The Daily Source of Urban Planning News
Is China Spending Too Much on Trains?
Financial analysts in China say that the country is spending far too much money - to the tune of $229 billion - on its nationwide high-speed passenger-rail network.
CalTrans Sued Over Disability Access, Settles for $1.1b in Fixes
Civil rights activists sued CalTrans for failing to provide wheelchair ramps across the state. In federal court yesterday, CalTrans settled with the groups, agreeing to over a billion dollars in access improvements over 30 years.
Sustainable Olmsted
Vandergrift, PA was a company town designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1895. Today, the town is looking back to Olmsted's original plan to improve the town's sustainability.
Farms Growing in Colorado
Dipping into Colorado's census information reveals 7,000 new farms in the state, in addition to other surprising statistics.
Martin County, FL Approving Rural Development
Arterial intersections around Martin County, Florida may soon see 7-11s and gas stations as county officials prepare a new growth plan.
Returning to Las Vegas
Nicolai Ourousoff pays a visit to an exhibit at Yale that looks back at 'Learning From Las Vegas,' the famed book on Sin City architecture from the 1970s.
Federal Bills To Provide Billions For Transportation Working Through Congress
The jobs and defense bills - both of which will provide much needed money for transportation projects while extending the current transportation authorization law (SAFETEA-LU) through Sept. 2010, are working there way to the President's desk.
Federal Grants Make Taxis More Accessible
A new federal grant program is enabling private car and taxi companies in cities across the country to buy new handicapped-accessible cars for their fleets.
The Infrastructural Divide
Infrastructure spending is becoming a dividing issue amongst political factions in America, according to this piece from <em>Wired</em>.
Snow Cleared for Cars, Not Bikes or Pedestrians
Streetsblog looks at snow clearing around the Northeast after the recent storm, and finds that bike paths and sidewalks get less preferential treatment.
'Mad Men' and Cities
Edward L. Glaeser uses the TV show Mad Men as a reflection on the vitality of cities as the center of idea-based industries like advertising and finance.
Epic Battle Over Hospital in Bethseda
The Wall St. Journal looks at the epic struggle between developers, planners and locals over a new hospital that would replace 1/5th of the neighborhoods homes, and the piles of paperwork that result.
Brazilian BRT Spreads Through Latin America
This article looks at the influence of the bus rapid transit system of Curitiba, Brazil, and how it is becoming a major aspect of urban design in other Latin American cities.
Northeast Shut Out From High Speed Rail Money
The Northeast corridor has effectively been shut out from receiving any federal high speed rail stimulus dollars due to tight environmental review policies.
Dismissing 'Utilitarian' Building May Hurt Ottawa
Plans to quickly rebuild the historic Lansdowne Park in Ottawa instead of spending time on a design competition have spurred hot controversy in the city. Architecture critic Christopher Hume says the fast approach is bad for the project and the city.
Tax District Approved for D.C. Metro Extension
Officials in Virginia have approved a special tax district to raise funding for the extension of the Washington D.C. Metro to Dulles International Airport.
Mock Afghan City Helps Train Civilians
For more than 1,000 U.S. civilians being sent to Afghanistan to aid the nation's political and economic recovery, training starts in a small Indiana city where the Army and National Guard have built a mock Afghan city complex.
Spend More, Get Less
Is San Francisco the worst-run big city in the country? The SF Weekly argues that despite spending more per capita than any other city, SF fails to deliver on almost everything.
Parking Requirements Over-Projected
Prof. Robert Cervero at UC Berkeley studied parking needs at transit-oriented developments in the Bay Area and Portland and found that, on average, they exceeded peak demand by 25-30%.
Recession Pulls Transit Ridership Down
Transit ridership has dipped in 2009, according to a new report from the American Public Transportation Association. The recession and high unemployment rates are being blamed.
City of Thousand Oaks
City of Wisconsin Rapids
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA)
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
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.
