Metropolitics

In the Paris metro, hell is other people

Luke Haywood & Martin Koning & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-01-15T05:50:00Z

In the medical field, it is not unusual for remedies prescribed to combat a particular condition to have undesirable side effects. Similarly, the example of Paris shows us that rising levels of discomfort on public transport can be considered the “price of success” of anti-car policies…
While Parisian transport policy – which primarily hinges upon the reassignment of lanes dedicated to polluting modes of transport (cars, essentially) to cleaner alternatives (buses, trams, bicycles) – has made

- From the Field / France, public space, public transportation, Paris region, well-being, Paris, density, transport, Greater Paris, public policy, mass transit, metro, subway, tube, underground, rapid transit, comfort

For cities of a different nature

Jérémy Grangé & Sylvain Petitet & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-03-26T05:50:00Z

City-dwellers want to see more of their metropolitan areas turned over to nature and urban public spaces; however, our cities today are still structured by a network of roads that were primarily built to manage motor traffic flows. Sylvain Petitet and Jérémy Grangé show how implementing sustainable urban infrastructure could provide city-dwellers with easy and convenient access to the places that generate most of their journeys, revealing a new form of network-based public space.
The 20th

- Essays / public space, public transportation, sustainable development, nature, well-being, bicycles, infrastructures, pedestrian, infrastructure, cycling

Could harmonised working times spell an end to the rush hour?

Emmanuel Munch & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-02-12T05:50:00Z

Efforts to coordinate working hours across urban territories have increased in recent years. By exploring the “desynchronisation” of journeys, these experiments aim to reduce congestion at peak times at the lowest possible cost. Field trials, while promising on paper, have been confronted with a complex and changing reality, marked by increasingly individualised daily schedules.
The simultaneous nature of home-to-work mobility is the root cause of congestion in many transport networks,

- Essays / public transportation, well-being, mobility, transport, work, territorial development, businesses, time, mass transit

The desirable city or the sustainable city: what is the role of green spaces?

Jean-François Guet & translated by Birdwell Institute — 2011-11-02T06:00:00Z

While green spaces are in great demand among city-dwellers, their presence alone is not enough to make the city desirable and to generate well-being. Jean-François Guet believes they should serve a dual function – practical and symbolic – and be accessible to all. At a time when sustainable cities are of prime importance, dealing with nature in towns everywhere and for all has become an urgent need and calls for better management of the parks and gardens that make up the urban public space.

- Debates / public space, nature, well-being, urban ecology, green spaces

Well-being in the Paris region: widening regional disparities despite overall improvement

Lise Bourdeau-Lepage & Élisabeth Tovar & translated by Eric Rosencrantz — 2011-10-12T09:07:22Z

Has the socio-spatial divide widened over the past 10 years in the Paris region? Using an original method inspired by the work of Amartya Sen to measure the distribution of well-being in the Paris region between 1999 and 2006, Lise Bourdeau-Lepage and Élisabeth Tovar come to a rather pessimistic conclusion: the general rise in well-being actually masks widening regional disparities and setbacks in the northern suburbs of Paris, which are increasingly disadvantaged.
In recent years, the Paris

- Essays / segregation, Paris region, inequalities, well-being, social justice, Greater Paris