The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

In the 1950s, southern Orange County, California was a place of open hills, citrus groves, and scattered towns. The I-5 Freeway changed that, paving the way for today's subdivisions.

May 10 - KCET

These 20 apps and services will help you engage with everything Chicago has to offer in a whole new way.

May 10 - Netted

The number of people parking at the new Gold Line light rail station in Azusa, California is outstripping the available supply of parking spaces, forcing many onto surrounding residential streets, which now has neighbors up in arms.

May 10 - San Gabriel Valley Tribune

In an opinion piece, former mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York joins Anne Hidalgo of Paris and Eduardo Paes of Rio de Janeiro. They argue that national governments should give cities every possible tool to cut emissions.

May 10 - The Guardian

Apparently to galvanize public support, the Colorado Department of Transportation and an Ohio chamber of commerce have produced videos touting the benefits of widening projects for low-income communities.

May 10 - Streetsblog USA

Bike rooms for office buildings are hardly new. Now they are making their way into the New York City residential real estate market, big time. These rooms may come with bike repair equipment, and in some cases, the apartments may come with new bikes.

May 10 - The New York Times - Real Estate

FEATURE

Some of the most active and valued Twitter users in the planning and urbanism conversation share their favorite Twitter feeds.

May 9 - James Brasuell

A Vox article and podcast delve into the wonky but thought-provoking reasoning behind the land value tax.

May 9 - Vox

Transit riders in the famously small city of San Francisco (in geographic size, anyway) have set a goal to design and build a system that makes it possible to travel between any two points in the city in 30 minutes or less.

May 9 - Hoodline

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell expressed a surprisingly pro-industry viewpoint in response to the growing "keep it in the ground" environmental movement.

May 9 - The Desert Sun

Unless D.C. Metro abides by the Federal Transit Administration safety directives issued Saturday and takes "urgent action," they threatened to shut down all or parts of the system, the nation's second busiest subway after New York's.

May 9 - The Washington Post

As a number of Western States raise their speed limits, the costs of road maintenance, environmental damage, and lost lives keeps going up.

May 9 - Wired

The self-driving car of the future is getting closer to becoming a reality, with GM and Lyft partnering to launch autonomous vehicles for the ride-hailing service within the year.

May 9 - San Jose Mercury News - Silicon Beat

A Planetizen blog post by Casey Brazeal asks, "When will the trucking industry electrify?" Three truck manufacturers and electric truck builder BYD Motors are now in competition thanks to a $23.6 million state grant to the South Coast Air District.

May 9 - Fleet Owner

For feedback on a system overhaul, Pierce Transit in Washington is asking residents to design their own transit system through an interactive survey.

May 9 - The Urbanist

Urbanists, test your knowledge of urban economics. Familiar with the concept of agglomeration externality? Finance professor and Bloomberg View writer Noah Smith opines it's a major reason why American cities are not as productive as they should be.

May 9 - Bloomberg View

Historian Gabriel Rosenberg challenges romanticism in the history of family farms in the US.

May 8 - Boston Globe

Cities are experimenting with safety measures for pedestrians who text while they walk, but the projects could benefit everyone.

May 8 - The Guardian

A fight is brewing over a plan to build 19 luxury homes on an expanse of wilderness in Los Angeles' San Gabriel Mountains.

May 8 - San Gabriel Valley Tribune

The Sightline Institute tackles what may be "our most acute urban public policy challenge."

May 8 - Sightline Institute