Roads

Low shot of Route 66 signs on asphalt with small abandoned building on roadside on old Route 66 near Amboy, California.

Friday Eye Candy: America’s Most Scenic Abandoned Highways

Unused roadways provide opportunities for exploration and recreation.

January 12, 2024 - Jalopnik

I-84 to I-5 Interstate Freeway in Portland Oregon with Long Exposure Vehicle Traffic Motion

Oregon Youth Activists Protest Highway Expansion

A group of young climate activists are demanding an end to traffic-inducing road expansion projects and a renewed commitment to sustainable, transit-oriented transportation.

January 27, 2022 - Bloomberg CityLab

City of Bridges

Roads and Bridges Are Not Crumbling

Rebutting the argument that roads and bridges are "crumbling" and should be our first infrastructure priority.

April 8, 2021 - Slowboring.com

D.C. Metro

Republicans, Democrats, and Transit

Depending on how the issue is phrased, support for public transit can be bipartisan.

November 9, 2020 - Michael Lewyn

New York Street Parking

Thinking About Infrastructure and Housing, Part 2

Is inadequate infrastructure a reason to keep new housing out of cities?

December 3, 2019 - Michael Lewyn

North High Street

Curbside Management to Tame Roadway Chaos

A pilot program in Columbus, Ohio, will help bring order to the city’s curbside space, a response to a mobility network that has become more complicated and crowded.

November 14, 2019 - Smart Cities Dive

Swiss Federal Railways

Connecting Central Europe, North to South

Large-scale road and rail projects aim to facilitate travel from the south of Italy all the way up to Sweden and Finland.

April 4, 2018 - The Economist

Sharrow

What's a Stroad and Why Do Stroads Matter?

An explainer post on that much-lamented feature of contemporary communities—the stroad.

October 31, 2017 - Strong Towns

Trump Tower

Cities After President Trump

Urbanists consider what the administration of President-elect, Donald Trump, will mean for cities.

November 11, 2016 - CityLab

Fixing the Flood of Congestion at its Source

In pursuit of an honest conversation about congestion, Charles Marohn produces a comparison between roads and stormwater infrastructure.

October 20, 2015 - Strong Towns

Vermont Road

Exploring Vermont's Ancient Roads

Act 178, approved by Vermont in 2006, required that all ancient roads be catalogued by July 1, 2015 to be included in the state map. The exploration of old roads leading up to that deadline makes a compelling story.

July 3, 2015 - The New Yorker

electricity infrastructure

How To: Smarter Infrastructure Investments

In the next few decades, U.S. governments and businesses are predicted to spend trillions of dollars on infrastructure. This is the reality. The question is: how do we get smart about these investments?

November 15, 2014 - Infrastructure Crisis Sustainable Solutions

On the Political Effects of Transportation Infrastructure

A comparison of road conditions in Rwanda and Mali—the former an autocracy with sterling roads, the latter a democracy where poor road conditions reveal a deep divide in the country.

September 1, 2014 - Foreign Policy

Plan Maps the Best (and Worst) of Future Road Construction

A new study published in the journal Nature maps out a plan for the development of roads around the world—where roads should be avoided due to their environmental costs, and where they can be built to maximize their potential benefit to humanity.

August 30, 2014 - Science Daily

Congress Contemplates Cooperating on Infrastructure Spending

Might a recent agreement to fund water projects pave the way for more transportation spending? That's what positive signals out of Washington seem to indicate. Just one small obstacle stands in the way: how to finance road and bridge projects.

October 30, 2013 - The Wall Street Journal

Extreme Heat Is Bad News for Transportation

Extreme temperatures aren’t just a public health concern: they also affect how we get around.

July 22, 2013 - Better Institutions

UK Infrastructure Modernization Plan to Fund Roads, Schools, Affordable Homes

A multifaceted £100 billion infrastructure modernization plan for the UK was announced this week by Treasury Minister Danny Alexander. The opposition Labour party is objecting to the timeline for the investments, which aren't due to start until 2015.

June 27, 2013 - BBC News

What Infrastructure Crisis?

Evan Soltas pens a contrarian take on the state of America's infrastructure, equating those who repeatedly warn of crumbling roads and bridges to a bunch of "Chicken Littles."

April 10, 2013 - Bloomberg View

Who Will Pay for America's $2.2 Trillion Infrastructure Backlog?

With the federal government unable to agree on much of anything, state and local taxpayers are bearing the burden for repairing and replacing America's aging infrastructure says a new report from Standard & Poor’s Rating Services.

October 29, 2012 - The Washington Post

Dynamic Pricing: A More Efficient Way to Allocate Public Goods

SPUR, the San Francisco-based planing think tank, looks at the potential benefits to the public sector of using dynamic, demand-based pricing to manage limited public resources - from parking to electricity.

October 15, 2012 - SPUR

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.