Vancouver combined environmental goals and traffic safety goals.
David Goldberg shares the story of Vancouver's approach to street trees, and their benefit to traffic safety.
In the late 20th century, the city began to use traffic circles and curb bulges — or bulbs, as they’re known stateside — to slow traffic in residential areas, and quickly learned that the new spaces provided an opportunity for gardening. Vancouver’s popular Green Streets program recruits volunteers to tend gardens in the traffic calming spaces, with the city paying for the initial planting. In the 1990s, the city began converting side streets into “bike boulevards” and pursued a “greenways” plan that tore out asphalt and concrete in some places to make park-like streets where biking and walking were comfortable. Today, the city has 108 miles of such corridors.
According to Golberg, Vancouver's connection between trees and safety is a unique take on the "complete streets" concept of street design. Vancouver implements its street trees programs in accordance with the Renewable City action plan from 2015 and the Greenest City action plan from 2015. The city is also currently working on an integrated stormwater management plan.
FULL STORY: Thanks to Comprehensive Street Design, Vancouver Sows for the Future
Oregon Passes Exemption to Urban Growth Boundary
Cities have a one-time chance to acquire new land for development in a bid to increase housing supply and affordability.
Where Urban Design Is Headed in 2024
A forecast of likely trends in urban design and architecture.
Savannah: A City of Planning Contrasts
From a human-scales, plaza-anchored grid to suburban sprawl, the oldest planned city in the United States has seen wildly different development patterns.
Washington Tribes Receive Resilience Funding
The 28 grants support projects including relocation efforts as coastal communities face the growing impacts of climate change.
Adaptive Reuse Bills Introduced in California Assembly
The legislation would expand eligibility for economic incentives and let cities loosen regulations to allow for more building conversions.
LA's Top Parks, Ranked
TimeOut just released its list of the top 26 parks in the L.A. area, which is home to some of the best green spaces around.
City of Rochester
Boston Harbor Now
City of Bellevue
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Birmingham, Alabama
City of Laramie, Wyoming
Colorado Department of Local Affairs
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.