World Wide Wednesday: Electric cars, shanty towns, and America’s transportation future

Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues in Toronto.

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• Electric cars may soon become the norm in France as the government announced Thursday that it will commit €1.5 billion towards the creation of a battery-charging network for electric vehicles. In addition, the French government will make charging-stations mandatory in new apartment blocks in 2012 and in all office parking lots by 2015.

• An upcoming documentary by two Portuguese brothers, Mario and Pedro Patrocinio, promises to explore the multifaceted experience of living in Complexo do Alemao, arguably the most dangerous “favela” in Rio de Janeiro. According to the the Latin American Herald Tribune, the filmmakers discovered an urban environment containing “sensitivity and strength” that will challenge accepted notions about residents and daily life in the country’s infamous shantytowns.

• The recent expiration of America’s federal transportation bill has citizen activists mobilizing to fight for sustainable and community-driven transportation. Check out Transportation for America (T4America) (a leader in this fight with 360 partner organizations) and My Commute Sucks to read about America’s transportation woes and what activists would like to see from congress. DC.SREETSBLOG.org is also a great source for news updates on the ongoing transportation conversation taking place in America.

• A new IPhone application, designed by architects Irene Cheng and Brett Snyder,  provides users with an architectural tour of  the Manhattan “that never was but could have been” by calling users whenever they approach the site of a “visionary” but failed architectural plan.

photo by M.A. Enriquez