Imagining Tomorrow’s Major Cities

The advance of urbanization comes with a host of challenges for the world’s major cities, including transportation and congestion, housing shortages and a greater impact on the environment, among others. Local leaders from around the world are gradually taking steps to rethink urban planning and citizens’ mobility with the aim of constructing more sustainable cities that are accessible to all.

This redesign of major cities is one of the aims of the New Urban Agenda that was adopted by the United Nations (UN) in Quito, Ecuador, in October 2016. Some 1,000 leaders and urban experts will build on these ideas in Montreal from June 19 to 22, when discussing six core issues including Mobility and Urban Planning at the XII Metropolis World Congress.

Elected officials and experts in attendance

Carlos Ratti, architect and engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Erik Grab, Vice President Strategic Anticipation, Innovation and Sustainable Development at Michelin, Louis Zacharilla, founder of the Intelligent Community Forum, and Alexandre Taillefer, Managing Partner at XPND Capital and founder of Téo-Taxi, the first fully electrical taxi service in Canada, are just some of the participants invited to share their thoughts on this subject.

Several elected officials, including John Tory, Mayor of Toronto, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, Head of Government of Buenos Aires and Juan Manuel Gastelum, Mayor of Tijuana, Mexico, will also participate in the discussions.

Representatives from the cities of Beijing, Johannesburg, Brussels, Caracas, Mexico and Montreal will present initiatives and real projects that have been launched within the scope of the New Urban Agenda.

Smart Mobility and Urban Regeneration

Access to smart mobility and new technologies as a way of mitigating the economic and environmental effects of road congestion will be a focus of the exchanges. Delegates will seek to identify future-oriented solutions to improve traffic management in real time and to construct better integrated transportation systems, as well as other solutions.

The concept of urban regeneration and renewal will also be examined. Presenters will discuss strategies to renew some aspects of major cities in order to meet the needs for housing and jobs and thus prevent urban spread.

Over three days, local leaders from around the world will join forces and minds to imagine and define the major cities of tomorrow.