A QUICK LOOK AT SOME OF THE STATISTICS THAT MAKE YOUR CITIES WORK (OR NOT):
Percent of American children walking to school in 1969: 50%
Percent of American children walking to school in 2007: 16%
Average walking speed of a human being: 5km/hr
Average distance a human can commute by foot on daily basis: 20km
Diameter of ancient cities such as Rome, Persepolis and Venice: 5km
Average daily round-trip commute time around the world: 1.1 hours
Total traffic delays in US in 2003: 3.7 billion hours
Percentage of total greenhouse gas emissions in US related to transportation: 28%
Forecasted percentage of deaths attributable to road fatalities in 2020: 33%
Leading cause of death in London in 1720: “Furiously driven” carts and coaches
Number of pedestrians killed by horses in New York in 1867: 4
Number of people killed on roads in China 1951: 852
Number of people killed on roads in US in 1951: 35,309
Number of people killed on roads in China in 1999: 84,000
Number of people killed on roads in US in 1999: 41,508
Number of deaths on Indian roads each year: 100,000
Hippo-related deaths per year, glbally: 150
Percent of daily local trips made on bicycles in the Netherlands: 27%
Percent of trips made by bicycle in Beijing in 2000: 38%
Passengers per year riding India’s railway system: 7 billion
Longest recorded boxing match: 111 rounds
World’s longest subway system – Shanghai: 420km
2nd longest subway system – London: 408km
3rd longest subway system – New York: 368km
Number of passengers handled by Shanghai’s subway system per day: 5 million
Total money invested in creating and expanding rapid transit in 12 major Chinese municipalities: $150 billion
Yearly commitment by the United States on transit capital projects: $2 billion
Population of South Africa: 49 million
Daily ridership of South Africa’s minibus taxi industry: 14 million
Cost of a BRT ride in Johannesburg: 65 cents US
Total cost of stadiums built for World Cup 2010 in South Africa: $2.2 billion
Estimated cost to conduct Oakland, California’s recent streetcar study: $630,000
Cost for Stanford student to complete an identical study: $987
Fastest growing retail market sector in 2010: Dollar Stores