Exclusives

BLOG POST

<!--StartFragment--><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana">More than two years years ago I chronicled my <a href="/node/26876">daily bicycle commute in Miami</a>. The 8-mile trip was as representative of Miami&#39;s built and socio-cultural landscape as it was harrowing. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana">While that city has surely made progress in the pas two years, I&#39;d be lying if I didn&#39;t disclose that I partially moved to New York City because of the progress being made in designing livable streets infrastructure. Quite simply, it feels good to be in a city that &quot;gets it.&quot; </span></p>

January 18 - Mike Lydon

FEATURE

Recent earthquake response efforts in Haiti showed how comparing satellite imagery could help to identify physical changes in the damaged country and assist rescue workers. That same sort of imagery could play a similar role for urban planners.

January 18 - Nate Berg

BLOG POST

<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri">Last week I attended the </span><a href="http://www.trb.org/AnnualMeeting2010/Public/AnnualMeeting2010.aspx"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri">Transportation Research Boards (TRB)</span></a><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri"> 89th annual meeting, which attracted approximately 10,000 transportation professionals from around the globe to Washington DC. More than 2,000 papers were presented at more than 700 sessions, plus several hundred committee meetings took place. Let me share some highlights.</span> </p>

January 18 - Todd Litman

BLOG POST

<p class="MsoNormal"> Every so often, one sees an article arguing that one mode of transportation is cheaper, more efficient, or less dangerous than another because it uses less energy/kills more people/costs more per passenger-mile. (1) </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> It seems to me, however, that per passenger-mile comparisions are flawed in one key respect: they assume that trips on any mode of transportation will involve the same mileage, so that if the average driver lives 20 miles from work, the average bus rider will also live 20 miles from work.<span> </span> </p>

January 15 - Michael Lewyn

FEATURE

Updated for Fall 2010, Planetizen's picks for the best news and observations about urban planning, design and development available on Twitter. Check out the new section of high-speed rail links, and visit our sister site www.hsrnews.com.

January 13 - Nate Berg

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small">I’m going to riff off a recent Interchange Blog post by Michael Lewyn on the </span><a href="/node/42323"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; color: #800080; font-size: small">relationship between mobility and accessibility</span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small">. Given the positive comments from the planning community to Michael’s post, a little engagement may be necessary for both clarity as well as fully understanding the implications of reading too much into the accessibility versus mobility debate. </span> </p>

January 13 - Samuel Staley

FEATURE

The editors' choice of the most significant stories in the realm of urban planning, design and development of the "aughts" (2000-2009). The decade began with one crash and ended with another, but in between we've learned a lot about making cities.

January 11 - Nate Berg

FEATURE

January 6 - Jack Finn

BLOG POST

<p> As if all this inclement weather hasn&#39;t been hassle enough for those of us who cherish our cars, I practically careened into another tragic loss for the rightfully auto-minded recently in Hoboken, New Jersey.  It seems the needs of lofty pedestrians <em>et.al.</em> have once again been imprudently prioritized over us drivers in a result that is sure to make your muffler ratlle: a one-block segment of an historic belgian block street has been closed off to the ideal form of personal mobility (read: car) so that silly people with nothing better to do than run around frivolously in streets have another place off the sidewalk to inconvenience the driving majority of our great nation.

January 5 - Ian Sacs

BLOG POST

“Not that I condone fascism, or any -ism for that matter: -isms in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an -ism; he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon: ‘I don’t believe in Beatles, I just believe in me.’ A good point there. After all, he was the walrus. I could be the walrus. I&#39;d still have to bum rides off of people.”<br /> <blockquote> <blockquote> <blockquote> <blockquote> <blockquote> <blockquote> </blockquote> </blockquote> </blockquote> </blockquote> </blockquote> </blockquote> <blockquote> <blockquote> <div align="left"> —Ferris Bueller

January 5 - Jeffrey Barg

BLOG POST

<p> Downloading my newest addition to my Kindle library—the digital book service provided by Amazon.com—I remembered the gentle criticism of a planner on a list serve not too long ago. The thread was on sustainability and global warming. I had made the point that market economies were innovative economies, and too much of the planning discussion on sustainability focused on reduced consumption without seriously discussing the ways technology fundamentally changed our choice sets. The planner chastised me for my faith in markets, saying, in a nutshell, we need to focus on what we know we can influence and not hedge are bets on the past. The implication was that markets were too ephemeral and undependable to include in long-term planning. </p>

January 4 - Samuel Staley

BLOG POST

<p class="MsoNormal">With vacations upon us many students have been asking me what they should read over the winter break. Certainly it is possible to catch up with planning <a href="/node/31384" target="_blank">classics </a>and <a href="/node/33755" target="_blank">thought-provoking books</a><a href="/node/33755" target="_blank"> </a>and several earlier blogs have highlighted these options. However,for those wanting to escape and learn something as well, a number of mystery authors write books that both investigate crimes and evoke a sense of place. The following list highlights just some of this range—there are hundreds more of course (and if you scroll for the bottom you will find links to other lists).

January 4 - Ann Forsyth

FEATURE

January 4 - Vinayak Bharne

BLOG POST

<p> Every so often, I read a blog post or an article talking about the trade-off between &quot;mobility&quot; and making places more accessible to nonmotorists.  The hidden assumption behind such statements is that &quot;mobility&quot; means cars going as fast as possible.  So if every street is an eight-lane highway with cars going 70 miles per hour, overall social &quot;mobility&quot; is therefore high.  </p>

December 31 - Michael Lewyn

BLOG POST

<p> Very snowy holiday greetings from Finland, everyone!  While here visiting my in-laws and friends, I wanted to take a quick moment and share an interesting observation about the way Finns handle the incessant layers of snow that blanket their chilly winter country.  It seems that aside from limited access highways and some primary arterials, the Finnish standard for snow treatment is to plow to a reasonable depth, but not worry too much about an inch or two of snow base layer covering streets.  Some streets get sand treatment as well, but salt is used very, very sparingly. </p>

December 31 - Ian Sacs

FEATURE

December 31 - Nate Berg

FEATURE

It will take a long time for the US to embrace pedestrians, bicycling, and electric carts as substitutes for cars in our communities. And yet an inevitable change is coming that will significantly increase environmental quality, and restore real community and economic viability. Changing legislation, master planning, and the development of car-reduced and car-free communities will move us forward, writes Greg Ramsey.

December 28 - Greg Ramsey

BLOG POST

<p> Even more so than usual, few people will be receiving buildings as gifts this season.  They&#39;re too expensive, you can’t return them, and, notwithstanding Barbie’s Dream House, they probably won&#39;t fit under your tree.  But still, this Yuletide affords ample opportunity to take stock of the works that have arisen in this most momentous of decades.  </p>

December 23 - Josh Stephens

BLOG POST

<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%"><span style="font-family: Calibri">A friend of mine who&#39;s a biophysicist popped in to see me the other day. <span> </span>He was all excited and showed me his “patent pending” letter for his newest invention.

December 23 - Steven Polzin

FEATURE

Understanding the needs of ethnic minorities is critical for contemporary working planners, says Leonardo Vasquez, AICP/PP.

December 21 - Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP