Blade Runner-style photographs capture Tokyo's infrastructure
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[Source: Blade Runner-style photographs capture Tokyo's infrastructure]
Shared spaces: getting rid of road signs might make traffic safer
[embedyt][www.youtube.com/watch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUbsFtLkGN8[/embedyt])
From Kottke:
Vox and 99% Invisible take a look at the movement to remove signs and traffic lights from traffic intersections in favor of building “shared spaces”, intersections in which cars, pedestrians, and cyclists are equally free to roam.
Linguistic landscapes of Beirut
A neat project from AUB mapping the different languages used in Beirut's neighbourhoods:
Imagine a city where you don’t drive in loops looking for a parking spot because your car drops you off and scoots off to some location to wait, sort of like taxi holding pens at airports. Or maybe it is picked up by a robotic minder and carted off with other vehicles, like a row of shopping carts.
How France built inequality in its cities
Excellent piece by Clare Foran for The Atlantic Cities. She took a job as an English teacher in Val-de-Reuil, a city in Normandy, northwest of Paris.
As one of France’s New Towns, Val-de-Reuil was supposed to solve many problems and be the pinnacle of urban planning.
The city instead looks dull and stark. But what went wrong?
To start, the city’s concentration of low-income housing has created a weak tax base incapable of adequately supporting the local school system or funding much-needed infrastructure projects. Another problem is that many of the available jobs are not matched to the skill set of the local workforce. A number of big name pharmaceutical companies have laboratories in Val-de-Reuil, including Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi Pasteur. But most residents lack the education or technical training needed to qualify for the positions doled out by these employers.
The whole article is a good read.