Trends

Close-up of signs being held up at climate change protest

Report: 100 Trends Urban Planners Need to Know About

APA’s third annual Trend Report for Urban Planners is out and offers a comprehensive look at potential drivers of change that could impact communities and the work of planners for decades to come.

February 11, 2024 - American Planning Association

An electric bicycle is shown with the legs of a human who is riding the e-bike.

Transportation Predictions for 2023

Seventeen transportation experts and professionals weigh in on what they think trends in the sector will look like in 2023.

January 1, 2023 - The Verge

Rendering of Juneteenth Museum

The Best, Worst, and Most Questionable in 2022 Architecture and Design

A list of innovative projects, intriguing design, and flummoxing failures.

December 6, 2022 - Medium

A silhouette of construction workers lowering larger numerals into place to form 2022.

Planning Trends to Watch in 2022

Building a framework of understanding for the year to come.

January 12, 2022 - James Brasuell

Trump supporting insurrectionists scale the walls of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.

Year in Review: Urban Planning in 2021

Part one of two of Planetizen's review of 2021—re-assessing failed predictions and daylighting the biggest planning stories of the year.

December 20, 2021 - James Brasuell

Washington, D.C.

Planning Trends to Watch in 2021

The nation is now tasked with the challenge of changing course in the middle of multiple, global crises. The necessity of finding a way to overcome the failures of the past and lay the groundwork for a new kind of future has never been more clear.

January 31, 2021 - James Brasuell

Urban Careers

Video: Urban Planning Trends to Watch in 2020

Here's your "tl;dr" treatment of the "Urban Planning Trends to Watch in 2020" article published by Planetizen earlier this year.

February 18, 2020 - Planetizen Courses on YouTube

New York City Street

Transportation Trends for 2020 (And What Cities Can Do About Them)

William Riggs, assistant professor at the University of San Francisco School of Management, predicts the trends that will continue an ongoing revolution in transportation.

February 10, 2020 - William Riggs

Ben Carson

The Decade in Urban Planning

A look back at the biggest stories and themes from the world of urban planning in the decade that was the 2010s.

December 16, 2019 - James Brasuell

Nice Tramway

France's Transit Ridership Booms as the USA's Busts

Large American cities are losing bus and train riders, but in France, most cities have seen the opposite trend.

September 15, 2019 - theTransportPolitic

110-10 Interchange

Transportation 2019—Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Some thoughts on what we might have learned in 2018 and what it might mean going forward.

January 3, 2019 - Steven Polzin

Personal Mobility

Why Scooters Succeed Where Segways Failed

Segways were invented 17 years ago, but the technology feels as if it's been dead for a while. So why are scooters continuing to attract cities and investors?

June 13, 2018 - Bloomberg

Roanoke, Virginia's Evolving Economy Moves Beer-ward

Once, trains dominated the city’s economy, now it's "brains, bikes and beer," according to city officials.

May 13, 2018 - Governing

Splash Park

'Splash Pad Urbanism,' Threats to Open Space, and More Landscape Architecture Trends

There was plenty of good to go with the bad from a year of professional and academic practice in the field of landscape architecture.

December 13, 2017 - Huffington Post

Seattle Electric Bus

Seattle's Bus Ridership Growing While Rest of the Country Goes the Other Direction

Transit malls and voter support have buoyed a system that continues to attract commuters and other riders.

October 21, 2017 - CityLab

Street in La Laguna, Canary Island Tenerife, Spain

Top Planning Trends – 2014

A deeper look at the traffic data on Planetizen reveals trends from the planning and urban design conversation of 2014.

December 31, 2014 - James Brasuell

Google Searches Reveal Christmas Lists for 24 U.S. Cities

The New York Times Upshot and Google team up to reveal the top three most-searched holiday gift items for U.S. cities, revealing local and regional trends.

December 25, 2014 - New York Times - The Upshot

Yarn Bombing Bolardos by Teje La Araña 2

10 Urban Trends to Leave Behind with 2012

As they reflect on a year of exciting advances in urbanism, and look forward to the next, the writers at The Atlantic Cities discuss the most loathed trends they hope will die in 2013.

January 2, 2013 - The Atlantic Cities

The Top Private Sector Trends Changing Our Cities

Max Nisen discusses how cities like Boston and Edmonton are successfully applying popular trends from the private sector - on topics such as mobility, engagement, big data and innovation - and changing the way we live.

December 17, 2012 - Business Insider

Bringing the Countryside to the City

Paula Cocozza discusses Britain's "new ruralism" trend as "the pastoral idyll" invades its cities. Is it possible to have the best of both worlds within walking distance of each other?

November 21, 2012 - The Guardian

News from HUD User

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

Call for Speakers

Mpact Transit + Community

New Updates on PD&R Edge

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Websites

The best of the Internet—since 2002.

Top Apps

Planning apps for a brave new world.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.