33 Results

Comparative subway construction costs, ABC Radio listeners have problems with cyclists, rock and roll economics, bicycle parking robotics in Tokyo, the complications of urban agriculture, musicians don’t get science, stop thinking in terms of mpg…

Some critics see high rise living in the CBD as ‘vertical sprawl’, but its sustainability credentials are exemplary, it’s eminently walkable and it helps make housing affordable elsewhere in the metro area

Only 380,000 residents of Australia’s largest cities live in very walkable suburbs, all of them in the inner city. Creating new fringe suburbs with high walkability will be very challenging

The received wisdom these days is the structure of big cities should be ‘polycentric’ rather than ‘monocentric’. It’s apparently so self-evidently desireable there’s no need to consult with the public!

We’re increasingly being told we need higher job densities in our cities to exploit ‘agglomeration economies’ associated with the ‘knowledge economy’. But are the benefits exaggerated?

In Australian cities, public transport use correlates with population density. More importantly though, it correlates with the degree to which population is concentrated.

As our cities get bigger, more and more people want to live closer to the centre where they can get better access to jobs, people and services. They’re prepared to trade-off space for greater accessibility, but too often the price of apartments is just too high. A key reason is existing residents and councils suppress [...]

A much-anticipated report on the link between the physical environment and public health was released publicly at the end of May. The report, Inquiry into Environmental Design and Public Health, was written by the Environmental Planning and Assessment Committee of the Victorian Legislative council. It followed a year-long inquiry with public submissions and public hearings. [...]

I’ve always felt there’s something dubious about the “food deserts” hypothesis that’s so captured Michelle Obama’s imagination. Now a story in the New York Times suggests my instinct might be close to the mark. Food deserts are places that have good access to fast food outlets selling high-fat, high-sugar junk food, but poor access to [...]

Crikey readers who live in the outer suburbs should sit up and take notice – according to this Fairfax editorial, urban sprawl is making you sick. Moreover, it is “imposing a massive cost on taxpayers, in the form of chronic health and social problems in the new suburbs”. The main villain is car dependency, which [...]