The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Oil prices are at a five-year low with gasoline prices averaging $2.67 a gallon, lowest since February 2010. Furthermore, they are expected to drop another 17 cents to $2.50 a gallon in time for Christmas, so why not raise the gas tax by a nickel?

December 10 - The Atlantic

Leslie Clagett shares a list of apps for urban designers (helpful to project managers, too) "to streamline design problems, decision making, and materials selection."

December 10 - The Architect's Newspaper

Anthony Williams, who served two terms as D.C. mayor and is credited with the city's turnaround, spoke about creating great neighborhoods at a panel event held by local media company Elevation DC. Cities, he said, need to retain their sense of place.

December 10 - Elevation DC

A recent study measured average prices (both peak and off-peak) of 60,000 properties in 150 cities. New York City showed a surprising distinction in hotel and Airbnb rates.

December 10 - Wall Street Journal - Digits

An article on big think examines a project to find the unique qualities of urban street grids as an exercise in the potential of Big Data.

December 9 - Big Think

An article in Treehugger explains the public safety benefits of protected bike lanes by appealing to common sense.

December 9 - Treehugger

Planning exercises typically require intense baseline data collection, extensive community engagement, visioning, number crunching, analysis, modeling, forecasting, more analysis, tradeoffs, revisions to the baseline data collected at the onset

December 9 - Civicly

In many places around the country, the price of water is increasing, quickly. While the reasons for the increase vary depending on the location, common to the issue is the ability of planning to either help or hinder the problem.

December 9 - Governing

Columbus is considering an investment to expand CoGo, its bikeshare system. After a year-and-a-half of operation with public support, CoGo is a model of bikeshare success.

December 9 - Columbus Business First

Jordan Fraade writes of the embarrassing mishap of the New York City department that misread its own zoning maps. What else are we missing, and at what cost, because of byzantine land use regulations?

December 9 - Al Jazeera America

California's mileage fee pilot program legislation is now law. Dan Weikel of the Los Angeles Times raises two concerns drivers have regarding the switch to a mileage-based fee from a gas tax: privacy and fairness.

December 9 - Los Angeles Times

A column by Aaron Seward provides advice for architects and designers in weathering the public review process. Lesson one: watch how successful politicians do it.

December 9 - The Architect's Newspaper

Defy Media created a Prank It Fwd video that has received over 5 million YouTube views. What those viewers didn't know was that the house given away in the video is part of a land trust from Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland.

December 9 - Shelterforce/Rooflines

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo made a game-changing announcement in the name of clean air and walkability

December 9 - Streetsblog USA

The antecedent of many of the urban design and public realm upgrades that have occurred in Los Angeles in recent years: street life in Latin American cities. Christopher Hawthorne calls it a return to first principles.

December 8 - Los Angeles Times

A study published by the Brooking Institution finds varying results, depending on the neighborhood, for a study of the impact of gasoline prices on home values.

December 8 - Brookings

BLOG POST

Fourteen California municipalities attempted to increase their Transient Occupancy Taxes (TOTs) through ballot measures this November. Why are cities around the state looking to TOTs to increase revenues?

December 8 - Maayan Dembo

FEATURE

Planetizen is pleased to release its list of the ten best books in urban planning, design, and development published in 2014.

December 8 - James Brasuell

Researchers from Denmark and Norway have looked at the accuracy of traffic forecasts for road projects. Their conclusion is that the forecasts systematically overestimate traffic growth rates and the resulting congestion effects.

December 8 - Transport Policy Journal

An appellate court's rejection of SANDAG's $200 billion sustainable communities plan holds far-reaching implications for how regional planners evaluate greenhouse gas emissions from transportation to meet SB 375 requirements to the year 2050.

December 8 - San Diego Union-Tribune