The Daily Source of Urban Planning News
Unpredictable, High Risk, High Cost: Planning for the Worst Is the Worst
Ben Brown takes a hard look at our capacities and limitations in a world more complex than we’d prefer.
Op-Ed: Stay Expensive, New York—It Helps the Rest of the U.S.
Here's a controversial assertion: expensive, desirable cities are doing everyone else a favor by forcing people to move.
Americans Continue to Drive More, Reports Federal Highway Administration
New driving totals are out for June and and the first six months of 2016, and the news is not good for those who want to see a reduction in what is now the greatest source of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions.
How Built Environments Hyper-Activate Evolution
Welcome to a post-human era of biological evolution. Strap on your seat belts.
Bad Roads and Bridges Costing California Motorists as Much as $2,800 Annually
The transportation research group, TRIP, tallied costs from additional crashes, higher operating costs, and congestion that result from insufficient investment in California's roads and bridges. A new effort was launched to increase state funding.
Dallas Planning Light Rail (Which Could Become a Subway) and a Streetcar
Downtown Dallas could have an embarrassment of riches on its hands, if it figures out how to make plans for a Downtown streetcar coordinate well with a new Downtown light rail route.
The Politics of Sidewalk Funding
Do cities that make homeowners repair sidewalks subsidize car culture? Or do cities that fund sidewalks subsidize sprawl?
Moscow's Erratic Shift Towards a Walkable City
Moscow's Mayor has pushed an agenda to beautify the city, create social spaces, and make the city more walkable, but critics see the move towards walkability as more of a forced march.
Developing Countries Require More Urban Planning Capacity to Meet Growing Needs
How can the Global South implement the New Urban Agenda with colonial-era curricula and little investment in training? Zambia offers a new model.
Minneapolis Grapples with Food Truck Regulations
Downtown property owners are clashing with food truck operators over where the latter should park their businesses.
Study: Bad Arterials Poison Good Residential Streets
It's something we feel intuitively: poorly-designed arterial roads make for less comfortable neighborhoods. That remains the case even if the adjoining residential streets are quiet and safe.
What's Keeping the U.S. Behind China on Infrastructure Investment?
The problem, Paul Rosenstiel writes, isn't a scarcity of capital. It's an unwillingness to make investing in infrastructure a lucrative choice for private capital.
The Silicon Valley Adds Another Single-Story Overlay District
The footprint of the so-called single-story overlay districts is growing in the Silicon Valley.
Looking to Add More Trees? Mind the 'Sidewalk Gray Zone'
A case study provided by the MillionTreesNYC program offers insight into complicated territorial boundaries that can challenge urban greening projects.
Critiquing the Implementation of Seattle's Pedestrian Master Plan
A status update of the Seattle Pedestrian Master Plan leaves a writer wondering if the backlog of pedestrian infrastructure maintenance will grow while only a few planned projects get built.
JFK AirTrain Surprise: Reduced Frequencies
Some inquisitive and interested observers noticed surprising changes to the schedule of the AirTrain, connecting Queens to JFK International Airport.
Poor Urban Planning and the Birth of Hip Hop
An architect known as the Hip-Hop Architect explains how the planning decisions of the 20th century served as muse and breeding ground for the multi-million-dollar industry of hip hop.
BLOG POST
Crowdsourcing Clean Drinking Water, Interview with Sean Montgomery
An Interview with Sean Montgomery, the inventor of CitizenSpring, an app that collects and maps data about safe drinking water.
Minnesota's Southwest Light Rail on its Last Legs
Republicans in Minnesota are ready to put the final nail in the coffin of the proposed Southwest light rail project, which would connect downtown Minneapolis to Eden Prairie.
For Sale: Naming Rights to Sacramento-Area Light Rail Stations
Is anybody buying?
City of Moorpark
City of Tustin
Tyler Technologies
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Chaddick Institute at DePaul 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.
