Mar 05, 2017
Mention urbanization, and people are quick to list the potential downsides: pollution, overcrowding, unsafe construction and the rise of slums. The challenges of urbanization can be immense, especially when vast numbers of people move to cities within a short period of time. However, the opportunities available to help build sustainable cities are numerous and the…
Mar 05, 2017
Cities have always thought smart. However, current expansion is generating additional complexity. Cities are now the main human living environment, and demand impressive resilience facing dramatic past and current challenges. The concept of “smart city” has recently emerged, often based on IT solutions, as a tempting response to those challenges. One has to remember that…
Feb 27, 2017
The New Cities Foundation, in partnership with Living Lab Montréal and Made in Montréal, are hosting a series of roundtable discussions featuring a cross-section of Montréal’s leading actors and creative minds. The second roundtable in this series took place at Sid Lee’s 8 rue Queen on February 14, 2017 on the subject Attractiveness of Montréal.…
Feb 23, 2017
The next time you’re in a public space, close your eyes and listen to the world around you. You will likely discover a whole new aspect of the urban experience. This is what is called the soundscape. Soundscapes are composed of all the sounds around us, background and foreground, the sounds we hear and the…
Feb 20, 2017
Urban mobility is one of the most puzzling challenges for cities across the world. Demographic change and urban population expansion are putting pressure into cities saturated public transport infrastructures. At the same time, people are becoming increasingly aware that transportation is one of the biggest cause of greenhouse gas emissions, in addition to deteriorating the…
Jan 31, 2017
Approximately 30 per cent of food produced for human consumption is wasted across the food supply chain, which equates to 1.3 billion tonnes of food annually. This includes 45 per cent of all fruit and vegetables and 20 per cent of all meat. This inefficiency has enormous economic, environmental and social consequences. Food loss and…
Dec 08, 2016
NewCities, in partnership with Living Lab Montréal and Made in Montréal, are hosting a series of roundtable discussions featuring a cross-section of Montréal’s players and leading minds.. The first roundtable in this series took place at Espace CDPQ in Place Ville Marie on November 30, 2016 on the subject Montréal – Building Collective Intelligence. Not…
Dec 02, 2016
With a surging GDP and a rapidly expanding urban population, India faces an enormous demand for development of robust urban infrastructure. While essential to making Indian cities run smoothly, it is also necessary for the domestic growth of its urban transportation sector. The announcement of the Smart Cities Mission by the Indian government presents a…
Nov 16, 2016
Tokyo, Japan – On Friday, 4 November, 2016 NewCities welcomed 150 of the leading practitioners and forward thinking experts to discuss the changing nature of urban mobility at Cities on the Move. The event was supported by Toyota Mobility Foundation, X, and was hosted by Mori Building. A revolution in urban mobility is happening in…
Nov 15, 2016
Public transit systems in the world’s cities are falling behind as cities are getting bigger and more crowded, often plagued with crippling traffic. This is one of the key findings in the recent report, Now Arriving: A Connected Mobility Roadmap for Public Transport. The private sector, including Toyota, has embraced new technologies to address urban…
Nov 14, 2016
Imagine a scenario in the not too distant future where a car, hurtling down a road, is about to collide with a family stepping onto a pedestrian crossing. There are two choices: the car can swerve off the road to avoid a collision, crashing over a cliff and killing its occupants, or it can go…
Nov 10, 2016
I confess: I am a data enthusiast. An evangelist even. Urban data is the currency of the 21st century. A catalyst for creating more livable, sustainable and equitable cities in an age of rapid urbanization. Working from within local government, I have seen first-hand how having a good handle on data can transform public services…
