Henry Grabar of Salon writes about MIT graduate student Mariaflavia Harari’s paper examining the influence that a city’s shape has on desirable urban characteristics. Harari found that a city having a circular shape "is a kind of urban amenity, like a subway line or a movie theater, that people will pay for,” Grabar writes.
In a piece for The Huffington Post, Heidi Legg interviews Prof. Hashim Sarkis, the newly appointed dean of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning, about his vision of the world as one city. “The city as an entity has become difficult to understand or explain because it's everywhere and nowhere,” explains Sarkis.
Henry Grabar of Salon writes about new research by Professor Carlo Ratti on the impacts of taxi sharing. If taxi sharing was implemented in New York City, “the total distance traveled by New York City cabs would fall by 40 percent, relieving traffic, reducing air pollution and speeding up travel for everyone else on the road,” Grabar writes.
MIT Professor Carlo Ratti and Cornell University Professor Steven Strogatz write for The Huffington Post about their research examining the benefits of taxi sharing. They write that their analysis shows by sharing taxis, “the total number of taxi trips in New York City could be reduced by 40 percent, fleet operation costs and pollution could be reduced by 30 percent.”
Arnie Cooper of Newsweek writes about the new MIT study that found taxi sharing could have significant impacts on New York City’s transportation system. Researchers in the MIT Senseable City Lab envision a future application that would facilitate ride sharing.
U.S. News & World Report’s Alan Neuhauser writes about the MIT taxi-sharing study. "This research shows what would happen if people have sharing as an option. And that choice is becoming increasingly popular, as the availability of real time information in our pockets allows us to make immediate, informed decisions based on our needs and resources," says Prof. Carlo Ratti.
Michael Casey of Fortune reports on the new MIT study that examines taxi sharing in New York City. The researchers found that more than 95 percent of taxi trips could be shared with only a minimal inconvenience to passengers.
BetaBoston reporter Nidhi Subbaraman examines new MIT research on the benefits of sharing a cab. The researchers found that implementing a taxi-sharing system “would translate to cuts in emissions and traffic congestion, as well as untold improvements to the sanity of commuters stuck in rush-hour traffic,” Subbaraman writes.
Kenneth Chang and Joshua Krisch report for The New York Times on the new MIT study showing that if New Yorkers shared taxis they could significantly reduce cumulative trip lengths, which would help alleviate traffic and air pollution in the city.
Freakonomics speaks with MIT Professor Eran Ben-Joseph about his book, “Rethinking a Lot: The Design and Culture of Parking,” which offers solutions to the parking lot.
Krissy Clark of NPR reports on Professor Amy Glasmeier’s work developing the MIT Living Wage Calculator. Clark reports that through examining the cost of living, Glasmeier found that areas with higher poverty rates tended to have higher amounts of minimum wage jobs where the minimum wage, “absolutely was not paying people enough to live on.”
The New York Times cites a paper by MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning on placemaking, a term for people’s efforts to shape their environment to improve social interaction and quality of life. The paper finds that these efforts help participants develop new social bonds with one another.
CNN features a new park bench from the Media Lab designed to use solar energy to charge mobile devices. Researchers hope that technologies like the solar-powered bench will help cities use energy more efficiently.
The Economist reports on two projects started at MIT aimed at improving sustainable agriculture in cities. The CityFARM initiative aims to convert tall buildings into indoor farms; MIT alumni Jamie Byron and Gabe Blanchet are working on technology to produce food in home kitchens.