Sharing Smarter Than Car knowledge

Resources

Since 2010 Smarter Than Car has produced a range of content in form of articles, lectures, interviews, videos and other types of publications.

Smarter Than Car engages in urban research, design and strategy development on postcarbon mobility and socio-ecological transformation. To widen the debate on mobility and urban transformation we also lecture at universities or host workshops. We disseminate our findings in academic as well as professional media such as journals, magazines, conferences or symposia. Smarter than Car's materials are published under a creative commons license (Attribute + Non-commercial, BY-NC.) 

Have fun sifting through a selection of STC's resources below! 

2020

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FUTURAMA REDUX MAGAZINE

#1
BACK TO THE FUTURAMA

This issue takes us back to the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair, where a bold vision of a prosperous future built on a foundation of motor vehicles changed the world by integrating ways of moving, building, behaving, and thinking. We then look at the rapid transformation of much of the world into a real-life FUTURAMA before considering some of the costs this change has incurred.

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FUTURAMA REDUX MAGAZINE

#2
THE END OF THE ROAD

This issue engages the forces that will make the continuation of our real-life FUTURAMA challenging or impossible in the future. In a question & answer format, we dive into scientific knowledge of climate change, the end of the fossil fuel era, its impact on mobility and the potential role of urban mobility as a change leader, and the systemic transformations triggered by climate change, decarbonization, and postcarbon mobility.

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FUTURAMA REDUX MAGAZINE

#3
CHOOSING A SUSTAINABLE POSTCARBON FUTURE

This issue considers some of the changes that postcarbon transition entails. It begins with an essay on the ways ideas shape actions. This is followed by three types of changes that we can make: to adopt a mindset consistent with postcarbon conditions; to prepare cities and city life for a sustainable future; and to leverage streets and urban mobility systems as catalysts for transformation. We finish up with a closer look at the potential for postcarbon transition in Vienna, Austria.

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FUTURAMA REDUX MAGAZINE

#4
A FUTURAMA REDUX

This issue builds on the previous three: if we turned the world into a real-life FUTURAMA, and if that world is no longer tenable, and if we choose to transition to a postcarbon world, then how can we begin to imagine what that new world might look and feel? We start with guest contributor Jürgen Furchtlehner, who sees postcarbon transition as an opportunity to realize the potential of urban public space. Then Peter Norton reminds us how important the stories we tell really are. This leads us to some lessons that can be learned from the FUTURAMA, and finally to participatory futuring as employed by Smarter Than Car to reimagine the FUTURAMA for the postcarbon era.

Rethinking Urban Public Spaces: How to Unlock the Potentials of Street Spaces to Improve Sustainability and Liveability

Florian Lorenz & Joshua Grigsby, (2020) “Rethinking Urban Public Spaces: How to Unlock the Potentials of Street Spaces to Improve Sustainability and Liveability” in: Riegler, J (ed.), Bylund, J (ed.), Unfolding Dilemmas of Urban Public Spaces: Recommendations by JPI Urban Europe’s AGORA.

2017

Great Streets for the Post-Carbon Age

Grigsby, J. and Lorenz, F., (2017), „Great Streets for the Post-Carbon Age“, in: Yvonne Franz and Christiane Hintermann (eds.), Unravelling Complexities Understanding Public Spaces, ISR-Forschungsberichte, Heft 44, Institut Für Stadt- Und Regionalforschung (Hrsg.), Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, 2017

UN-Habitat Urban Thinkers Campus "The Post-Car City"

FUTURAMA REDUX – Imagineering Urban Mobility After Cars and Oil

Keynote talk by Florien Lorenz at the Urban Thinkers Campus "Transition to liveable cities: The Post-Car City" hosted by Federacion Iberoamericana Urbanistas and Ajuntament de Barcelona.

Stadtgespräch Podcast 

Fahrradaktivismus: Smarter Than Car

What's smarter than the car? What if the roles of cars and bikes were reversed? How much activism does it take? 

Florian Lorenz and Joshua Grigsby (Smarter Than Car, Vienna, Austria), Snezhana Domazetovska and Darko Arsovski (NaTochak, Skopje, Macedonia). Together NaTochak and Smarter Than Car form the "Bicycle Urbanism Unit."

Recorded by Lothar Bodingbauer within the exhibition "The Urban Future" at Vienna Museum of Science and Technology.

6th WORLD BICYCLE FORUM. Mexico City

Bicycle Urbanism 1817*2017*2217

Keynote lecture by Florian Lorenz at sixth World Bicycle Forum in Mexico City. The lecture celebrates the 200 year birthday of the bicycle and puts forward perspectives for the next 200 years of urban cycling. 

5. German National Cycling Congress

Bicycle Urbanism in Beijing

Plenary talk by Florian Lorenz about the Bicycle Urbanism history of Beijing, the work of STC on Bicycle Livelihoods in Beijing and their inspiration for European cities.

2016

World Urban Campaign

#TheCityWeNeed​ #UrbanThinkers​

Interview with Joshua Grigsby and Florian Lorenz within the #UrbanThinkers series of the World Urban Campaign.

2016 Exhibition Brochure: FUTURAMA REDUX – urban mobility after cars & oil

Brochure for the exhibition at Hong Kong City Gallery in October 2016. English & Chinese language. Published by the European Union Academic Programme Hong Kong.

2015

III. Future of Places conference, Stockholm. June/July 2015. 

Pedal-Powered Placemaking

Presentation by Florian Lorenz. 

Placemaking can be supported and catalyzed by fine-grain economic and cultural activities based on pedal-powered vehicles. 

The Transportation Research Board's conference on Transportation for Sustainability. 2015.

Can bike share serve everyone?

Presentation by Smarter Than Car intern Sara Maurer. 

The Bicycle Urbanism Unit

"The Bicycle Urbanism Unit" Smarter Than Car and NaTochak in "SKOPJE CREATIVE HUB 2014: NEW CONTENT IN PUBLIC SPACE" ed. City Creative Network. 2015

2014

Vienna University of Technology

Bicycle Urbanism – Back to the Future City

Guest lecture by Florian Lorenz about Bicycle Urbanism and the potentials for transforming mobility in European cities.

Studio X Beijing

Learning from the Golden Age of the Bicycle in Beijing – A Muse for Bicycle Urbanism

Lecture by Shannon Bufton.

2013

TEDx Vienna "The City 2.0"

Beyond Mobility – The Promise of Bicycle Urbanism

"The mainstreamed bicycle as a tool for creating future cities is just starting to take-off. Can we imagine a city where the benchmark for successful urban development is how we are able to use pedal-powered vehicles?

The idea of such a bicycle urbanism is what Florian is working on with the Chinese-Austrian NGO Smarter Than Car. He will make you understand why the bicycle is the most effective way to restructure our cities to become fit for future urban challenges. Florian explains why he believes that the bicycle is still massively underexplored in contemporary urban planning and administration. He shows examples of what we can learn from bicycle cultural exchange with a city like Beijing to re-think our cities along the lines of pop-up urbanism on two or three wheels."

TEDx Beijing "Old City x New Soul"

Back to the Future: How Beijing's Bicycle Golden Age could solve the urban mobility problems of tomorrow's cities

Shannon Bufton's talk outlines the coming mobility challenges and demonstrates how Beijing - a large scale city solved its mobility challenges in the 1970's, 80's and early 90's with the bicycle. Beijing's bicycle urban mobility operated on a different type of traffic flow which we call "Negoitated Flow". This system has many benefits - especially for bicycle traffic.

Velo-city 2013 Conference Magazine

Beijing's Bicycle Kingdom – The Promise of Bicycle Urbanism

Liman Zhao, Shannon Bufton and Florian Lorenz in conversation with Joshua Grigsby. Velo-city 2013 Conference Magazine. Fall 2013.

Velo-city 2013 Vienna

Beijing in the Golden Age of the Bicycle – Observations of Urban Systems During Peak Bicycle Urbanism

Plenary lecture by Liman Zhao, Shannon Bufton and Florian Lorenz. 

2012

Beijing's Pedal-Based Livelihoods as a Muse for Bicycle Urbanism

Florian Lorenz and Shannon Bufton. Zoll+, No. 19, January 2012.

Velo-city Global Vancouver. June 2012.

Beijing's Pedal-powered Livelihoods as a Muse for Bicycle Urbanism

Lecture by Florian Lorenz.
Authors: Florian Lorenz & Shannon Bufton. 

Velo-city Global Vancouver. June 2012.

Cycling Advocacy with Chinese Characteristics

Lecture by Florian Lorenz.
Authors: Florian Lorenz & Shannon Bufton. 

Smarter Than Car: Pedal powered Beijing

Video by Selle Royal's project Wordwide Cycling Atlas about the work of Smarter Than Car on Beijing's Pedal-powered Livelihoods. 

2011

UIA 2011 Tokyo – The 24th World Congress of Architecture “Design 2050”. September 2011.

Bicycle Lifestyles in Beijing and Their Relevance for a Benign Development of Future Cities

Paper presentation and talk by Shannon Bufton about bicycle livelihoods in Beijing.

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Beijing Planning Review 140, (2011): 129-149

Isn’t it Time to Take Bikes Seriously Again in Beijing?

Paper by Shannon Bufton and Florian Lorenz about bicycles as potentially transformative tool for sustainable urban development of Beijing and inspiration from recent cycling infrastructure improvements in New York. 

"In this era of finding solutions to global climate change problems, it will be essential for every city to begin to adopt a more sustainable approach in terms of urban transportation. This is particularly important for big cities. For precisely this reason the bicycle is undergoing a renaissance in many of the smartest cities in the world where cycling is promoted to create environmentally, economically and socially sustainable urban environments. So why is Beijing - a city with a rich bicycle history - seemingly not interested in embracing this renaissance?"

Trends Lounge Beijing

"New York's Pedal Power and Beijing's Bicycles"

Talk by Shannon Bufton and Florian Lorenz about bicycle cultures in Beijing and New York

Planungswerkstatt Wien

"Lernen von Fahrradkulturen in Wien und New York"

Talk by Florian Lorenz about bicycle cultures in Beijing and New York and what Vienna can learn from them. 

umiwi.com

Urban Life and the Bicycle

Lecture presented for online video channel Umiwi.com (China's version of TED) by STC co-founder Shannon Bufton on the benefits on the need on the case of re-invigorating urban cycling in Beijing China.

2010

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Bike for a Better Beijing

BBB (Bike for a Better Beijing) is a document that STC produced together with Friends of Nature Beijing. The publication outlines the arguments for improving cycling on Beijing’s streets.

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