Stepping off the train from Madrid in Vitoria-Gasteiz, a city of 252,000 in the Basque Country, northern Spain, felt like stepping into an alternate universe. The doors of the station opened to a cool December evening. I walked down a wide street lined with...
Transportation
Smart Grids to Smart Cities
Scaling up climate solutions The urgency of acting on climate change is abundantly clear to all - all except a “handful of fanatics that deny the science”, as Spanish Prime Minister Sanchez put it at the opening of the COP 25 conference this week. The effects are...
Barcelona
Steps toward the car-free city I haven't posted in a while because, frankly, I'm finding it difficult to make myself sit down and write, or even just stay indoors, in a city with so much going on, especially when it's sunny and up to 20 degrees out! So, I'm...
Montpellier urban form
Modern architecture, transportation and nature Shifting attention from the old to the new, and turning on my “Planner” antennae, Montpellier seems to have achieved a nice balance of density and livability, at least in the neighbourhoods close to the centre. The...
Medina Life
Fes and Marrakech My first couple of days in Morocco, in the medina of Tangier, were a bit of a shock. Coming from a city where people hardly even make eye contact or speak to strangers, it was a very different experience being stared at, called out to, sized up, and...
Montpellier – la vie tranquille
Le centre historique The relative smallness of Europe is somehow surprising. It took only about 5 hours of high-speed (TGV) train travel (plus a 2h layover) to get from Brussels to Montpellier, on the south coast of France. High speed rail seems to me one of the most...
Brussels
A few quick impressions I spent a couple of days in Brussels, in part to meet with a work contact related to heat pump technology (separate post - they're piling up!). I traded in my backpack for a suitcase and it's much easier to mount on my bike. The bike is working...
Bike-friendly Amersfoort and Amsterdam
It really is amother world of bike-friendliness here. And I have amazing hosts who have welcomed me into their homes, served me delicious food, and last night took me on a tour of the beautiful town of Amersfoort about a half hour train ride south of Amsterdam. Today...
Reykvajik’s sustainability agenda
A pedestrian friendly downtown - more car-free streets are on the way Back on the sustainability beat, on my second day in Iceland I met with Hrönn Hrafnasdottír, in charge of environment and climate policy for the City of Rekyavik. The City has a goal to be climate...