iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

After many months of preparation The Swedish National Cycling Conference is finally on! I have the honour and pleasure of moderating this afternoon’s international symposium.

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

1) detta är naturligtvis ett problem och bra att det tas upp. 2) vet ni vilket *enskilt projekt* blivit minst 25 miljarder dyrare än beräknat och är inte heller klart än? Förbifart Stockholm. Jag räknar ett liknande reportage om den snart.

Skärmdump av ett reportage från Sveriges Radio P4 Stockholm med rubrik ”Miljarder läcker från SL - alla hade kunna åka gratis i 8 år”. Reportaget är länkat i första kommentaren

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

To close the loop, you know who else took inspiration from a visit to Vällingby in 1956? One Lúcio Costa, the man behind the plan for Brasília

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

And it’s utterly delightful. If your image of missing middle TOD is all cookie-cutter apartment blocks, you should see this. This is single family housing I could get behind. It was good enough for former prime minster Olof Palme and his family

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Vällingby is one of the first so-called ABC-towns (Arbete/Work; Bostad/Home; Centrum/Centre) developed in the 1950s and it belongs on any list of global planning achievements. Built fully integrated with the development of the Stockholm metro, Vällingby was TOD before it was cool (hipster-TOD!)

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

In the last 12 months I have fulfilled some of my urban planner nerd dreams by visiting both Brasília and Chandigarh (feel free to invite me to Abuja, Islamabad or Canberra anytime!) So it was about time I add some pictures from the town planning celebrity in my own back yard: Vällingby

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I finally got to see this beauty in person, Surahammar Town Hall by architect Eskil Sundahl. It’s like a little jewel in the heart of this small Swedish industrial town with which I have some family connections.

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

And obligatory ”downtown skyscrapers from Nairobi National Park” shot (plus giraffes)

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

This is the wonderfully understated UN conference centre, soon to be remodelled - I hope they don’t ruin it

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Here is the view from the rooftop helipad

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

The latest stop on my accidental tropical modernism tour was Nairobi, Kenya. Here is the fabulous 1973 Kenyatta International Convention Centre, a collaboration between Kenyan and Norwegian architects

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

I spent the last week of Pride Month on a work trip to Kenya, my first time somewhere fellow queer people can be inprisoned At a factory where Maasai women make beads I bought this - those ladies knew exactly what they were doing I will wear it at Stockholm Pride to remind me why we’re all there

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Sometime in the next 3-4 years the world will overshoot the ”safe” 1.5c limit. We will need to: 1) minimise that overshoot by immediately cutting emissions - every fraction of a degree will count 2) protect people and nature through this period of overshoot that will last several generations 1/2

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

On Friday I was celebrating Midsummer on Öland where the sun set at 10pm but it never really got dark. Today I am at a climate conference at the UN in Nairobi where it was dark by 6:30pm. Feeling a bit disoriented by the contrasts.

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

And while you might not see our royals on bikes as often as in some of our neighboring monarchies, they often use electric city buses to shuttle passenger princesses around at big events 👸🚌

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

I’m no royalist, but thank-you to whoever made sure the King and Queen’s cortege passed a rainbow crosswalk and to whoever made sure we got this camera angle 🏳️‍🌈

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Did the Prime Minister park his battlebus blocking both the footway AND the cyclepath? Tow it! And then tow him and his clown car government.

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Last week I was in Delhi helping to launch the Laneshift guidance framework for Electrifying Indian Highways www.c40knowledgehub.org/s/article/Pa... If you work on transport electrification (or any other climate sector) you should be paying attention to what is happening in India.

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

My most controversial opinion: modernism done well can be amazing, it’s just so rarely done well. And because it’s mostly (relatively) recent a lot of the bad stuff is still with is. Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret’s Chandigarh definitely has its faults, but a lot is very well done.

A wall map of the original plan of Chandigarh

Me, a large sweaty mess, blocking the view of the assembly building

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

And my transit smart card collection

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Not to mention my transit map collection

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Happy World Public Transport Day 🚌🚡🚏🚋🚠🚞🚝🚎🛳️🚍🚃🚟🚈🚇 Probably 20% of my camera roll is pictures of various kinds of public transport - here is just a tiny sample.

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

And of the Festungsbahn funicular of course - 100m up in 30 seconds - it was raining at the bottom, but snowing at the top (am I dreaming or did there used to be a funicular emoji?)

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

… but I think I have more pictures of the bendy trolleybuses than I have of my siblings 😳

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Last weekend I went to Salzburg 🇦🇹 with my sisters and brother - it was utterly delightful…

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

POV when you’ve spent your whole career trying to get better transit built and they build it right outside your house. So 🥳 but also 🏗️🚧🫨🎧

Construction site for the new metro line seen from my balcony at home

Plan of Stockholm’s new yellow line metro, opening around 2035

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Happy Friday city-lovers! I hope your city is looking as pretty as mine is today 😍 #Stockholm

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

It’s transit operator and worker appreciation day - thanks everyone at SL and partners who keep Stockholm moving and help us to be one of C40’s climate superstars 💚

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Sweden’s energy minister boasting that Sweden will better withstand fossil fuel price shocks because of the measures her government put in place that have made us *more* dependent on fossil fuels by collapsing EV sales growth 🧐

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

With the Winter Olympics opening in Milan I am reminded that one of the last things I worked on before leaving the City of Stockholm was our unsuccessful 2026 bid. I wonder how many ongoing infrastructure projects would have been accelerated if we’d won? (Also, our logo was clearly superior!)

A map showing some of the infrastructure planned in Stockholm for the 2026 games. Several projects still under construction would likely have been accelerated including the metro lines to Barkaby and Arenastaden, and perhaps the major project at Slussen

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Having a clearout and found my old chequebook* GBP900 was my monthly rent in 2005 for a one room flat in South Ealing, a 45 minute tube ride from work It’s more than I now pay for a three room apartment a ten minute metro ride from central Stockholm 🤯

A cheque book stub for 900 pounds payed to ”Rent”, dated 2 November 2005

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Jag har velat åka till Brasília sen jag var typ 12 år. Var inte besviken. Nästa Chandigarh eller Canberra.

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Congratulations Salvador - not just one of the sixty C40 cities that have passed their peak emissions, but one of the eleven that have reduced their post-peak emissions by more than 30%

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

🚨 Snow plow tram klaxon 🚨 In any sane world we would call this a Tramboni. (It's possible this joke only works in hockey-playing countries en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_res...)

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

As a Stockholmer this is not easy to admit but visiting Oslo feels - at least from a transport perspective - a bit like visiting the future: - car traffic is barely increasing despite population growth - transit, walking & cycling is handling all of the growth - 95% of new cars are electric

A graph showing the growth of car traffic and population as an index in the City Oslo 2007 to 2023. Car traffic shown as a yellow line has remained stable apart from a small dip in 2020-21 caused by restrictions introduced to slow the spread of Covid-19. Population, shown as a blue line has increased by around 30 percent between 2017 and 2023.

The same graph as previously, now showing public transit ridership alongside car traffic and population growth. Transit use is up around 50 percent since 2007. The graph shows a big drop in transit use during 2020-21 due to restrictions introduced to slow the spread of Covid-19.

A graph showing the power source for new cars sold in the City of Oslo from 2010 to 2025. A blue line showing electric cars ("Elbil") starts at zero in 2010 and steadily increases to 95% in 2025. A pale yellow line line showing internal combustion engine vehicles ("Fossilbil") starts at 100% in 2010 and falls to 5% in 2025.

A picture of a blue tram driving down a snowy street in central Oslo

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Agreed - I’m also a fan of this one

A roadsign with alternating blue and black text on each line, reading:
You’re four times
It’s hard to
more likely to have
concentrate on
two things
when you’re on
at the same time
a mobile phone

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

…and a happy 20th birthday to congestion pricing in Stockholm. We can assure our younger sibling that the benefits will keep piling up and that people will quickly wonder why we ever thought it was fair to being your car into the congested downtown for free

A view of the congestion charging infrastructure in a dark and snowy Stockholm

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

The snowstorm came in fast on northern Öland ⛄️

A view across the sea with snow clouds and a small area of clear sky

Three people walking away from us in the snow

Me, a man in his best years with a grey beard wearing a yellow hat and a red scarf covered in snow

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

It’s one of my favourite stories so I read, listen to, or watch a version A Christmas Carol every year It’s not an original observation that there are more people than ever who needed a visit from some ghosts last night I reflect on what my ghosts would show me - it’s never too late for salvation

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

It’s the Winter Solstice and we have had more sunshine in Stockholm today than the whole of December so far. It has been the darkest December since 1934. ”Sun comes back” is headline news. BUT: From now on, slowly but surely the light will return.

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Pardon my massive ”old man yells at cloud” energy, but when did it become normal to just completely ignore emails? I feel invisible.

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Away from the Eixo Monumental you’re never more than a few minutes’ walk from the nearest local centre with shops, bars, schools, daycare, places of worship and services all within easy reach

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

If your idea of Brasília is only car-dominated sprawl you couldn’t be more wrong. The Superquadras were designed as compete neighbourhoods - 15 minutes cities if you will. This is SQS 108, the first one completed in 1957-8 and jokingly referred to as “Centro Historico”

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Daniel Firth @danielfirth.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

It's World Town Planning Day and by happy coincidence I'm in one of the world's most planned cities I first saw pictures of Brasília when I was about 11 - it's almost certainly the reason I became a town planner Whatever you think of the outcome you can't help but admire the ambition and hope

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