San Francisco was awarded the annual Sustainable Transport Award from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy earlier this week.
The organization specifically highlighted three projects San Francisco is working on that led to the award:
1. SFpark: A parking management system that varies rates based on demand and provides real-time parking availability information online, via text and smartphone apps.
2. “Pavement to Parks”: This program reclaims parking spaces for public space. It has already created 20 new and parklets with more in the works.
3. Expansion of the bike network: The city has an ambitious goal of 20 percent of all trips made by bicycle by 2020.
The award was shared with Medellin, Colombia, which has a wide range of transportation options, from bus rapid transit to cable car and metro systems. The city also created 1.6 million square meters of new park space through 25 parks and 11 urban promenades. And it recently began bikeshare and ridershare programs.
The two finalists for the award were Cape Town and Buenos Aires. ITDP says that all four of these cities stand out because they are embracing social media and online technologies to make transportation more informative and convenient.
“These cities are setting the example of working on various fronts - giving people opportunities through high quality transport options,” said Walter Hook, chief executive officer of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy.
Photo: Thomas Hawk/Flickr
