Cities

Writing for Bloomberg, David Zipper, senior fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiative, highlights the impact of the robotaxi industry on public transportation. “Transit-robotaxi synergy is an enticing message at a time when public transportation agencies face a dire funding shortage, and it could especially resonate among left-leaning residents in places like the Bay Area who value buses and trains even if they seldom use them,” writes Zipper. “But caveat emptor: The robotaxi industry’s embrace of public transportation conceals a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” 

David Zipper, a senior fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiative, speaks with ABC News reporter Michael Dobuski about the rising popularity of small “micromobility” vehicles. “In the last fifteen years or so, you’ve seen a lot of cities in the US, and frankly in other parts of the world too, invest a lot of money and resources in creating safe spaces for people who want to use a scooter, or a bicycle, or any of these other versions of micromobility that we’re talking about,” explains Zipper. 

Mayor Michelle Wu has named Prof. Kairos Shen as Boston’s new city planning chief, reports Kelly Garrity for Politico. “Shen previously served as city planner under the late Mayor Tom Menino, and touts more than two decades of experience at the Boston Redevelopment Authority on his resume,” explains Garrity. 

Mayor Michelle Wu has named Prof. Kairos Shen as Boston’s new Chief of Planning, reports Boston Herald. “I’m thrilled to welcome Kairos into leadership of Boston’s Planning Department and all the critical functions shaping the built environment for affordability, equity, and resilience,” says Wu. “As a longtime friend and advisor, Kairos brings an unparalleled knowledge and expertise of this work and our communities.”

Prof. Kairos Shen has been named Boston’s new Chief of Planning, reports Jon Chesto for The Boston Globe. Shen, who previously served as Boston’s top city planner for two decades, “brings tremendous design expertise and a deep understanding of Boston’s distinct neighborhoods and factions,” writes Chesto. “I love the city and I spent many years serving it,” says Shen of his appointment. “I think being able to be more reflective and having experience outside of City Hall and looking at cities all over the world, I hope I can bring [a] kind of greater wisdom that I didn’t have when I left City Hall.”

Prof. Nathaniel Hendren speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Rachel Wolfe about the evolution of economic mobility in the United States. “It’s still a coin flip whether or not you’ll earn more than your parents, but mobility probably hit a record low in the early 2020s,” says Hendren. 

Ivan Casadevantre MS '15 and Hasier Larrea MS '15 co-founded ORI Living – a furniture company that uses electromechanics to develop furniture systems designed for space efficiency. “You have to make those small spaces feel and act as if they were much larger,” says Larrea. “And that’s when we started thinking about robotics, thinking about engineering, and how we bring all those technologies to make it possible to live large in a smaller footprint.” 

Prof. Christopher Palmer joins Infotrak host Chris Witting to discuss his recent study that found logistical assistance increases the likelihood that low-income families will move to neighborhoods that offer better economic opportunity. Palmer and colleagues asked “how come more people with vouchers aren’t availing themselves of the opportunity to move to better neighborhoods? That was a prime motivation for our study.”

Writing for Bloomberg, David Zipper, a senior fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiative, discusses new parking fees based on vehicle weight established in Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie, a borough in the city of Montreal, to combat congestion and carbon emissions. “Paying more for parking may seem like a modest step, but it sends a clear message about the societal costs that oversized vehicles impose on everyone else,” writes Zipper. 

David Zipper, a senior fellow at the MIT Mobility Lab, writes for Bloomberg about how the findings of William Whyte, an urbanist observer and writer, on what attracts people to urban spaces could be used to help draw people back to downtown areas after the Covid-19 pandemic. “Whyte’s insights suggest a need to build comfortable, pleasant places that invite people to linger, perhaps eating a meal or buying a new shirt while they’re there,” writes Zipper. “And his research serves as a reminder that good public spaces strengthen human relationships, offering an antidote to the loneliness epidemic said to afflict a growing number of Americans.”

Financial Times reporters Andrew Hill and Emma Jacobs spotlight how Prof. Carlo Ratti and his colleagues have found that “people are traveling less far from their homes, consistent with more remote working.” The findings demonstrate a more flexible approach to commuting. “That’s good news [for cities], because the problem is not a problem of capacity, it’s a problem of peaks,” Ratti explains.

New York Times reporter Stephen Wallis spotlights Prof. Carlo Ratti’s proposal for the world’s first “farmscraper” in Shenzhen, China, a 51-story building that would be wrapped in a vertical hydroponic farm and could produce enough food annually to feed 40,000 people. “At this critical moment, what we architects do matters more than ever,” Ratti emphasizes. “Every kilowatt-hour of solar power, every unit of zero-carbon housing and every calorie of sustainably sourced vegetables will be multiplied across history.”

Prof. Nathaniel Hendren and Prof. Justin Steil speak with New York Times reporter Jason DeParle about the difficulty in building affordable housing in opportunity-rich neighborhoods. “A lot has changed in American life over the past 50 years, but the hostility to affordable housing has remained surprisingly durable,” Steil explains. “Where you grow up matters a great deal for shaping your life outcomes,” Hendren adds.

Former postdoc Leah Ellis speaks with GBH All Things Considered host Arun Rath about   Sublime Systems, an MIT startup she co-founded that aims to produce carbon-free cement to combat climate change. “Sublime Systems and this technology spun out of my postdoctoral work at MIT,” says Ellis. “My co-founder and I are both electric chemists, so we have experience with battery technologies and electrochemical systems. Our idea was thinking about how we might use renewable energy—which we know has become more abundant, inexpensive and available—to eliminate the CO2 emissions from cement.”

David Zipper, Senior Fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiative, speaks with Washington Post reporter Trisha Thadani about the safety behind self-driving car companies, such as Google’s robotaxi service, Waymo.  Zipper says there is a disparity that “the companies are saying the technology is supposed to be a godsend for urban life, and it’s pretty striking that the leaders of these urban areas don’t really want them.”