Drawing from the recent publication “Transforming Cities with Transit”, the director of the Institute of Urban and Regional Development and professor of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley, Robert Cervero, calls for elevating the role of public transit in creating sustainable urban futures. Concentrating pedestrian friendly, mixed-use development near transit stops, supplemented by congestion pricing, is one promising strategy.

The strategy brought forward by Claudio Acioly (UN-Habitat) uses streets as the natural conduits that connect slums spatially and physically with the city and treats streets not only as a physical entity for mobility and accessibility -- through which water and sewerage pipes, power lines, and drainage systems are laid – but also as the common good and the public domain where social, cultural and economic activities are articulated, reinforced and facilitated.