix of Sustainable Urban Form to help planners in assessing the contribution of different urban forms to sustainability.


more about urban form:

TRANSFORMING AUTO-CENTRIC COMMUNITIES INTO WALKABLE NEIGHBORHOODS: WALKABILITY AUDITS OF TWO NEIGHBORHOODS IN SAN JOSÉ

Accessibility Measures: Overview and Practical Applications

Is Detroit the new Brooklyn?

The Middle Eastern Islamic City: Type and Morphology

Sustainability: A Vital Concept for Transportation Planning and Development

TRANSFORMING AUTO-CENTRIC COMMUNITIES INTO WALKABLE NEIGHBORHOODS: WALKABILITY AUDITS OF TWO NEIGHBORHOODS IN SAN JOSÉ

by George D. Schroeder

Walkable neighborhoods are becoming increasingly desirable for both local governments and residential communities. Walkable neighborhoods have healthier residents, higher levels of social capital, higher property values, and environmentally friendly qualities.1 Nonetheless, 60 percent of the U.S. population does not get the recommended 30 minutes of physical activity each day, contributing to higher rates of obesity and other serious health problems such as heart disease.2 Additionally, over 90 percent of travel trips one to two miles in length are made by private automobiles.3 Public interest and advocacy from the urban planning and public health disciplines are bringing attention to the need to improve walkability in American cities.
It is widely known throughout the planning field that post-World War II U.S. urban and suburban development centered on automobile accessibility at the expense of other transportation modes.4 San José, California, is a classic example of a city that largely developed during the automobile age, leaving behind a legacy of mid-20th century planning policies and an auto-centric environment. A key question for planners, public officials, and researchers is how to reverse this legacy and transform these communities into active, pedestrian-friendly cities.
This research utilizes a modified version of Clifton et al.’s Pedestrian Environment Data Scan (PEDS) instrument,5 referred to simply as the Walkability Audit Instrument (WAI) to audit the walkability of two San José neighborhoods with contrasting urban form patterns. The Five Wounds/Brookwood Terrace (FWBT) neighborhood contains compact, rectilinear pre-World War II development and the West Evergreen (WE) neighborhood consists of sprawling, post-World War II suburban development.
This research project is one of few to apply the PEDS instrument in a practical setting. Results from this research will be of interest to planning practitioners, public health officials, and researchers across the U.S. facing similar questions of how to reconfigure their auto-centric neighborhoods into walkable communities.
There are three main objectives for this project:
1. Provide an example of the effect of urban form on walkability in San José
2. Provide fine-grained pedestrian environment data for each public street segment in the FWBT and WE neighborhoods
3. Provide recommendations to improve walkability in the subject neighborhoods which can also be applied to other San José neighborhoods.
This report consists of eight chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the project, its methodology, and explains its relevance. Chapter 2 analyzes literature on the built environment’s effect on walking. Chapter 3 reviews current literature on walkability audits. Chapter 4 reviews the City of San José’s and respective neighborhoods’ major planning documents related to pedestrians. Chapter 5 provides more background on the two neighborhoods and discusses current walkability concerns. Chapter 6 provides an overview of PEDS, the WAI, and the methodology used in the audit. Chapter 7 details the audit findings and recommendations, and Chapter 8 concludes the report.
There are four appendices at the end of the report. Appendix A explains the dynamics and administration protocol for each item of the WAI. Appendix B lists each street segment that was audited, its numeric score, and rating. Appendix C shows detailed audit result tables broken down by each item of the WAI. Appendix D identifies street segments and intersections that lack sidewalks and provisions for Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility.


more about walkability:

Validating walkability indices: How do different households respond to the walkability of their neighbourhood?

Steps Forward: Review and Recommendations for Research on Walkability, Physical Activity and Cardiovascular Health

Environmental Correlates of Walking and Cycling: Findings From the Transportation, Urban Design, and Planning Literatures

Accessibility Measures: Overview and Practical Applications

Validating walkability indices: How do different households respond to the walkability of their neighbourhood?

by Kevin Manaugh and Ahmed M. El-Geneidy

Recent years have seen a continued shift in land use and transportation planning priorities towards issues of neighborhood walkability. An inviting pedestrian environment with access to commercial, leisure and school destinations is seen as a key component of walkability. Walkability indices have grown in popularity, due in part to their potential to measure qualities of livability. However, it is not clear how well these indices predict actual pedestrian behavior. Many studies have not been able to adequately analyze the effects of these walkability indices across trip purposes and for households with varying characteristics. This study analyzes 44,266 home-based trips obtained from the 2003 Montréal Origin-Destination survey. Several statistical models are built to examine the correlation of different walkability scores and household travel behavior while controlling for individual, household and trip characteristics. Further clustering of households allows the calculation of elasticities across household types. Our findings show that the examined walkability indices are highly correlated with walking trips for most non-work trip purposes; however, socio-demographic characteristics also play a key role. Most importantly, the results show that households with more mobility choices are more sensitive to their surroundings than those with less choice. Our findings highlight the fact that a walkability index will not have the same correlation with travel behavior for all individuals or households. Therefore, solutions to encourage non-walkers to start walking need to vary depending on the socioeconomic characteristics of the neighborhood.


more about walkability:

Steps Forward: Review and Recommendations for Research on Walkability, Physical Activity and Cardiovascular Health

Environmental Correlates of Walking and Cycling: Findings From the Transportation, Urban Design, and Planning Literatures

MEASURING WALKING. TOWARDS INTERNATIONALLY STANDARDISED MONITORING METHODS OF WALKING AND PUBLIC SPACE

Cleanliness from a car

Neighborhood Design and the Accessibility of the Elderly: An Empirical Analysis in Northern California

Steps Forward: Review and Recommendations for Research on Walkability, Physical Activity and Cardiovascular Health

by Gina S. Lovasi, Stephanie Grady, and Andrew Rundle

Built environments that support walking and other physical activities have the potential to reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD). Walkable neighborhoods—characterized by density, land use diversity, and well-connected transportation networks—have been linked to more walking, less obesity, and lower coronary heart disease risk. Yet ongoing research on pedestrian-friendly built environments has the potential to address important gaps. While much of the literature has focused on urban form and planning characteristics, additional aspects of street-scapes, such as natural and architectural amenities, should also be considered. Promising future directions include (1) integration of multiple built environment measures that facilitate an understanding of how individuals perceive and act within their environment; (2) examination of both the daily physical activities that are most feasibly influenced by the local environment and those more deliberate or vigorous patterns of physical activity that are most predictive of CVD; (3) consideration of multiple pathways that could mediate a link between walkability and CVD, including not only physical activity, but also air quality improvements from reduced vehicle mileage and enhanced neighborhood social cohesion from unplanned interactions; (4) testing competing hypotheses that may explain interactions of built environment characteristics with each other and with personal barriers to walking; (5) stronger conceptualization of the multiple neighborhoods or activity spaces that structure opportunities for physical activity throughout the day; (6) collecting and strategically analyzing longitudinal data to support causal inference; and (7) studying neighborhood preferences and selection to move beyond biased assessments of neighborhood health effects. While walkability has been linked to health-related behaviors and CVD risk factors, the implications of the observed correlations are not yet clear. New theoretical insights, measurement technologies, and built environment changes represent opportunities to enhance the evidence base for bringing health promotion and cardiovascular disease prevention into the conversation about how communities are planned and built.


more about walkability:

Environmental Correlates of Walking and Cycling: Findings From the Transportation, Urban Design, and Planning Literatures

IMPROVING THE PEDESTRIANS’ EXPERIENCE IN SoHo, NYC

Australia Looks at Sustainability as Guide to Country-wide Urban Planning

TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE URBAN TRANSPORT SYSTEM: PLANNING FOR NON-MOTORIZED VEHICLES IN CITIES

How do we create places where people want to work, live and play?

The Next New York: How the Planning Department Sabotages Sustainability

10 enticing urban walkabouts help you explore Portland and its unique suburbs