Today, I got inspired by the following article: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/01/secrets-worlds-happiest-cities-commute-property-prices that links happiness with efficient transport systems. It talks about the interesting story of the mayor of Bogota who improved the city’s safety, environmental and overall population happiness metrics by creating bike lanes, introducing rapid bus systems and limiting car traffic.
I remember a conversation that I had had a couple of years ago with one of the civil engineers who works for the philanthropic arm of my company in city planning for poor communities. He told me that one of the things that impacts most the quality of life is efficient transport systems, that obviously require serious urban planning. Unfortunately, in poor remote areas, the politicians normally prioritize road pavement as showcase of the fact that they are “doing” their job and neglect most other aspects of infrastructure development. But what if they somehow did not? And cities were born right from the start?
In general, we all know that lengthy commute or lack of leisure public spaces make our lives much worse, yet why don’t we get mobilized somehow to solve this?
Grobetrotter 