Table of contents for N. 126 in Topos

Oh, hi there! I’m topos, the leading international magazine for urban planning from Munich, Germany. For me, everything revolves around the sustainable city of the future. Online, I spend 365 days a year dealing with the question: how will we live sustainably, healthily and technologized in the world’s future metropolises? In addition to my home www.toposmagazine.com, I am published four times a year as a print magazine (that’s what you are holding in your hands right now!). I address everyone who is interested in the smarter, greener city of the future and who works in, on and with the city. My readers include CEOs, mayors, architects, landscape architects, urban planners, engineers, digitalization specialists, researchers – simply everyone that is interested in urban development! My great passion is finding and analyzing…

The city centre of Venice was built on millions of wooden piles, mainly oak, driven into the seabed. For a long time, it was assumed that all of Venice’s buildings were constructed exclusively on piles, but this is not the case. Wherever possible, foundations of silt or clay were used, which were filled between the wooden piles. What most of the buildings in the lagoon town have in common, however, is a base made of Istrian limestone. It is particularly waterproof and was intended to prevent water from penetrating the buildings from below. There are no cars in the historic city centre – there are simply no streets for them to drive on. Similarly unusual for a city today: bicycles are not only unwelcome in Venice, but they are also…

Los Angeles, the second-largest city in the United States of America, is a vibrant, diverse hub of cultural expression. Life in this sunny metropolis is defined, perhaps inextricably, by the personal automobile, which creates a range of urban inequities. Despite a currently limited mass-transit network, this article investigates LA’s history of rail and some recent strides toward a multimodal future. Looking at the current state of public transportation in Los Angeles, one might be surprised that trains were once instrumental to the city’s success. The land the world recognizes today as the Los Angeles metropolitan area was originally home to the Tongva and Chumash indigenous peoples, before the arrival of occupying farmers in the 1780s. The town grew, albeit slowly, across the eras of Spanish colonization, Mexican control, and even…

It’s you who decide. With these words, Anne Hidalgo addressed the people of Paris in a recent video on social media. The city’s population was called upon to vote in a referendum on February 4th on a new regulation for SUVs in the French capital. The population decided that parking for the giant cars would cost visitors up to 18 euros per hour in the future. For Anne Hidalgo, this is an important signal and a further step on her way to a greener Paris. The mayor of Paris wants to make it clear to the car lobby once again that it must stop “selling ever larger, more expensive, resource-guzzling and environmentally harmful vehicles”. In her vision of the future, cars no longer drive around France’s capital. However, her noble…

Solar Energy Generating Roads It seems an elegant solution to turn the surfaces that roads currently take up into solar energy-producing areas. As well as generating energy, such roads could also have other functions, for example, built-in LEDs could be used to guide traffic at night or warn of unexpected obstacles such as roadworks or animals on the road. Equipped with induction loops, such a road could be used to charge your own battery as you drive by. Another conceivable function would be integrated road heating, which could keep the road clear of snow and ice in winter without the need for gritting. However, the technology is still in its infancy and there are still a number of problems to be solved, such as the high cost – estimated at…

Mobility is a basic need of our society. Prosperity and social participation depend on it. Although cities have good transport infrastructure for this purpose, it is mostly orientated towards motor vehicle traffic. There are already capacity bottlenecks on roads and railways, while at the same time, the population is growing. The potential for redensification of neighbourhoods is being exploited. Climate protection, sustainability, noise reduction, quality of life and health are shaping changing mobility behaviour. Digitalisation is reaching all areas of life. Characteristics of mobility in a liveable city of the future are: safe travelling on foot and by bike over short distances, low-noise, green, efficient and networked. In urban transport, the private car should be subordinate. They will be smaller, quieter, electric, shared and possibly autonomous. The Federal Environment Agency…

Paris is tripling its parking fees for SUVs from September 2024, in Vienna drivers have been paying a fine of 365 euros since last autumn if they obstruct public transport by parking incorrectly, and in Singapore car buyers have had to purchase a Certificate of Entitlement since 1990 in addition to the car, registration fee and taxes, which currently amounts to the equivalent of 106,000 US dollars. More and more cities have started to charge drivers to pay to combat gridlock and promote climate-friendly mobility. Exciting ideas that are supposed to bring the comfortably seat-heated bottoms of this world onto buses, trains or even bicycles. However, these measures are of little use as long as local public transport cannot provide an equally impressive service. This means ensuring that people in…

“Riding the bus is never boring,” writes Martin Binias in the biography of his Instagram channel “Herr Busfahrer”. He should know. Because not only is he a bus driver for the Hameln-Pyrmont transport company in Lower Saxony, but according to his own statements and the national press, he is also the best-known bus driver in Germany. He is a bus driver influencer, so to speak. Although he himself prefers the term “professional ambassador”. In addition to his main job, he invests a lot of time in this role, informing the public about his day-to-day work through videos. Millions of people regularly watch his posts on Instagram and TikTok. The decision to share his stories with the world – on behalf of many of his colleagues – arose from an impulse…

Free public transport: Is it a bad solution to a real problem? Or is it an important symbolic step towards attracting more people to public transport? We look into Luxembourg’s experience and discuss these questions with the local ministry and an expert from UITP. On the 29th of February 2020, Luxembourg took the bold decision to make all public transport in the country free. For the last four years, all buses, trains and trams have been free – with astounding success, according to the government. We will take a closer look at this phenomenon to see what lies behind free public transport and what other cities could learn from it. Apart from first class tickets, public transportation in Luxembourg is completely free for all residents and visitors. Elsewhere in Europe,…

Amsterdam The bicycle is and remains the backbone of mobility in Amsterdam. The city has been among the top three most bicycle-friendly cities for years according to the "Copenhagenize Index". This is nothing new. What is new is that from January 2024, tour buses will no longer be allowed to enter the city center. The city continues to focus on cycling, walking and public transport. A densely interconnected network of rail, streetcar, metro, bus and ferries makes cars obsolete. The ferries to the north of Amsterdam are also free for pedestrians, cyclists and mopeds. This means that the booming north of the city, which is separated by the IJ waterfront, is even better connected. In addition, traffic on the 80 kilometer network of waterways will gradually become electric. Some ferries…

The Swiss are the European rail champions. In no other country in the world do people travel more by train than in Switzerland. It is not only the dense rail network and tightly synchronized timetables that make the Swiss railroad an attractive mobility option, but also the reliability and punctuality of its rail operations. Like the proverbial Swiss clockwork, the precisely pulsating train cycle of the Swiss railroads characterizes the country’s image as a smoothly functioning unit. But this perfection comes at a price and Zurich, one of the world’s top-rated cities in terms of public transport, could in future be left behind. In 2019, every inhabitant of Switzerland traveled around 2,500 kilometers by train. That is more than in any other country in Europe and even in an international…

For the sake of simplicity, let’s take Europe, which is often so highly praised, as an example. What if all public transport throughout Europe was completely free? I'm talking about local transport in all cities, districts and municipalities. Buses, trams and, of course, underground trains would then be free for everyone to use. In principle. Now please take this idea even further. What would it mean in concrete terms for local transport and people? Blissful freedom? Sure, people no longer need to worry about finding the right ticket. No matter which European city they are in, they can simply get on and go wherever they want. You would also save a lot of money, because the reality of public transport prices in many countries is that they are extremely expensive.…

One bike ride to the office and back – here are five dollars. Because he likes cycling himself and believes that active people work better, Tim Chesney, head of an advertising agency in Christchurch, pays his six employees five dollars a day – provided they cycle to work. If they keep this up for more than half of their annual work days, the amount doubles to ten dollars. Five of the six employees were persuaded, not least by the prospect of an accumulated bonus of up to 2,500 New Zealand dollars at the end of the year. Whether consciously or unconsciously, the New Zealand managing director is taking up an idea with his campaign that should have long been part of everyday life in many municipalities: he is creating an…

Paris is undergoing a fundamental transformation in mobility. With fewer cars and more bicycles, the French capital is on the right track. But there is still room for improvement, especially in the connections between the city centre and the suburbs. A review of the transport transformation in the French metropolis, current projects and future plans. The reign of the car is coming to an end! At least in Paris. For around 20 years, the city council has been pursuing a policy of pushing back the car: parking spaces have been reduced, parking fees increased, 30 km/h speed limits introduced in most streets, more cycle paths built and so on. Between 2001 and 2018, the number of daily car journeys fell by 25 per cent as a result - yet Paris…

Tokyo’s transport network is the best in the world and shows in many details how a reliable, puntual and efficient public transport system can function. Visitors to Tokyo are surprised by how quiet the metropolis is: No noisy cars, nobody honks, people walk gently and talk quietly, the asphalt absorbs the noise of the wheels. Streets are full, but if you look closely, you will notice that there are few private cars on the road: It is mainly delivery trucks, taxis and the miniature, toy-like garbage trucks, ambulances and mini-vehicles. In Tokyo, with a population of over 13 million people, there are “only” 4 million vehicles. That is because the average Tokyo-ite does not drive. The cost of buying and maintaining a car, gas, parking or tolls are not the…

Theresa Ramisch studied Urban Planning at the TU Munich. She began working as an editor for G+L and topos in 2016. Since 2021, she has been Editor in Chief for G+L – the leading German magazine for Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning. Since 2023, she has been as well Editor in Chief for topos.  t.ramisch@georg-media.de Camille Larbey is a French freelance journalist and film critic for various publications. His work focuses on society and culture. He has published books on cinema, including Berlin mis en scène (Espaces & Signes, 2017), Marlene Dietrich (Capricci, 2021) and Blade Runner Landmark (B2, 2021). camille.larbey@hotmail.fr Sam E. Valentine is a landscape architect and researcher. Supported by Harvard University and a Fulbright grant, he is conducting research in Brazil and Angola, collaborating with self-built, informal…