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The Planetizen News Brief - 3/30/09

30 March 2009 - 5:00am
Smart City Radio

The Planetizen News Brief is a weekly rundown of some of the most interesting and important news and issues of the past week.

The Planetizen News Brief airs every week on the nationally-syndicated radio program "Smart City", which is broadcast in cities across the U.S. Learn more about Smart City and listen to archived shows.

Full Transcript

It’s almost a signature of modern day sprawl, but in Virginia, its days are now numbered. Lawmakers there have just approved regulations that forbid cul-de-sacs from being designed into new subdivisions. According to the Washington Post, officials are hoping the new rules will reduce congestion, traffic speeds, street danger and maintenance costs. Secondary roads near traditional subdivisions typically get clogged up when there are only one or two points to get in or out, so cul-de-sacs can really slow things down. The regulations also call for much narrower streets in Virginia, dropping maximum subdivision street widths from 40 feet to between 24 and 29 feet. By requiring better connectivity and smaller streets, the traffic flows will be slower and better distributed, according to officials. It might even make the idea of walking in the suburbs seem realistic.

At least that’s what some experts and urbanists hope. Increasingly, these groups are turning against winding suburban streets and cul-de-sacs and towards the traditional rectilinear grid. A recent article in New Urban News discusses how many New Urbanist developments in the past had shied away from the grid and focused more on curves and changing street patterns in an effort to create more scenic areas with slower traffic. But when the numbers break down, the traditional rectilinear grid is far cheaper than a sweeping and swerving pattern – sometimes by as much as 40%. Though there are some concerns about long straightaways encouraging speeding, more and more designers are now warming up to the idea of using these old-fashioned street grids, just like the historic cities New Urbanists and other planners have been trying so hard to emulate.

And in other news, new challenges are surfacing as the US Census bureau prepares to count the nation for the 2010 Census. With so many American homeowners losing their homes to foreclosure, a huge segment of the population has been displaced. Coupled with the typically hard to locate non-English speaking population, displaced Americans are going to be tough to nail down during the upcoming count. The Census bureau estimates these two groups account for more than 14% of the U.S. population. The Associated Press reports that the bureau will use a quarter billion dollars of stimulus funding to try to ramp up efforts to count these populations. States with high foreclosure rates like Florida and California are particularly vulnerable to undercounting, as uncountable people translates into smaller allocations of government funds. So where ever these groups go, states had better hope they come out of the shadows when it’s counting time.

Stories discussed in this week's Planetizen News Brief

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