What's Wrong With America's Streets - And How To Fix Them

Ben Goldman reports on a new illustrative guide, Sustainable Street Network Principles, published by the Congress for New Urbanism, that seeks to educate planners and officials on how to create successful streets and neighborhoods.

1 minute read

January 27, 2012, 1:00 PM PST

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


According to Goldman, as a plain language companion to the "engineerese" found in the Institute of Transportation Engineers' Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares , "The goal of the Principles is to promote development patterns that add value to communities."

"The way to do that, said CNU President John Norquist, is to design streets to play three simultaneous roles: that of a transportation thoroughfare, a commercial marketplace, and a public space. 'Typically, U.S. DOT and State DOTs tend to look at roads only in the dimension of movement, and even in that one dimension, their rural-style forms fail in the city,' Norquist says."

Wednesday, January 25, 2012 in Streetsblog D.C.

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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