The Daily Source of Urban Planning News
Take a Ride on Chicago's Elegant Electroliner
Writer J.J. Sedelmaier recalls riding the beautifully streamlined Electroliner trains, which ran on the same tracks as other Chicago rail transit but were a special event all to themselves.
Housing Advocate Jack Layton Dies at 61
Jack Layton, longtime advocate for a national housing policy in Canada has succumbed to cancer just months after leading his New Democratic Party from third party status to official opposition.
$417 Million To Fund Highway Projects
Last week, the Federal Highway Administration awarded discretionary highway grants in what could be among the last expenditures before the Sept. 30 expiration of the gas tax. Included were $8m for Value Pricing Pilot Program projects in 5 states.
Reversible Lanes Puzzle Drivers
The 10-lane Kennedy Expressway in Chicago is forced to manage significantly more traffic than it was designed to handle. Traffic planners have installed a flexible lane that can increase the flow in one direction, but Chicagoans are baffled by them.
Portland Approves Plan to Preserve Large Areas as Rural
Portland, Oregon is already known for having a strict policy regarding its urban growth boundary. A new 50-year plan designates large rural reserves, while also holding large areas as <em>urban</em> reserves for possible future development.
My Future City is Houston?
The BMW Guggenheim Lab has released an online urban planning game called "Urbanology," which asks a serious of questions to determine the type of city you think is the future.
How New Yorkers Saved Their Public Spaces
Laura Vanderkam tells of a not-too-distant past where New York's parks and public places were in disarray, and it took public-private partnerships to bring them back to their former glory (and maybe better).
Governor Backs Environmental Alternative To 'Big Solar'
Environmental opposition to large solar and wind projects in the desert usually based on their biological impacts has long baffled many renewable power advocates. CA Gov. Jerry Brown expressed support for the alternative, 'distributed generation'.
Sunday Funny: Fake "Proposed Land Use Action" in Seattle
In Seattle's Green Lake neighborhood, a local with a wicked sense of humor has taken planning into his/her own hands, posting a plan to turn an empty eyesore of a lot into a public park.
Brookings Compares 'Zero-Vehicle Households' To Those With Vehicles
Not to be confused with zero-emission-vehicles, the Brookings Institution looks primarily at the demographics and access to jobs of what they define as zero-vehicle households. Access to vehicles reveals equity (income) and urban vs. suburban issues.
Learning to Love the Megabus
Private bus companies are gaining in popularity, but Aaron Renn says that a large segment of the "urbanist/sustainability community" despise them for no good reason.
Publicly-Funded Stadiums Bad Deal for Cities
Sports teams often coerce cities into contributing public funds toward the building of new stadiums. Numerous reports indicate that it's a bad deal for cities with little to no positive economic impact, writes Neal DeMause.
Complete Streets Arrives In Bay Area
Gary Richards, the Roadshow columnist for the San Jose Mercury News, provides many examples of redesigning streets for bikes, peds, and transit throughout the Bay Area, a direct result of the 2008 California Complete Streets legislation.
Times Square "Meeting Bowls" Bring People Together
New street furniture being tested in the Broadway pedestrian zone attempts to create a semi-sheltered, intimate space in the middle of the glitz of 42nd St.
Texas Infrastructure Under Gov. Perry
Now that Gov. Perry has declared his candidacy for President, the Houston Chronicle has begun a series of articles to spotlight how infrastructure has fared under the state's longest serving governor. Transportation is the focus of the first report.
Richard Florida Picks Hot Urban Neighborhoods
In USA Today, Florida picks 10 neighborhoods that give a "slice of local urban life," ranging from Miami's Wynwood and Design District to Fort Worth, Texas' West 7th community.
A Fictional City Traced in the Desert
A recent art project in Peru utilizes a robotic vehicle to trace a scale outline of a city into the empty desert, raising questions about urbanization in deserts and the formation of cities.
Thousands of Public Gardens for London 2012
Leading up to the 2012 Olympics, a group in London is taking advantage of stalled building projects to create 2,012 public gardens in the city before the sporting event.
Friday Funny: Crossing the Street in Vietnam Takes Gumption
What crosswalk? Watch this man effortlessly synchronizes his steady gait with the oncoming cavalry of cars, buses, and motorcycles as he crosses a busy street in Vietnam. If there is fear, he sure does a great job not showing it.
Expanding the Panama Canal On Time and Under Budget
Completed in 1914, the project was the most ambitious undertaking by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in its time. Today, the $5.25 billion upgrade is in the works.
City of Moorpark
City of Tustin
Tyler Technologies
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
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.
