Today's Google Doodle celebrates an important component of accessibility and mobility for the visually impaired.
"Today's animated Doodle celebrates Japanese inventor Seiichi Miyake, whose desire to help a close friend turned into an innovation that drastically improved the way those who are visually impaired navigate public spaces around the globe," according to the website Google set up to explain the websites choices of doodles.
The improvement Miyake invented: those raised yellow dots, ubiquitous today on transit platforms all over the world. Miyake spent his own money to develop the idea, to help a visiually impaired friend.
"Aside from identifying tactile tiles via a support or white cane, individuals also do so with the help of guide dogs or feeling them through their shoes," explains Google.
Read the full story: Celebrating Seiichi Miyake
Amtrak makes over 160 stations fully accessible
Upgrades include new elevators, signage and accessible restrooms.
Look North: 3 ways Canadian planners are crushing digital accessibility
Although accessibility regulations look similar in the United States and Canada, our northern neighbors have managed to make planning materials more usable for people with disabilities. Here's what we can learn from them.
Commentary: LA’s ‘Large Asphalt Repair’ Policy Privileges Drivers, Endangers Others
A new policy to perform spot repairs rather than resurfacing entire streets lets the city skirt requirements to install accessibility and pedestrian infrastructure.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
Nation's most wind-powered state turns to coal as data centers increase energy demand
For the first time in decades, Iowa has increased its generation of coal power.
NYC cools commuters with city's first rain garden above a bus stop
New York City officials say the plants in the rain garden can absorb 16 gallons of rainwater during heavy storms.
Brightline West’s future may rely on $6 billion federal loan
The company has until Nov. 2 to make a $400 million equity investment into its proposed high-speed rail line.
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.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association