New Atlas Reveals Sustainable Transport In Cities Around The World

“Anyone with a computer and internet can find out which areas of their city are being served by sustainable transport infrastructure—and which are being ignored.”

A newly launched online dashboard displays essential information for sustainable urban transport in over 40,000 localities in more than 1,000 metropolitan areas globally.

The Atlas of Sustainable City Transport visualizes nine key sustainable mobility indicators through measurements of existing infrastructure and what that means for people who live nearby or visit, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

The Atlas, which its developers call a first-of-its-kind tool to map sustainable mobility in this way, was published on Wednesday by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), a nonprofit that works with cities worldwide to design and implement high-quality transport systems and policy solutions that make cities more livable, equitable, and sustainable.

“The Atlas of Sustainable City Transport is an empowering tool for all types of people in the transport and urban planning fields, from researchers to government officials,” Heather Thompson, the institute’s chief executive, said in a statement, “With the open data in the Atlas, ITDP is committed to helping cities and everyone in the mobility sector make more informed decisions to improve urban life.”

The tool was designed for use by professionals — from policymakers and planners to researchers — to track and improve transport policies and projects worldwide, as well as for everyday citizens.

“Anyone with a computer and internet can find out which areas of their city are being served by sustainable transport infrastructure—and which are being ignored,” the Atlas developers said.

The nine indicators are:

• Population Density
• Block Density
• People Near Protected Bike Lanes
• People Near Services
• People Near Car-Free Places
• People Safe From Highways
• People Near Frequent Transport
• People Near Rapid Transport
• People Near Bikeways + Transport

The data relies on four main sources of open and collaborative sources—the European Commission’s Global Human Settlement Layer; OpenStreetMap; MobilityData’s Mobility Database; and the Transit Explorer. The ITDP, which noted that anyone can contribute information, provide suggestions, and correct inaccuracies, plans to update the Atlas regularly.

The tool shows detailed measurements of all the indicators for not just the municipality, but within more than 40,000 local administrative areas, like districts, wards, and often even neighborhoods. Users can compare cities within a region, country and even neighborhoods within a city.

Latin American cities, like Bogotá, Colombia and Lima, Peru, rank well for walkability, for example, and the African city of Kigali, Rwanda excels in measures like “People Safe From Highways,” the ITDP noted, for “presenting models for infrastructure that other global cities can learn from.”

A number of cities have already seen that using these indicators for planning can be beneficial for advancing sustainable mobility, according to the tool’s creators,and that by displaying these indicators, the Atlas will make it possible for cities around the world to replicate this success.

• the cities of Seattle, and Primpri-Chinchwad, India, have officially adopted the use of “People Near Frequent Transport.” In the years since Seattle adopted this indicator, for example, it has become the only major city in the U.S. to see an increase in bus ridership.
• Fortaleza, Brazil adopted “People Near Bikeways” to track progress and has become one of Brazil’s leading cycling-friendly cities.

“We’re very excited to use the Atlas for many types of analyses in the City of Seattle,” Ben Rosenblatt, principal planner at the Seattle Department of Transportation, said in a statement. “ITDP’s open-source data on proximity to car-free spaces could inform our forthcoming ‘People Streets’ and ‘Public Spaces’ programming, for example. Supported by Seattle’s own race and social equity indicators, the Atlas will help us focus investment in the right places and more effectively advance a vision for equitable, safe, and sustainable mobility.”

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