Exclusives

BLOG POST

Learning from my suburb

For nearly all of my adult life, I have lived in small towns or urban neighborhoods. But for the past two years, I have lived in sprawl. When I moved to Jacksonville two years ago, I moved to Mandarin, a basically suburban neighborhood about nine miles from downtown. As I looked for apartments in 2006, I noticed that in many ways, Mandarin is typical sprawl: our major commercial street (San Jose Boulevard) is as many as eight lanes in some places, and even most apartments are separated from San Jose’s commerce. [See http://atlantaphotos.fotopic.net/c872477.html for my photos of Mandarin and other Jacksonville neighborhoods.] I thought Mandarin would be a typical suburb: homogenously white and upper-middle class.

June 11 - Michael Lewyn

BLOG POST

Are transit ridership numbers more pomp than substance?

The <a href="http://www.apta.com/">American Public Transit Association</a> reports that <a href="http://www.apta.com/media/releases/080602_ridership_report.cfm">transit ridership climbed to 10.3 billion trips during the first quarter of 2008</a>, the “highest number of trips taken in fifty years.” That represents a 3.3 percent increase overall over the previous year while vehicle miles traveled, a measure of demand for car travel, fell by 2.3 percent, they observe.

June 11 - Samuel Staley

FEATURE

Planetizen Turns 8: A Look Back

June 9 - The Planetizen Team

BLOG POST

On Bicyclists

There are three types of bicyclists: Advanced Bicyclists, Intermediate Bicyclists and Beginner Bicyclists. We need to plan and build facilities to accommodate all of them. Those cities that do are experiencing ridership numbers far above the national average. <img src="/files/u405/Advanced_Bicyclist_2.jpg" width="350" height="233" />

June 8 - Mike Lydon

BLOG POST

Getting the Transportation Infrastructure We Need

Bank, Commission, Capital Budget or Business as Usual? There's a growing consensus the U.S. needs to invest more in our infrastructure, especially our transportation infrastructure. Too many roads and bridges are in poor repair, and congestion is slowing the economy of many cities. High gas prices has only added to intense interest nationwide for new and enhanced public transportation. With the expiration of the SAFETEA-LU legislation, next year Congress has the opportunity to revise the policies guiding investment in this critical infrastructure. Unfortunately, after the interstate highway system, the federal role in transportation infrastructure is mostly known for its excessive pork barrel spending (bridges to nowhere) and limited funds and Byzantine policies restricting mass transit investment. How should we evaluate the various proposals to reform federal policy? The Urban Land Institute (where I am working this summer) proposed an 8-point "action agenda" for infrastructure in their second-annual <a href="http://www.uli.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&CONTENTID=125957&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay. cfm">infrastructure report</a>. The agenda is a statement of principles that should guide investments. It includes: build a vision for the community, invest strategically in coordination with land use, fix and maintain first, reduce driving, couple land use decisions with water availability, break down government "silos," cut pork barrel spending and support smart growth, keep score and keep governments accountable. Taking those principles as advice, let's take a look at what has been proposed.

June 6 - Robert Goodspeed

BLOG POST

Watch for Desire Paths

My graduate school education left me with a lot of general ideas and a handful of specific ones. One that stuck with me is a concept from landscape architecture: the desire path. Technically, the term means a path where there isn't supposed to be one, a trail of wear and tear that wasn't planned.

June 2 - Tim Halbur

BLOG POST

Where's the planning in metropolitan transportation planning?

Randal O’Toole’s recent policy study from the Cato Institute, “<a href="http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9420">Roadmap to Gridlock</a>” is s worthy read for all professional planners, no matter what their ideological or professional stripe. Undoubtedly, most planners probably consider someone who maintains a blog called the “<a href="http://www.ti.org/antiplanner/">Antiplanner</a>” more of a bomb thrower than a serious policy analyst. But this dismissive attitude throws an awful lot of good work by the road side, and a good example of that is O’Toole’s “Roadmap to Gridlock.”

May 30 - Samuel Staley

BLOG POST

Gas Prices Up a Nickel, It Must be Friday

America is facing more than just gasoline price inflation. The contemporary media is overwhelmed with stories on the impacts of higher fuel prices. The fingers are pointing in every direction. Planners are proposing everything from 50 year transit plans to build a handful of rail lines to forecasting a radical transformation of urban form and travel behavior. After exhaustive research to understand consumer responses to higher energy prices the analysis is complete and the results are in.

May 30 - Steven Polzin

BLOG POST

How to teach about sprawl

Today, I turned in my grades for my seminar on "Sprawl and the Law." It occurred to me that some readers of this blog might be academics, and might be interested on how one can teach a course on sprawl. I began by defining the issue. As I pointed out in an earlier post (at <a href="/node/31063)">http://www.planetizen.com/node/31063)</a> the term "sprawl" has two common meanings: where we grow (city or suburb) and how we grow (pedestrian-friendly or automobile-dependent). Policies that affect the first type of "sprawl" need not affect the second (and vice versa).

May 28 - Michael Lewyn

BLOG POST

Is Vancouver a 'World Class City?' (And Is It Making Us Too Expensive?)

In his annual tour-de-force presentation on the state of Vancouver's housing market recently, marketing guru Bob Rennie (referred to often as Canada's "condo king", and thus often accused of having a vested interest in a continued strong market for condos here in Vancouver) had some new, controversial points that are still being debated locally. Perhaps the most provocative was his call to action for the development industry to get back into building housing that is more affordable to ordinary Vancouverites (as opposed to being geared to the international market - his comment was that we know how to serve that world market, now we need to show that we can serve the local market better, or words to that effect). Given that he included details like "capping developer profit at 10%", I found his comments pretty brave in front of an audience of 700+ developers and clients.

May 28 - Brent Toderian

BLOG POST

Summer Reading about Planning: The Basics

As the northern summer starts, one of the questions I am asked most frequently by current and prospective planning students is: what should I read? A number of resources are available to answer this question. This month I look at general planning readings for a North American audience but in coming months I’ll explore readings about global planning issues, planning methods, and planning classics. For those wanting an overview of planning issues, the following lists are good places to start:

May 28 - Ann Forsyth

BLOG POST

Comprehensive Analysis of Transit Energy Conservation Benefits

A recent report by the libertarian Cato Institute, <a href="http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9325">Does Rail Transit Save Energy or Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions?</a>, claims that public transit service improvements are ineffective at conserving energy and reducing pollution emissions. But this conclusion is based on faulty analysis.

May 27 - Todd Litman

FEATURE

Generations of Planning Commissioners

Planning and zoning commissions need to be diverse to make sure the broad range of issues and concerns are considered. That requires commissioners who are from different parts of town, different walks of life, different ethnic backgrounds, and now, different age groups.

May 26 - Wayne Senville

BLOG POST

The Double and Triple Whammy – Rising Fuel, Transit Reductions, and the Presidential Election

Three whammy’s are pressing America’s luck this spring as the nation engages in one of the most exciting presidential elections in my lifetime. The problem is that the only solution that has been proposed at the national-level has been a gas tax holiday. A gas tax holiday would have the effect of starving our increasingly troubled transportation system of the necessary funds to maintain and improve infrastructure and service.

May 21 - John Renne

BLOG POST

The Public Mis-Education of Transit Oriented Development

In 2004, voters in Denver approved the FasTracks ballot to build a regional rapid transit system. Now that planning is underway to construct about 120 miles of new rail and 60 new train stations, planners are beginning to focus on transit-oriented development (TOD) around many of these new stations. While much excitment exists in Denver for creating one of the top 21st century cities, some fears for TOD are unfounded. Mr. Ferguson's "<a href="http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/may/13/four-fallacies-transit-oriented-development/" target="_blank" title="Rocky Mountain News article">Four Fallacies of 'transit-oriented development</a>'", published May 13, 2008 in the Rocky Mountain News is typical of a common mis-education about TOD. What Mr. Ferguson does not realize is that TODs can help protect the rural and suburban nature of communities surrounding Denver. He proposes four tenets about why TODs are bad for the future. Below, I address each of these.

May 20 - John Renne

FEATURE

Community Supported Agriculture and the Return of the Small Farm

May 19 - Greg Ramsey

BLOG POST

The Case Against Flexibility

A few weeks ago, I was reading yet another think-tank paper arguing against new rail projects. Amidst the sea of technical detail, one assertion bothered me: the common claim that bus service is more “flexible” than rail.

May 18 - Michael Lewyn

BLOG POST

Is 'Walking Distance' Overrated?

The common wisdom about walkable neighborhoods holds that density – proximity to destinations – determines the number of walking trips. An ideal walking distance of a quarter mile is usually prescribed between residences and the nearest transit stop or retail center. I don’t dispute that walking distance is important, especially when I’m lugging an armload of groceries. However, some trendy high-density development favors compactness at the expense of comfort and safety.

May 18 - Diana DeRubertis

BLOG POST

Don't Fill-er-up With Stupidity

People’s response to death typically proceeds through various stages: disbelief, denial, anger, bargaining, guilt, and eventually acceptance and hope. Motorists’ response to increased fuel price seems to follow similar stages:

May 18 - Todd Litman

BLOG POST

Public Input by Blog (Or, 'Care to Comment on the New EcoDensity Charter?')

I believe it's very likely that within a few years, planning departments will be using blogs, and perhaps other social networking site options, as approaches to public input on planning policy or development applications. Perhaps some are doing it already?

May 15 - Brent Toderian