The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Jay Walljasper pays a visit to Detroit, and finds an intersection where wealth and Detroit's famous urban decay live cheek-by-jowl.

August 15 - Citiwire.net

A new website intends to be both a crowdsourced wiki of information on buildings and an open forum for architectural criticism.

August 15 - Metropolis Magazine

University of Missouri-Kansas City researchers are making headway on "self-synchronizing moving objects" -- that is, getting cars to communicate with each other on highways so they can travel at faster speeds without accidents.

August 14 - The Kansas City Star

KALW's transportation reporter takes a ride across the Bay Bridge during the peak period to experience the new travel patterns brought on by the Bay Area's first experience with congestion pricing - she interviews a UC specialist in human behavior.

August 14 - KALW News via SF Gate

Maury Blackman of Accela writes that local governments will have a significant effect on whether electric cars take off or not, because they will be approving and building the necessary infrastructure.

August 14 - Accela Corporate blog

As reported earlier this year on Planetizen, the bar cars on Metro-North Railroad's Connecticut trains: train cars were hitting retirement age, and it looked like no replacements were coming for the pubs on wheels. But wait- there's hope yet!

August 14 - The Wall St. Journal

Seattle has a long list of transportation projects on the drawing boards, but little money to bring them into reality. So local officials are considering a plan to create transportation taxing districts to help fund the projects.

August 14 - The Seattle Times

The satirical newspaper The Onion reports on how the safe transfer of millions of barrels of oil into the energy infrastructure of the United States will result in environmental calamity.

August 13 - The Onion

The San Francisco Peninsula stretch of the LA-SF high speed rail line appears to be stirring up as a classic debate between suburban San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties.

August 13 - San Francisco Chronicle - Business Report

Popular Mechanics features a slideshow of fantastic examples of landscape architecture, from Scotland's Garden of Cosmic Speculation to the Growth Chamber on the International Space Station.

August 13 - Popular Mechanics

BLOG POST

<p class="ecxMsoNormal"> A couple of weeks ago, I was on a bus in Chicago and noticed something that I had not noticed before- that how you paid to get on the bus affected how long you took to get on the bus.<span>  </span>People who flashed monthly passes boarded in a few seconds.<span>  </span>People who put in dollar bills got on a lot more slowly, as they fumbled for the right number of bills.<span>  </span>People who had to pay change took longer still.<span>  </span> </p> <p class="ecxMsoNormal"> So to speed buses’ on-time performance (pun intended) transit agencies should encourage the former and discourage the latter. </p>

August 13 - Michael Lewyn

In some cases, argues Yonah Freemark, it makes more sense to bring cars into your downtown than to keep them out. Freemark visits Raleigh, North Carolina, where the city opened its pedestrian-only downtown to cars with some success.

August 13 - Next American City

Recent developments in Winnipeg's historic warehouse district are coming under scrutiny after the district was places on an "Endangered Places" list.

August 13 - Winnipeg Free Press

Officials are planning to install a second major separated bike lane in downtown Vancouver. Local business owners are trying to stop them.

August 13 - The Vancouver Sun

Developers in China have announced plans to build a recreation of the hometown of Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali.

August 13 - The Guardian

A new study suggests that the people who cycle the most are likely to own at least two cars.

August 13 - The Guardian

Despite a growing population and limited amounts of rainfall, the city of El Paso, Texas, has been able to effectively manage its water supplies -- and reduce use.

August 13 - Grist

Designing cities for all age groups means designing places where everyone from kids to seniors can feel safe walking, according to this column. Groups in Toronto are calling on mayoral candidates to get behind that idea.

August 13 - The Toronto Star

FEATURE

In 1995, author and planning authority Peter Katz wrote an article scolding planners for being "planners who talk" rather than "planners who draw". The original article generated much controversy, and appears here with a postscript added by Katz that reveals a glimmer of hope for the planning profession in the U.S.

August 12 - Peter Katz

After publishing two articles calling for Charlotte-area drivers to be more considerate of bicyclists, the comments on the online version were so numerous and hateful that the paper closed them down.

August 12 - The Charlotte Observer