# Do We Have to Accept That Cities Are Becoming Unlivable Every Summer?


In summer, the city is sometimes not just hot. It can feel as if you have stepped into a giant, slowly heating oven. The pavement radiates heat, the asphalt almost shimmers in the sun, there is no shade at the bus stop, building walls reflect the heat, and between parked cars the air barely moves. This is when people often say: “It must be 50 degrees here.”

Of course, this usually does not refer to the official air temperature. The weather forecast may say 34–36°C, but surfaces, sun-exposed areas and the way we experience heat can feel much more extreme. A dark asphalt road, a square without shade or a street made up mostly of concrete and parked cars can become truly unbearable in the summer sun.

One of the main reasons for this is the urban heat island effect. Natural surfaces such as soil, grass, trees and water evaporate moisture, provide shade and help cool their surroundings. In cities, however, these surfaces are often replaced by asphalt, concrete, paving stones, glass, metal and dense buildings. These materials absorb heat during the day and release it slowly in the evening, which means cities often cannot cool down properly even at night.

This is not just a question of comfort. Heat affects people’s wellbeing and can be especially dangerous for the elderly, children, people with chronic illnesses and those who work or move around a lot in the city. A bus stop without shade, a long walk under direct sunlight or a busy inner-city street in summer is no longer a minor inconvenience. It is a question of urban quality of life.

So what can be done?

One of the simplest answers is shade. More trees, more shaded sidewalks, shaded bus stops and better-designed public spaces. It makes a real difference whether you can walk along a street with at least some shade along the way, or whether you have to stay in direct sunlight the whole time. Urban trees are not only beautiful; they are real cooling infrastructure.

The choice of surfaces also matters. Instead of dark, heat-absorbing materials, cities need lighter, more permeable surfaces that heat up less. Wherever possible, fully paved areas should be reduced, and more space should be given back to plants, soil and water. A city does not become modern by covering every square metre in concrete.

The third major issue is traffic. The more vehicles there are on the roads, the more heat, noise, congestion and emissions they create. Urban logistics is particularly important in this regard, because the demand for parcel delivery is constantly growing. We order more and more online, more deliveries take place, and if every parcel creates another separate vehicle movement, it puts even more pressure on the city.

This is why a sustainable city is not only about having more trees or more green spaces. It is also about how we use our streets. How much space do vehicles take up? How many vans drive the same routes? Can we solve the same task more intelligently, with fewer vehicles and fewer unnecessary movements across the city?

At TOURMIX, this is where we can contribute to more liveable cities. The core of our model is that we involve local people in parcel delivery who are already moving around the city anyway. This means that certain deliveries do not require more and more vehicles on the roads. Fewer vehicles in urban traffic can mean lower exhaust emissions, less pressure on the city and more liveable streets.

Of course, this alone will not make the city cool overnight. There is no single miracle solution to urban heat. We need more trees, more shade, better surfaces, smarter urban planning and more sustainable transport and logistics solutions.

Can we redesign our cities to stay livable in a warming climate? The direction is clear: if we want cities not to feel like 50°C in summer, we need less overheated asphalt, fewer unnecessary vehicle movements and more human-centred solutions.

The city of the future will not be truly sustainable just because it looks greener on paper. It will be sustainable if people can still walk through it in summer.