Archinect - News

The Motorist Won: Envisioning a vehicle-centric UK with Archinect Generative Futures finalist Kyle Branchesi

2024-02-13T19:32:00-05:00

Designer Kyle Branchesi has shared images from his latest creative experimentation with generative AI tools, a visual commentary touching on the debate over pedestrianism and motor vehicles happening currently within the UK.

For 'The Motorist Won,' Branchesi imagined a far-off dystopia plagued by vehicle traffic where historic streets and all visible landmarks are besieged by the hum of engines and blur of lights, making cities like London or Edinburgh the all-too-unfortunate casualties of what PM Rishi Sunak says is a "war" against cars.

The Motorist Won by Kyle Branchesi

Branchesi describes: "Amidst a political landscape where the 'war on motorists' is wielded as a populist tool, this series captures a future where this rhetoric has prevailed. The transformation of UK landmarks like Stonehenge into vast vehicular realms underscores the absurdity and danger of prioritizing short-term political gains over sustainable urban planning. These images mirror the contentious debates in the ...

California's high-speed rail project receives $202 million in federal funding for critical juncture

2023-09-26T13:28:00-04:00

The California High-Speed Rail Authority has been awarded more than $200 million from the Biden Administration in what is one of the largest pieces of federal funding awarded to the project in its history. The $202 million grant was made by the U.S. Department of Transportation through the 2022 Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) program — part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021.

The latest funding reduces some of the $128 billion burden incurred by the project, which had been teetering on the edge before the state allocated enough funding to complete a critical 171-mile stretch in California’s Central Valley. The federal money will be put specifically towards six grade separations needed to create a clear path for motor vehicles in Kern County.

The High-Speed Rail Authority’s Northern California Director Boris Lipkin said recently that the project can only be completed faster than is currently projected with the help of increased federal support given its engineering complexities.

The state, which finally began the two-step procurement process for the “first-in-the-nation” 220 mph electrified high-speed trainsets last month, said its full realization is on track for 2033 in their latest Project Update Report from March of this year.

New York City's congestion pricing program receives federal approval

2023-06-27T13:58:00-04:00

Congestion pricing in New York City has cleared its final federal hurdle, officials said on Monday, all but ensuring that the first such program in the nation will begin next year with the aim of reducing traffic and pollution in Manhattan and funding improvements to mass transit.

Following the Federal Highway Administration’s approval of the program, a local panel appointed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) will now work to determine final toll rates, including any discounts or exemptions.

A report released by the MTA last August revealed one proposal that would charge $23 for a trip during rush hour into Midtown Manhattan and $17 during off-peak hours. Initially approved by the New York State legislature in 2019, the program is expected to generate $1 billion per year for the MTA. This revenue will be directed toward improving New York City’s public transit network. The Authority says the program could potentially start in spring 2024.

Previously on Archinect: Congestion pricing in New York City set to become a reality by the end of 2023

As reported by The New York Times, opponents of the plan include the likes of taxi drivers and ride-share companies who believe the new tolls will cut demand for their services. In addition, some New Jersey...

Los Angeles approves car-free 'superblock' pilot program

2023-06-26T17:57:00-04:00

The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday on a motion to identify a location to implement its first Park Block -- modeled after the city of Barcelona’s Superblocks, a block grid system that restricts traffic to major roads and opens up city blocks and streets to pedestrians.

The “Park Block” motion was initially introduced by Los Angeles District Councilmember Kevin de León last year. The program aims to save lives lost due to poor air quality and traffic violence. As detailed in a report by LA City Council’s Transportation Committee, the Blocks will serve to form open public space with adequate shade, outdoor recreation, greening, and stormwater capture in communities that lack parks.

Previously on Archinect: LA Councilmember introduces plan to establish Barcelona's car-free 'superblocks' in Los Angeles

The program will first be implemented in León’s District 14, which includes parts of downtown Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, and Eagle Rock. LA's Department of Transportation will choose which area will host the initial pilot, with priority given to communities that have the least access to public space, the highest health disparities, and high population densities. In addition, the Department will report back on what funding and resources are necessary to...

A stretch of JFK Drive in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park to become permanently car-free

2022-05-04T17:52:00-04:00

Golden Gate Park's John F. Kennedy Drive has been blocked off to vehicle traffic since the start of the pandemic, and on Tuesday night San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted to keep it that way.

A meeting with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency last week resulted in the board voting 7-4 in favor of Mayor London Breed’s legislation to permanently close off a 1.5-mile-long stretch of the roadway to car traffic.

In April 2020, the section of JFK Drive was closed to private vehicles to create a safe space for people to walk, run, and bike, while social distancing. The vote followed a meeting with nine hours of public comment in person at City Hall and over the phone.

Critics of the move argue that a permanent closure would prevent park access to individuals who are disabled, elderly, or live farther away, and only benefit active users. Some have called for closing the road to vehicle traffic only on weekends, claiming that drivers commuting to work or transporting kids to school needed access.

A notable opponent is the de Young Museum, which has recorded a decline in atte...

New York City plans to raise crosswalks to make hazardous intersections safer

2022-03-02T14:56:00-05:00

The white-striped crosswalk sits on top of a hump of asphalt. Pedestrians barely notice as they rush across, but drivers are in for a bumpy ride if they do not slow down. The crosswalk in northern Manhattan was raised four inches in the fall to try to slow traffic and make pedestrians more visible as they navigate a busy intersection where 26 people — including 14 pedestrians — have been injured in motor vehicle crashes in the past five years.

Following a surge in traffic deaths in New York, in which a total of 273 people, citywide, were killed in crashes last year, the highest since 2013, Mayor Eric Adams wants to raise hundreds of crosswalks across the city. With more people on the streets, occupying outdoor spaces opened up due to the pandemic, the return of traffic has increased safety risks. There are currently only 17 raised crosswalks out of the roughly 40,000 intersections across the city, which is a part of the streetscape where most injuries and deaths occur.

Starting this year, New York plans to add 100 raised crosswalks every year. This type of intervention has proven to be effective in improving safety and is relatively quick and inexpensive to install. The city also plans to redesign 1,000 dangerous intersections this year and will additionally target other problem spots such as parking lots and gas stations. The new crosswalks will be financed by city and federal funding.

Heavy Rail vs Monorail: Could the recent approval of two transit proposals change LA's 'most challenging transit corridor?'

2021-04-01T13:59:00-04:00

Los Angeles freeways are notorious soul-sucking pathways that most residents face daily. The infamous 405 freeway is considered one of the most "congested stretches of highway in the United States." However, as Forbes Staff writer Alan Ohnsman reports, there may be two solutions the city's transportation authority can get behind. "Local officials are considering an audacious fix for commuters on the city's west side: a sleek, automated $6.1 billion monorail to whisk riders above soul-crushing freeway jams," writes Ohnsman. "A rival proposal for a $10.8 billion subway from a group led by construction giant Bechtel, running below the highway, also won PDA funds worth up to $69.9 million."

While many remember the "hyped" vacuum-tube hyperloop proposed by Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk making headlines, the city did not make it a contender for transit funding. LA traffic is inevitable, but will the proposed LA Skyrail Express and subway project from Bechtel lead the city to an impro...

Four potential routes emerge for the Griffith Park Aerial Tram in Los Angeles

2020-09-08T14:52:00-04:00

Progress on Los Angeles's very own aerial tramway has made some headway as the City of LA's Department of Recreation and Parks prepares a feasibility study on the project. Intending to provide increased access to Griffith Park and alleviate urban congestion, the Aerial Transit System for Griffith Park hopes to additionally improve public transportation within the city.

Griffith Park Aerial Tramway - All Potential Routes. Image courtesy of griffithparkaerialtransit.com

According to the project's website, "an Aerial Transit System for Griffith Park would be a 'closed-loop' system where riders can only enter at the origin station. There would be minimal noise impacts at the landing station, and the station itself would be non-visible due to the landscape's natural berm." Engineering, consulting, architectural, and design firm Stantec will be leading the feasibility study to address transit and mobility within and around Griffith Park, improved access to the park, and the application of ...

Boston is America's most congested city (again)

2020-03-10T19:52:00-04:00

Boston continues to hold the dubious distinction of having the worst traffic in the United States, fending off the likes of Los Angeles, New York and Chicago to top traffic data analyst INRIX’s list of congested cities for the second year in a row. [...] Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and Washington, D.C., round out the worst five U.S. cities for congestion. Wichita, Kansas, tops the study for least congestion.

The latest annual Global Traffic Scorecard published by transportation analytics company INRIX calculated that the average Boston commuter lost 149 hours — that's more than six days — per year due to traffic congestion, amounting to $2,205 per driver in time lost. Boston ranked as the nation's most congested city for the second consecutive year, followed by Chicago (145 hours), Philadelphia (142 hours), New York City (140 hours), and Washington D.C. (124 hours).

The American average was 99 hours lost per year due to congestion, costing the United States nearly $88 billion in 2019.

Boston also managed to claim a top ten spot on the global list of traffic-choked cities, coming in at number 9, followed by Chicago at 10. Dominating the international field in 2019 were the rapidly growing Latin American cities Bogota, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, and São Paulo, with a few European old-school offenders sprinkled in the mix, such as Istanbul, Rome, Paris, and London.

California embraces VMT metrics to asses project environmental impacts

2019-11-27T18:04:00-05:00

A transformational shift in perspective is taking shape in California, where the state's transportation agency, Caltrans, is in the midst of alterings its project impact analysis metrics by abandoning LOS in lieu of VMT.

Why is this important? Level of Service (LOS), on the one hand, measures the impact of a project on traffic flow in a given area, prioritizing the movement of cars over other factors. Because LOS is optimized for automobile traffic, project impact mitigation measures often favor reducing automobile congestion so that traffic can keep flowing. Common LOS-led responses to a high-impact projects include highway widening and the addition of new driving lanes, for example, approaches that often actually work to make traffic worse through the phenomenon of "induced demand."

Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), on the other hand, measures the amount of travel generated for all vehicles by a given project. For projects that are measured against VMT, the goal shifts from reducing...

That traffic jam you're stuck in? Blame white supremacy

2019-08-15T19:59:00-04:00

This intertwined history of infrastructure and racial inequality extended into the 1950s and 1960s with the creation of the Interstate highway system. As in most American cities in the decades after the Second World War, the new highways in Atlanta—local expressways at first, then Interstates—were steered along routes that bulldozed “blighted” neighborhoods that housed its poorest residents, almost always racial minorities.

Writing in The New York Times, Kevin M. Kruse connects the dots between highway planning and America's historical campaign to keep African Americans "in their place," an impetus that can be traced back to slavery and its modern day manifestations: segregation, urban renewal, redlining, gentrification, and mass incarceration.

The story is part of The New York Times' 1619 Project, a collection of stories and reports that "reframe the country's history" by foregrounding America's conception in its historical relationship to slavery.

Minneapolis bans new drive-through facilities

2019-08-10T07:00:00-04:00

Research has shown that areas around fast-food restaurants are especially dangerous for pedestrians because drive-throughs require more driveways, which introduce potential points of conflict. Plus, drivers tend to be distracted just before they have ordered their food — and in the moments when they start driving away with it. A Florida study found that each fast-food restaurant in a low-income block added an average of 0.69 pedestrian crashes every four years.

Streetsblog reports that as part of an ambitious comprehensive plan update, Minneapolis has outlawed the creation of new drive-through facilities within the municipality.

The forward-looking Minneapolis 2040 plan will also do away with parking requirements and single-family zoning across the city.

Another day, another gondola study for L.A.

2019-07-22T14:32:00-04:00

As Los Angeles officials ponder ways to cut down on traffic in and around Griffith Park, an engineering firm hired by the city is analyzing the pros and cons of installing a gondola or similar aerial transit system that could ferry riders in and out of the park. [...] City leaders ordered the study last year, after reviewing a list of 29 recommendations from an outside consultant brought in to analyze traffic issues in the communities surrounding the 4,511-acre park.

There's no shortage of aerial tramway schemes in Los Angeles these days. Pitched as possible measures to alleviate specific traffic hot spots, proposals for gondolas running between Dodger Stadium and Union Station, or up to the Hollywood Sign, and now along a number of potential routes in Griffith Park will, if ever realized, leave a lasting impact on the city's urban and natural landscape.

Transportation research and education continues as two new UTCs are announced by the U.S. Department of Transportation

2019-06-10T13:17:00-04:00

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) announced Wednesday that it will open two new University Transportation Centers (UTCs), one at the University of South Florida (USF) and one at Washington State University (WSU). Each UTC will receive $7.5 million in grant funding for transportation research and education.

Initiated in 1987 by the United States Department of Transportation, the University Transportation Center (UTC) program aides to improve research and education in transportation in order to improve the durability and lifespan of transportation infrastructures. Data and other transportation technology will help create new improvements to reduce congestion and boost transportation education programs. Currently in its 30th year, the UTC has 37 universities currently involved in the program.

David Plautz of Smart Cities Dive explains, "Diana Furchtgott-Roth, deputy assistant secretary for research and technology at USDOT, said in a statement that the UTCs will help to develop solutions 'that America needs now,' and this need will only continue to grow. A February study from transportation analytics firm Inrix found that American drivers lost an average of 97 hours in 2018 to congestion, the equivalent of $1,348 in lost productivity per driver. While solutions like congestion pricing an...

New York moves ahead with congestion pricing

2019-04-01T19:01:00-04:00

More than a decade after New York came close to enacting the country’s first-ever congestion pricing program, it’s finally becoming a reality. A tolling structure for Manhattan’s central business district (CBD)—roughly defined as the area below 60th Street in the borough—passed as part of the FY2020 budget, as both a means for reducing the traffic that clogs city streets, and introducing a new stream of revenue for the perpetually cash-strapped MTA.

"New York’s congestion pricing move may also lead other cities to implement their own traffic surcharges—Boston, Los Angeles, and Seattle are among the municipalities that have been considering it," writes Curbed.

Can a commute be beautiful? These colorful rendered maps show us they can

2018-12-05T20:25:00-05:00

Everyone can relate to daily commutes. Whether it's fifteen minutes or an hour, infrastructures in various cities dictate how transportation affects our daily lives. Through the use of data visualization, Craig Taylor, Data Visualization Design Manager at ITO World uses color and form to portray commute distances in an artistically beautiful way.

Coral Cities: European Cities © Craig Taylor

A project that depicts city infrastructure in a whole new light, Taylor blends art, urban planning, and science together to create beautifully rendered images of street networks in 40 major cities. The project appropriately called, Coral Cities, showcases how far one can travel by car 30 minutes from the center of major cities across the globe. Growing from the inside out, the visual depiction of city infrastructures resembles the form of growing coral.

Early idea of plinth renders © Craig Taylor

Depending on the geological features of the city, each "Coral City" is unique to its region. According...

A manual on traffic engineering excuses opens the gates for pointed criticism

2018-07-02T15:16:00-04:00

Im developing a new guide called the ‘Manual on Uniform Traffic Engineer Excuses’ or #MUTEE,” tweeted Boise-based planner Don Kostelec in a moment of genius. “You get to name the chapters. Go!” The responses were swift, and hilarious, and like so much humor carried painful truths.

Don Kostelec recently opened the door to traffic engineering jabs with a call for chapter titles on his Manual on Uniform Traffic Engineer Excuses. Some of these cutting responses are all too real...

Responses included chapter titles such as:

Appendix 99 – A Listing of All Mandatory Design Features for All Forms of Alternative Transportation [This page intentionally left blank]
Chapter 16: Sharrows: How to Apply the Single Ply Toilet Paper for Bike Infrastructure
Chapter 13: Two-way Cycle Tracks Mean Highly Complex Intersections; Why You Should Just Use Sharrows Instead
Chapter 44: Someday Dark Clothing Will Go Out of Style
Introduction: Why the World Is Designed for Peak Hour Car Use and Not 24-Hour Use by Everybody Else
Chapter 12: Induced Demand and Widening Projects: Tall Tales, Lies, and Other Falsehoods
Chapter 5: How to Remove a Crosswalk – It’s too dangerous for pedestrians to cross here, wouldn’t want to give them a false sense of security.

Check out Don Kostelec’s Twitter feed @...

Estonia is the first country to offer free public transit nationwide

2018-06-07T14:01:00-04:00

Tallinn, known for its digital government and successful tech startups, is often referred to as Europe’s innovation capital. Now celebrating five years of free public transport for all citizens, the government is planning to make Estonia the first free public transport nation.

Pop-Up City's Regina Schröter interviews the Head of the Tallinn European Union Office, Allan Alaküla, about Estonia's plans to expand the successful fare-free public transport model from the capital to the entire country on July 1: "Before introducing free public transport, the city center was crammed with cars. This situation has improved — also because we raised parking fees. When non-Tallinners leave their cars in a park-and-ride and check in to public transport on the same day, they can’t only use public transport for free but also won’t be charged the parking fee. We noticed that people didn’t complain about high parking fees once we offered them a good alternative."

A number of other European cities, most notably Paris, also offer, or are considering, free public transport to ease traffic, reduce pollution, and boost local businesses.

Previously: Can offering free rides invigorate public transit?

Los Angeles has worst traffic congestion (again)

2018-02-06T12:17:00-05:00

The Los Angeles region once again topped the list of areas with the worst traffic congestion for the sixth year in a row, according to a report by INRIX, a company that specializes in car services and transportation analytics. Drivers in and around Los Angeles spent 102 hours battling traffic congestion during peak hours in 2017, INRIX's said. By contrast, New York City motorists spent 91 hours battling peak-hour congestion. New York was No. 3 on the INRIX list. No. 2 was Moscow.

Congrats L.A. — you lived up to your reputation as America's most congested city once again!

Among the metro areas surveyed, "the U.S. accounted for 10 of the top 25 cities worldwide with the worst traffic congestion in the INRIX study," the LA Times reports.

Help us Elon, or we'll start taking public transportation.

So-called "parking podiums" are aesthetically ruining downtown Los Angeles

2017-04-18T13:58:00-04:00

As L.A. pats itself on the back for its freshly angular skyline, a new architectural trend — enabled by another city ordinance — threatens to turn the beating heart of modern Los Angeles into a cold, lifeless and unwalkable place.

This excellent piece by the aptly named Steven Sharp delves into the uglification of downtown Los Angeles via the "parking podium," wherein large buildings dedicate their first few floors to a parking garage to meet code requirements for parking, thereby plunging the pedestrian realm back into an unwelcome "City of Quartz" vibe. Putting the parking in the first few floors is cheaper than digging underground or creating surface lots, but honestly: ugh!

The benefits of roundabouts, explained by the mayor of the Indiana town that now has 102 of them

2017-01-04T16:20:00-05:00

In Carmel, driving around in circles isn’t a symptom of being lost; it’s a way of life. Despite its small size, the Indiana city has more roundabouts than any other burg in the U.S. [...] The thing most people don’t know is how much money is saved by converting traffic signals into roundabouts. Our city engineer’s office has found that on average, roundabouts in Carmel have cost $250,000 less to build than signalized intersections and they are much less expensive to maintain [...].

While Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard talks about "unheralded benefits" of roundabouts (and the potential impact of Trump's infrastructure plans on his city's 102 roundabouts) in the CityLab article, reader douglasss points out an often overlooked benefit of this approach to intersection design over the conventional 4x4 species in the comment section:

"An added benefit of roundabouts is that (if they are spaced close enough) they eliminate the need for center turning lanes, thus narrower roads. Instead of needing a center turning lane to make a left hand turn, you just go to the next roundabout and turn around. This also allows for mid road tree lined medians, which center turning lanes destroy."

Related stories in the Archinect news:

Boring: how serious is Elon Musk about his latest traffic-solving venture?

2016-12-23T14:20:00-05:00

Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk has a pretty good sense of humor, but sometimes we can't tell when he's just joking or mulling his next big idea. For example, on Saturday Musk took to Twitter to say out loud what every traffic-plagued Los Angeles resident is silently screaming inside: The city is a gridlocked hellscape. "Traffic is driving me nuts," wrote Musk. But he didn't stop there. He also raised the idea of boring through obstacles to alleviate traffic woes.

"It would be easy to toss this off as random talk from an eccentric auto and space mogul, but Musk's last "random idea," the Hyperloop, has spawned a number of startups and millions in funding. So when Musk not only says that boring through things would be a good idea to ease traffic, but that he plans to do it himself, it's time to start paying attention."

Related stories in the Archinect news:

A vast urban pathology

2016-10-23T22:52:00-04:00

But it is traffic that has sealed Dhaka’s reputation among academics and development specialists as the great symbol of 21st-century urban dysfunction, the world’s most broken city. It has made Dhaka a surreal place, a town that is both frenetic and paralyzed, and has altered the rhythms of daily life for its 17.5 million-plus residents.

Jody Rosen writes about Dhaka's legendary traffic congestion.

For more check out; more incredible photos by Nicolas Chorier and get LIVE: Traffic updates for Dhaka city via The Daily Star. Or read about how the UNDP-designed Bus Finder Feature and Transport Pioneers program is trying to solve the problem.

LA City Councilman David Ryu calls for rapid roll-out of autonomous vehicles

2016-09-22T13:38:00-04:00

“Ask any Los Angeles resident about L.A.’s greatest challenges and the answer will most likely include: ‘traffic’,” begins David E. Ryu, the L.A. City Councilman for the 4th District, in a call for the rapid implementation of autonomous vehicles in the city.

Citing their potential to reduce traffic, “create greater transportation equity”, and reduce vehicular deaths, Ryu proposes that the Department of Transportation quickly put together a report on the benefits of implementing autonomous transit.

“In the 20th century, Los Angeles’ streetcars and freeways each set national standards and propelled our quality of life and economy forward,” writes Ryu. “Today, we are mired in gridlock, and it is time once again for our city to lead the way, this time into the 21st century as the trailblazer on autonomous vehicle technology."

For more on autonomous vehicles, check out these articles:

Taking a break from cars in automobile-centric Manhattan

2016-08-16T12:09:00-04:00

Pedestrianism among advocates and urban planners in the new, young century has been on the ascent in global cities far and wide, with many pushing for more restrictions on cars in the interests of bipeds and cyclists. That was part of thinking behind the Shared Streets initiative, a five-hour long event over the weekend. It saw the city demarcate some 60 blocks of Manhattan’s oldest neighbourhood as part of an urban geographical experiment...

Many cities have been trying to go car-less (at least temporarily). For more pedestrian-friendly initiatives, check out these links:

A look at the history and future of the American commute

2016-05-02T17:34:00-04:00

"The idea that you can replace the 10 trips with one autonomous car and travel less distance, that’s the biggest misconception," says Fagnant. "You can get rid of vehicles, but not vehicle miles traveled. Without ridesharing, there's an 8 to 10 percent increase in vehicle miles traveled based on simulations we've run in Austin. You’re not replacing trips [..] the vehicle has to bounce between locations, and relocate to where it’s needed. Those in-between miles will create a lot of extra travel."

Related stories in the Archinect news:

Google's self-driving car hits bus and causes its first crash

2016-03-01T14:11:00-05:00

Google said on Monday it bears "some responsibility" after one of its self-driving cars struck a municipal bus in a minor crash earlier this month. The crash may be the first case of one of its autonomous cars hitting another vehicle and the fault of the self-driving car. [...] Google said in the filing the autonomous vehicle was traveling at less than 2 miles per hour, while the bus was moving at about 15 miles per hour.

Related stories in the Archinect news:

Jakarta, the world's largest city without a subway, is drowning in traffic

2016-01-19T08:00:00-05:00

Since 2000, the world’s second-largest megacity, Jakarta, has seen its population swell by a staggering 34 percent. Though the city proper is home to just 10 million, the urban zone is home to 30 million [...] “Jakarta is the largest urban metropolitan area in the world without a metro,” he [Deden Rukmana] says. “And a metro is the most crucial element of transportation for a megacity. There’s no way it can exist otherwise.”

Related stories in the Archinect news:

Eric Garcetti vs the Car: how LA's mayor plans to change the way Angeleños get around

2016-01-14T13:15:00-05:00

Now in his third year as mayor, the 44-year-old [Eric Garcetti] wants Los Angeles to be “the first postmodern city,” as he tells me, speaking in his art-filled office one morning in October. Throughout the past year, he has made a series of proposals that would fundamentally alter the city by deposing the automobile, which has reigned over Los Angeles for a half-century like a cocksure Third World despot... Call him the Che Guevara of Southern California infrastructure.

Related:

New Delhi mandates odd-even car rationing to fight world's worst air pollution

2016-01-04T15:45:00-05:00

For the first two weeks of the year, private cars with even-numbered license plates are allowed on the roads only on even-numbered dates, and those with odd-numbered plates on odd dates. The restrictions have noticeably reduced traffic in a city with 9 million cars, more than double that of a decade ago. In 2014, the World Health Organization found New Delhi’s air to be the dirtiest of 1,600 cities it studied. Scientists blame the high levels of pollutants [...] for thousands of deaths a year.

Previously: Delhi’s air pollution is worse than Beijing's. A new app measures the air quality in real time.