This is pretty impressive! There are now 300 "rue aux écoles" in #Paris. (Up from 185 last year.) That means *half* of elementary schools in city have now had the streets outside closed to all car traffic. Some cool Before/After shots on the Ville de Paris website:

Plus de 300 « rues aux écoles » dans Paris

Expérimentées dans le cadre du déconfinement pour lutter contre la pollution, améliorer la qualité de l'air et végétaliser la ville, les «�...

In #Vienna, any citizen can replace a street parking space with a parklet, an urban green space for everybody to enjoy. The grätzloasen, or neighbourhood oases, are built by volunteers, and more than 100 have been built with the blessing of city hall.

the Guardian

‘Why would you take away a parking place?’: the city where anyone can build an urban oasis

Grätzloasen – low-cost, urban ‘parklets’ built by volunteers – are on the rise in Vienna as sceptics are being won over by the splash of w...

Friends have sent me glowing reports on their rides on #Mexico City’s Cablebús, a three-line gondola system integrated into the CDMX transit network that opened a year ago this month. I understand why some people are suspicious of gondolas as a serious transit mode… 🚠🧵

NEW RESEARCH: Parked cars can account for 10 percent of the surface areas of some cities. It turns out that their albedo (reflectivity) can significantly contribute to the urban heat island effect. Dark-coloured cars are the worst, making the air around them 3.8°C hotter vs nearby asphalt road. 🧵

Note to Doug Ford, premier of #Ontario: we had this figured out 60 years ago. Yet somehow you still don't get it. A vintage reminder, courtesy of #Toronto subway, of how much pain (and congestion, and pollution...) public transit spares our cities.

Cities aren’t inherently loud—but automobile traffic raises noise pollution to 60 decibels+. In #France, the city of #Lyon has set aside four “zones calmes,” where decibel levels regularly go as low as 28. They’ve strung up hammocks to welcome people... 🤫🧵

Métropole de Lyon. « On se sent comme dans une bulle » : au domaine de Lacroix-Laval, des zones calmes pour fuir le tumulte urbain

À l’ouest de Lyon, le domaine de Lacroix-Laval accueille quatre zones calmes où la nature reprend ses droits. Un apaisement sonore rare, porté...

Love this! Cities aren’t inherently loud—but automobile traffic raises noise pollution to 60 decibels+. In #France, the city of #Lyon has set aside four “zones calmes,” where decibel levels regularly go as low as 28. They’ve strung up hammocks to welcome people…

Métropole de Lyon. « On se sent comme dans une bulle » : au domaine de Lacroix-Laval, des zones calmes pour fuir le tumulte urbain

À l’ouest de Lyon, le domaine de Lacroix-Laval accueille quatre zones calmes où la nature reprend ses droits. Un apaisement sonore rare, porté...

"In a quality city, a person should be able to live their entire life without a car, and not feel deprived." —Paul Bedford.