Until four years ago Dar Es Salaam had no public transport. Artist Popa Matumula looks at the impact a new bus system is having on the city’s legendarily bad traffic
Continue reading...Category Archives: Megacities
The climate crisis in 2050: what happens if cities act but nations don’t?
It is cities, not national governments, that are most aggressively fighting the climate crisis – and in 30 years they could look radically different
She has barely ever been in a car, and never eaten meat or flown. Now 31, she lives on the 15th floor of a city centre tower from where she can just see the ocean 500 yards away on one side and the suburbs and informal settlements sprawling as far as the eye can see on the other.
Life is OK in this megacity. She earns the exact median income and is as green as she feels she can be: she has no children yet, her carbon footprint is negligible, and her apartment, built in the early 2000s, has been retrofitted for climate change with deep insulation, its own solar air-con and heating systems.
Continue reading...Has Tokyo reached ‘peak city’?
You could argue that the world’s biggest city has hit a sweet spot: a flatlining population, pervasive transit and little gentrification. But is ‘peak city’ even possible – and where does Tokyo go from here?
Tokyo is often described as crowded, mushrooming, figuratively bursting at the seams. Except, in many ways, it’s not.
Unlike many megacities, the world’s largest metropolitan area has largely stopped growing, either in land or population. Where Mumbai, Lagos or São Paulo continually sprout new informal neighbourhoods that are constantly outstripping the ability of the city to catch up, Tokyo’s urban planning and services more or less seamlessly encompass the central wards and the neighbouring cities of Kawasaki, Yokohama, Chiba and Saitama that form its unbroken metropolitan area.
Continue reading...A city built on water: the hidden rivers under Tokyo’s concrete and neon
More than 100 rivers and canals flow beneath Tokyo, but from the ground it’s hard to notice them. Why has the city turned its back on water?
Of the near-endless flow of people over the busy Shibuya scramble crossing every day, few realise that beneath their feet is something else flowing, unseen and unnoticed: the crossing of two ancient rivers, the Uda and the Onden.
Beneath all the concrete and neon, Tokyo is a city built on water. It is the reason the Japanese capital’s 37 million citizens are here at all. From fishing village to seat of political power, canny water management was a key driver of the city’s extraordinary growth.
Continue reading...東京の転換点：日本の首都はついに開かれるのか
日本が移民を受け入れ、その首都がオリンピックの開催準備を進める2019年は、世界最大のメガロポリスが真のグローバル都市になる年かもしれない
暖かい5月の夜、東京・歌舞伎町にある思い出横丁の狭い路地では、背もたれのない椅子に腰かけた旅行者たちが、英語で書かれた焼き鳥のメニューを熱心に眺めている。また、ある者たちは、燃えるようなド派手な「ロボットレストラン」へと押し寄せ、ネオンの光輝く洞窟のようなホールでアニマトロニックなキャラクターたちのダンスを楽しんでいる。そうかと思えば、この街を舞台にしたSF映画に登場したネメシス、「ゴジラ」の前で自撮りにいそしむ人たちもいる。隣町の渋谷の路上では、マリオやルイジといったマリオカートのキャラクターを真似たと思しきコスチュームを着て、ゴーカートの隊列を走らせている。（先週、任天堂は「マリカー」に対する著作権侵害の裁判で二度目の勝訴を得た。）
何十年にもわたり、訪れる者に対して閉鎖的な都市として有名であった日本の首都が、ついに外の世界へと開かれようとしている。昨年、観光客数は記録的な水準にまで増加した。特に中国からの観光客数の伸びが顕著だが、他の欧米諸国からの観光客も同様である。来年の夏には、東京はオリンピックとパラリンピックでその門戸を大きく開放する。日本は、制限的なことで有名であった入国管理法令を緩和したが、この動きは確実に東京の姿を一変させるだろう。東京には、既にコワーキングスペースや本格的なカフェ、海外ブランドのブティックをはじめとして、「グローバル」都市を彩る要素が点在している。
Continue reading...Tokyo’s tipping point: is the impenetrable city finally opening up?
As Japan’s capital welcomes immigrants and prepares to host the Olympics, 2019 could be the year the world’s largest megalopolis goes truly global
On a warm May evening in the narrow alleys of Omoide Yokocho (Memory Lane) next to the Kabukicho district of Tokyo, tourists perched on stools study English-language menus offering skewers of grilled meat and vegetables. Others crowd into the garish, glowing Robot Restaurant, a cavernous hall of flashing neon and dancing animatronic figures, or snap selfies in front of the giant replica head of the city’s sci-fi nemesis, Godzilla. In neighbouring Shibuya they drive convoys of go-karts through the streets wearing costumes bearing a suspicious resemblance to Mario, Luigi and the other Mario Kart characters. (Last week Nintendo successfully sued the “MariCar” company for copyright infringement for the second time.)
After many decades as a famously impenetrable city to visitors, Japan’s capital is finally beginning to face outward. Tourism, particularly from China but also western countries, rose to record levels last year, and next summer the city will slide open its doors for the Olympics and Paralympics. The country has relaxed its restrictive immigration rules, a move that promises to transform Tokyo. The capital is already dotted with co-working spaces, artisanal coffee shops, international brand boutiques and the other accoutrements of a “global” city.
Continue reading...How an emerging African megacity cut commutes by two hours a day
The next 15 megacities #2: Could Dar es Salaam’s experiment with Africa’s first ‘gold standard’ bus rapid transit system offer an alternative to a future dependent on private cars?
The next 15 megacities #1: Baghdad at 10 million
Dusk falls in Dar es Salaam, and for hundreds of thousands of people in this African megacity-to-be the daily chaos and frustration of the journey home begins.
People cram themselves into dalla dalla minibuses, some even climbing through the windows once the entrance is blocked. Others hang out of the doors, but the Kilwa Road heading south towards Mbagala slum is jammed and these diesel-belchers are going nowhere fast.
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