Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 989

Last week, Mary Meeker of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers published her annual internet trends report. You can find it  here , if for whatever reason it is not showing up below. Also, here is last year’s Internet Trends 2017 presentation in case you’re curious.

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Internet Trends Report 2018 from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

One slide that stood out for me is the one below. It shows the global demand for transportation trips booked through smartphone apps. The numbers include on-demand taxis, private for-hire vehicles, as well as on-demand motorbikes and bicycles.

China, through a combination of cars and bicycles, makes up 68% of the global share. It looks to be over 5 billion completed trips in Q1 2018. A staggering number. At the same time, look at how much of that is a result of growth in the number of bicycle trips.

This recent post by Sam Karam at NewGeography illustrates the relationship between female literacy and total fertility rates in Sub-Saharan Africa, India, and China. The overarching argument, which won’t surprise any of you, is that, “higher female literacy is a reliable predictor of lower fertility and improved prosperity.”

The following graph uses data from populyst , the UN Population Division and UNESCO. The time period for the dataset varies by country but approximately corresponds to the latest 2000′s. All Sub-Saharan countries are represented, except for the Congo, Somolia, and South Sudan.

Noteworthy about this dataset is that the biggest decline in the total fertility rate happens precipitously after female literacy reaches and exceeds 80%. What is also interesting, but not surprising, if that the countries with the lowest gender equality rankings tend to also have high fertility rates. And that’s because low gender equality tends to translate into lower female literacy rates. 

According to populyst , the above phenomenon – precipitous decline in TFR with rising female literacy – has already proved itself out in China. 

Based on data from the World Bank, China’s total fertility rate dropped from 6.38 in 1966 to 2.75 in 1979. And since the one-child policy was only enacted in 1979, it doesn’t appear to be driven by that. (I would have initially expected some sort of surge in births prior to that policy.) From 1982 to 2000, the female literacy rate in China rose from 51% to 87%. Today it is 99.6%, which is basically the same as it is for males.

For a more detailed look at the above data, check out this populyst post .

This morning I stumbled upon an old (2013) post from Rebel Metropolis that documents urban American life through street photos taken before the automobile. 

Above is Little Italy, New York City, 1900. All of the photos in the post are from Shorpy . 

The photos are beautiful architecturally and from a photography standpoint. But as is pointed out in the post, they also speak to a different kind of street:

What’s more, the street here is not purely the thoroughfare – it is the essential common gathering place for demonstrations, for buying and selling food, for children to play in, for celebration, for lingering and people watching .

That sounds like a great street. And now I am off to start my day. Because I have meetings all around the city today, I’ll be driving to the office.