Adding amenities such as public restrooms and shade trees can make greenways like Detroit’s Joe Louis Greenway more inviting and comfortable for their users.
What steps could cities take to make multi-use greenways more user-friendly? According to Boston University lecturer Anne Lusk, adding amenities like restrooms, benches, and playgrounds can make greenways more inviting and comfortable for families and seniors, among others.
In a piece for Time, Micheline Maynard outlines Lusk’s research, which focuses on greenways and how people use them. In many cases, greenway projects are located along formerly industrial corridors with few existing shade trees. “Lusk says she would also like to see cities build more protected bike lanes on their streets leading to greenways, turning them into seamless transportation systems.”
These steps would help integrate greenways into the broader mobility options a city offers and make them a viable, functional part of the transportation network.
FULL STORY: Greenways Are Reviving American Cities. Some Say They Could Be Improved
Indianapolis Advances Plans to Expand and Connect Citywide Greenway Network
Indianapolis is developing a new Greenways Strategic Implementation Plan to expand, connect, and modernize its trail system, aiming for over 250 miles of greenways that support sustainability, mobility, and community well-being.
Public and Private Collaboration Advances Park Development in Houston
Houston may be known to some as a concrete jungle, but its greenspaces continue to expand thanks to combined support from the public, private, and philanthropic sectors.
Miami’s Underline Linear Park Offers Recreation, Transportation, Conservation
A 10-mile park that runs under the Miami Metrorail is nearly complete and features bioswales for water conservation and public recreation facilities.
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.
New Jersey’s second-largest city bans standalone data centers
Jersey City will continue to allow co-location facilities, such as those meant for research institutions that store their own data.
Amtrak not solely to blame for New Jersey commuter rail's unreliability, report finds
A new study from the Garden State Initiative found that NJ Transit’s budget grew 20% across a 4 year period, but reliability declined significantly over the same period.
EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
Under Monday’s plan, power plants would still have some limits on how much mercury, arsenic and other contaminants they can emit.
Phoenix announces new on-demand transit service, more frequent RAPID buses
Both new services will launch in October, and are part of Phoenix's Project Effective Access Solutions for Easing Congestion.
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