Metrics

Coronavirus and Urbanism

Austin Scores Highest on Pandemic Recovery; Bay Area and Baltimore Lowest

The Bay Area Council and CBRE created an economic tracker to measure how well the nation's 25 largest metropolitan areas have recovered from the public health restrictions imposed on their regions at the onset of the pandemic.

March 5, 2023 - Bay City News Foundation

Epdemiology

Do You Know Your COVID-19 Colors?

Harvard University's Global Health Insititute and Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics have launched a new online tool for planners, policy makers, and the public to determine the severity of the coronavirus outbreak in one's county and state.

July 29, 2020 - Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics

Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma

A 'City Vitality' Metric

Gallup and the city of Tulsa have partnered on the new Gallup-Tulsa CitiVoice Index.

December 7, 2017 - Smart Cities Drive

Cambridge Bike Lane

Researchers Develop 7 Metrics to Evaluate Bike And Pedestrian Projects

New research lays the groundwork for a universal standard by which to measure effectiveness of bike and pedestrian infrastructure projects.

June 2, 2016 - Next City

Pronto Bikeshare

Asking the Right Questions About Equity In Bikeshare

The way we measure the success of bikeshare systems could be giving us the wrong idea about their impacts, and about the transportation needs of low-income areas.

May 4, 2016 - NextCity

Empty Swings

Five Ways to Measure the Need for City Parks

While standardized metrics for determining the number of and place for city parks cannot replace more fine grain analysis, they can be useful tools. Park planner Clement Lau writes about five park-need metrics, including a couple of the newest.

November 13, 2015 - UrbDeZine

'Self-Sufficiency Standard' Reveals Distressing Levels of Poverty

Most policies regarding poverty are driven by obsolete metrics. Another model, which measures the very basic needs for survival, reveals deep poverty in New York City.

December 27, 2014 - Quartz

Car Graveyard

Five Reasons Why Peak Driving is Here to Stay

The Great Recession ended in the summer of 2009. Unemployment has fallen and consumer spending has risen, as have most economic metrics save one: vehicle miles traveled. There is a list of reasons why VMT hasn't risen, and perhaps won't.

August 25, 2014 - Fortune

The Gold Standard for Civic Data Delivery

Emily Badger is extremely impressed—and for good reason—with the City of Los Angeles' new neighborhood data portal, built in connection with the development a new health and wellness chapter for the city's General Plan.

October 19, 2013 - The Atlantic Cities

On Garcetti's 100th Day: Let There Be Metrics

On Eric Garcetti's 100th day in office, the new mayor of Los Angeles showed progress on his promise to increase accountability by launching a beta website to track City Hall performance in nine categories and for each city department.

October 9, 2013 - Los Angeles Times

Census Releases New Ways to Measure Poverty

The U.S. Census Bureau has released a new set of formulae that dramatically change the way poverty is determined in the U.S., leaving behind the one-size-fits-all approach in use since the 1960s.

January 6, 2011 - The Washington Post

New Scorecard From NY DOT: Driving in Decline, Safety Improvements Work

New York City's second annual Sustainable Streets Index adds a wealth of data in support of green transportation and street safety.

March 26, 2010 - Streetsblog

Looking at America Through its Food

A new demographic tool from the USDA compiles data about food choices and characteristics, allowing the creation of detailed maps. Edible Geography wonders what using food as a metric will tell us about the U.S.

February 12, 2010 - Edible Geography

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Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

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