The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

Here are five urban IT projects that are set to win big this year -- and serve as examples for cities everywhere.

January 5 - Future Cities

Mexico is poised to allow foreign investment in its state-owned oil company, Pemex, for the first time in 75 years. In Venezuela, home to the world's cheapest gasoline, prices are due to skyrocket if President Maduro ends subsidies as he's indicated.

January 5 - BBC News

A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine examines which types of distractions lead to the most collisions. Researchers found that dialing while driving is the biggest safety hazard.

January 5 - Los Angeles Times

Louise Bethune was a trailblazer in architecture, yet her burial place didn't even bear her name for over a century. Buffalo's industry heavyweights honored her with a memorial marker last month.

January 5 - Fast Co. Design

Though it's been expedited, the cumbersome environmental review process for a plan to raise the deck of the Bayonne Bridge has New York area leaders fuming over impediments to economic development. Others contend the review is being rushed.

January 4 - The New York Times

2013 was a historic year for rooftop solar installation across the United States, and in California in particular. The Golden State added as much rooftop solar capacity as was installed over the prior 30 years combined.

January 4 - Climate Progress

In an opinion piece for the Vancouver Sun, a trio of academics argue that, contrary to popular belief, socially mixed neighborhoods can be damaging to the supposed beneficiaries: low-income groups.

January 4 - The Vancouver Sun

Gas prices will drop due to surging U.S. oil production according to an U.S. Energy Dept. report. Another report from the International Energy Agency points to surging carbon dioxide emissions, not from oil but from coal burning, largely from China.

January 4 - The New York Times - Energy & Environment

Michael Sorkin bemoans the trickle-down planning ethos of the Bloomberg era and sees the need to increase the city's resiliency as an opportunity to "return to the task of physical planning attuned to local desires".

January 4 - Architectural Record

We regret we weren't able to deliver this valuable information last month, but apparently a "hangover taxi" stocked with orange juice, sunglasses, and Tylenol has been offering free rides to stricken Londoners.

January 3 - Los Angeles Times

Led by the nonprofit David Suzuki Foundation, a volunteer workforce of "park rangers" is deploying creative green interventions along private properties and public spaces throughout Toronto to create a citywide green corridor.

January 3 - Fast Company Co.Exist

Launched last summer, the regional bike share program is looking to expand this spring to one thousand bikes in one hundred kiosks, according to Air District officials who administer the five-city, three-county pilot program and view it as a success.

January 3 - San Francisco Chronicle

With the U.S. ranking 35th out of 148 countries in Internet bandwidth and anywhere from 14th to 31st in average connection speed, experts are warning that the country's broadband deficit could harm its economic and technological competitiveness.

January 3 - The New York Times

As part of its quest to become the "Alternative Energy Capital of the World", Lancaster, California will require all new single-family homes to incorporate solar energy systems beginning Jan. 1, 2014.

January 3 - The Civic Bee

A new study by IHS Automotive predicts that 54 million self-driving cars will be on the road by 2035, and that every car will be autonomous by 2050.

January 3 - Los Angeles Times

Over twenty years in office, Mayor Thomas Menino had a considerable impact on Boston's built environment. For Robert Campbell, the Mayor's most substantial accomplishment was in recapturing "the places in between".

January 3 - Boston Globe

Streetsblog has announced the winners of its annual readers' poll on the year's best in sustainable transportation and livable communities.

January 3 - DC.Streetsblog

BLOG POST

A new study claims that public transit does not reduce traffic congestion. It is a good example of how not to evaluate this impact. When measured correctly, high quality transit is found to reduce congestion and increase transport system efficiency.

January 3 - Todd Litman

While secretary of state John Kerry has been jetting around the world pushing for peace in the world's hot spots, the State Department has been undergoing a top-down pivot to address a topic no less daunting: global warming.

January 3 - The New York Times

Sounds counterintuitive doesn't it? But a new study by researchers at George Mason University suggests that eliminating bus stops can drastically improve service without substantially reducing the number of riders served.

January 3 - Governing