How to use free online tools to redesign your local streetscape.
Have an idea for redesigning a dangerous street in your neighborhood? Andy Boenau, writing in Urbanism Speakeasy, explains how you can easily illustrate your proposed changes using Google Maps and a tool called Streetmix.
Boenau writes, “The point isn't to do the civil engineering work for [planners and engineers], or analyze the intersection operations for them, or determine where exactly bus stops should be. There is value in technical expertise.” But residents can help planners get ideas and understand transportation needs from a hyperlocal perspective.
Boenau outlines the five steps to designing a street with Streetmix. After finding out your street’s width using Google Maps, you can plug that number into Streetmix and begin designing your dream street.
Read the full story: Anyone Can Redesign a Street. Here’s How.
US Street Design Manual Inches Toward Safer Roads
The guiding document for U.S. road design is starting to recognize the needs of people walking and biking, but safe streets advocates say more significant changes are needed to reduce the high number of pedestrian deaths and improve connectivity for all road users.
Study: Ugly Roads are Deadlier, too
New research shows that roads that are perceived as boring and ugly are more dangerous to people outside of cars.
Research: More Complex Streets Are Safer
Streets that offer more perceived obstacles and distractions can force drivers to slow down and drive more carefully.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
US buildings threatened, destroyed by fires set to triple by 2060
Researchers found a high fire risk for socioeconomically vulnerable neighborhoods in the American West.
LA residents may be allowed to paint their own crosswalks
Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky put out a motion instructing the Los Angeles Department of Public Transportation to study the feasibility of allowing volunteers to paint crosswalks.
Dallas moves to overhaul its zoning code
The city's zoning reform will allow more multi-family and mixed-use developments.
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 Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority