Exclusives

BLOG POST

It’s About Data Baby

June 23 - Melissa Hege

BLOG POST

Don't Let Time Dilute Outrage Over BP Gulf Spill

<div> <div> Just because our media-ravenous culture inundates us with more news than we can stomach doesn't mean we should give up on the long term prospects of the BP catastrophe. As the poorly secured well beneath the exploded BP rig Deepwater Horizon continues its high-pressure torrent of not-yet-quantified-but-something-in-the-order-of-tens-to-hundreds-of-thousand-of-gallons-per-day of oil into the gorgeous waters of the Gulf of Mexico, we must not let the drone of time allow us lose sight of the result of horrendous and unforgivable destruction, weak industrial controls, and even weaker environmental morals. We must also not ignore that efforts to “contain” the spill were devised simultaneously with an effort to spare the well.

June 23 - Ian Sacs

BLOG POST

What a bus rider wants

As I began to type this, I was on a Greyhound bus somewhere in southern Ontario, on the first leg of my return from Toronto (where I have spent the past year getting an extra degree) to the United States. As I type, it occurs to me to ask myself: what are the interests of the long-distance bus rider? Are they the same as users of other forms of public transit, or closer to those of drivers and truckers? My short answer to these questions is: a little of both.

June 22 - Michael Lewyn

FEATURE

Civic Tourism, and the Importance of Place

June 21 - Dan Shilling

BLOG POST

Parking Garages Are So Last Century

The parking “epidemic” in Hoboken is so bad that no parking garage conceivable by man can contain our demand. So this week, Hoboken ventures where no city has gone before; we are <a href="http://www.hobokennj.org/news/hoboken-and-hertz-launch-first-city-wide-car-sharing-service-in-america/">rolling out</a> the nation’s first city-wide on-street car-sharing program as a public-private partnership between Hoboken and Connect by Hertz. <img src="/files/u20603/Corner_Car_5_Minute_Walk_Map.jpg" width="503" height="539" /> <img src="/files/u20603/cornercars_sign.jpg" width="415" height="531" />

June 17 - Ian Sacs

FEATURE

Road Diets: Making Streets Slim Down Is Good For Pedestrians, Businesses And Even Traffic

Cities are greatly in need of slimming down their roads, says architect Michael Bohn. A recent project in Long Beach, California shows how curb extensions and street furniture can have a huge impact on the economics of downtowns.

June 14 - Michael Bohn

BLOG POST

Valuing The Precious Hours Of Our Lives

Time is a limited and valuable resource. As much as possible, people should spend the precious hours of their lives in the most satisfying and productive possible ways. This has important implications for transportation planning, since most people spend a significant amount of time in transport, and travel time savings are often the greatest projected benefits of transport projects such as roadway and transit service improvements.

June 14 - Todd Litman

BLOG POST

In Memoriam: William Mitchell

<div>I learned with great sadness about the loss of William Mitchell, 65, this past friday after a long battle with cancer. Bill was the chair of my Ph.D. committee, a mentor and a friend.</div><div>

June 13 - Anthony Townsend

BLOG POST

Beyond the Trail

A recent Planetizen interview on the <a href="/node/44392" target="_blank">relationship between park space and active living</a> got me thinking about what spaces inspire physical activity and what spaces discourage it. In my old apartment complex, the indoor fitness centers were jammed while the nearby riverside walking trails were desolate, despite nearly perfect year-round weather. Why? The trails were perceived as unsafe because they were completely isolated from view.

June 12 - Diana DeRubertis

BLOG POST

Kentucky's Second Sunday Ciclovia Takes Flight

Jay McChord is as energetic and passionate a person as you’ll find in America. While many know him as a generational communication consultant, a Lexington, Kentucky City Councilman, or even as a former University of Kentucky “Wildcat” mascot, livable streets advocates should know him as the chief architect of the only statewide ciclovia program in the United States: Kentucky’s <a href="http://www.2ndsundayky.com/Second"></a>(2S) initiative (<a href="http://www.2ndsundayky.com/index.htm">http://www.2ndsundayky.com/index.htm</a>).

June 11 - Mike Lydon

FEATURE

South America Incubates Cable Propelled Transit

June 10 - Steven Dale

BLOG POST

Being Productive On The Bus

In a recent blog post (at http://www.planetizen.com/node/44518) Steven Polzin argues that drivers are more productive because they get places faster. His post, in turn, generated an avalanche of critiques noting the negative externalities of auto travel (e.g. pollution, death and injury from traffic accidents, health costs of obesity, etc.). But what I'd like to address is something else: the positive productivity benefits of transit use. Let's suppose that it takes me 30 minutes to reach destination X on the bus, and 15 minutes by car. Obviously, the car is more productive. Right?

June 5 - Michael Lewyn

BLOG POST

The Cost of Slow Travel

One of the most widely cited numbers in contemporary transportation media coverage and policy discussions is the cost of congestion estimates that Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) annually produces as part of the Urban Mobility Report series. The 2009 version of that report (<a href="http://mobility.tamu.edu/ums/)">http://mobility.tamu.edu/ums/)</a> shows an estimate of the cost of congestion of $87.4 Billion for the top 439 U.S.

June 4 - Steven Polzin

BLOG POST

The Search for Community One Sleepover at a Time?

I have to admit, listening to Peter Lovenheim talk about his book “In the Neighborhood, The Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time”, spiked my planner’s radar. In his novel, the journalist, quite intentionally, well, the title is self-explanatory isn’t it? It sounded a bit hokey and contrived at first, as did the interview. Lovenheim explained that the only way to truly get to know someone and develop a real sense of intimacy and bond was to sleep in their home and shadow them for the day. But the real story is about the loss of intimacy and comfort among neighbors.

June 3 - Melissa Hege

FEATURE

Federal Fortresses: How Much Building Security is Too Much?

Maureen McAvey, Executive Vice President with the Urban Land Institute, spoke recently to a congressional committee on the growing problem of federal buildings that are designed with myopic attention to security and ignore urban growth strategies.

June 3 - Maureen McAvey

BLOG POST

The Gulf Disaster and Planning

In a <a href="/node/44089">recent Planetizen post</a> I argued that the unfolding oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico may be perhaps our last warning to move more aggressively on renewable energy and a less energy-dependent built environment. What follows is an effort to outline additional implications for planning, to gain an understanding of the scale of this emergency and how it may impact planning in the months and years to come. Ecologically, economically and socially this is going to be like nothing we’ve ever seen before.

June 2 - Michael Dudley

BLOG POST

Finding Information about Planning: What Do Faculty Do?

Planning students are often told to find good information. How to do that is becoming both simpler, due to various search engines and databases, and more complex, given the amount of information available.

May 31 - Ann Forsyth

BLOG POST

Sustainable Transport and Livable Community Planning

My career is based, to a large degree, on my master’s thesis, which was a comprehensive evaluation of the full costs of various forms of transport. This provides a framework for determining optimal pricing, calculating the benefits of mode shifting and <a href="http://www.vtpi.org/tdm">demand management</a> strategies, and for comprehensive analysis of policy and planning decisions.

May 31 - Todd Litman

BLOG POST

Johannesburg's Auto-Orientation and the Persecution of the Pedestrian Majority

You really need to almost get hit by a car to feel like a true Johannesburg pedestrian. That's the way it goes here. A huge, sprawling greater metropolitan area of about 10 million people covering more than 600 square miles, the city is built for the car. And if you're not in one, good luck.

May 31 - Nate Berg

FEATURE