Infrastructure
Jerusalem Mayor Wants BRT Finish for Light Rail System
The mayor of Jerusalem is seeking to cancel plans for expanding the city's light rail system in favor of buses, which he is calling a less expensive and more flexible alternative.
Roads On Sale
As business slows down, road construction contractors are slashing their prices. They're offering lower bids to states across the country for road work, leading many transportation officials to foresee more work able to be funded by the stimulus.
A Blueprint For Making Cities Efficient, Sustainable And Livable
Nicolai Ouroussoff, architecture critic for The New York Times, argues that the time is right for a new vision of rebirth for America's ailing cities. He applies this new vision to the challenges of New Orleans, Los Angeles, the Bronx, and Buffalo.
Ports Weather Recession as Investments Pour In
The entire country is in recession, but the nation's ports are experiencing a flood of interest from investors, according to this article from Reason.
Smart Grid Not As Complicated As Some Say
The smart grid is not as hard to define as some have suggested. Jesse Berst, managing director of Global Smart Energy says making it work will be tough, but it's really just a matter of coordinating three crucial aspects, according to Worldchanging.
New York City: Light it Right
What light is right? How much is too much? These questions don't typically get asked in cities, as they simply rely on what they've always done. But now the Municipal Art Society in New York is bringing these issues to the table.
Funding Street Networks, Not Sprawl: A Conversation With CNU's John Norquist
Streetsblog speaks with CNU President John Norquist about how federal policy can live up to the promises of "sustainable communities" coming from DOT and HUD.
Clash of Subways and Car Culture in Chinese Cities
The question is whether the burrowing machines can outrace China’s growing love affair with the automobile.
Redirecting Bridge Funding Could Create Citywide Light Rail for Vancouver
A public-private partnership that would have built a new 10-lane bridge in British Columbia has fallen apart, leaving the $3.1 billion tab on the BC government. Researchers say that much money could build a 200-km light rail system instead.
Krieger: Bike Registrations Improve Bike Safety
BikePortland.com editor Jonathan Maus interviews Rep. Wayne Krieger about his legislation requiring cyclists to register their bicycles.
California Desert Contested in Alternative Energy Plans
California wants solar and wind power, but just where it goes is rife with controversy. Senator Dianne Feinstein is coming out against plans to build huge solar and wind farms in sensitive desert areas.
Reinventing Infrastructure with Tech
According to Kazys Varnelis, architects should spend less time worrying about the little funding that the stimulus allots to highways and rail, and spending more time focusing on new technologies that supplement typical infrastructure.
Staten Island Rail on the Drawing Board
A year-long study of the proposed West Shore Light Rail finds that the borough could draw nine stations and about 13,000 riders traveling within Staten Island or to Manhattan.
Unbuilt Skyscrapers Mean Sky-High Unemployment
No work has been done on the Chicago Spire, the city's latest planned skyscraper, since the credit market froze up in January. A brief look at the blow to the building industry, in which joblessness is at a rate of 21.4%.
Japan's Bullet Trains to Top 310 MPH by 2025
High speed train technology is progressing at a rapid pace in Japan, where mag-lev bullet trains are planned to travel at speeds of more than 310 miles per hour by the year 2025.
OK City Not OK for Walking
Jeff Speck takes a walk in Oklahoma City and finds too-wide streets, too-low density and too much danger for pedestrians.
Signs of Spring for Smart Growth
The $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that President Obama signed on Feb. 17 left advocates of compact and transit-oriented development practically biting their tongues.
A Carbon-Neutral City?
A region known more for carbon emissions strives to create a carbon-neutral city powered by renewable energy and designed to reduce overall energy demand.
Virginia Bans the Cul-De-Sac In New Subdivisions
Through streets in new neighborhoods will reduce traffic on and the cost of maintaining overburdened arterials, but builders and residents say it'll make their communities less safe and attractive.
The News Hour Reports On Public Transit In Peril
"Blueprint America" looks at declining public transit subsidies and resulting transit service cuts. The video and report follows two East Bay commuters on suburban bus, BART; the transit agency meeting where bus service is reduced; MUNI LRT footage.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Thousand Oaks
City of Wisconsin Rapids
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA)
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
