Before San Diego can begin to fix its "busted sidewalks and busted sidewalk policies," the city is embarking on a high-tech $1 million effort to assess the quality of its pedestrian infrastructure.
Beginning last week, teams of local college student engineers started fanning out across San Diego as part of a year-long effort to assess the state of each of the city's sidewalks.
Equipped with Spectra Precision MobileMapper 120 GPS units, the students will "map cracks and tree roots uplifting the sidewalks and beam the information back to city staff within 18 inches of the spot," reports Liam Dillon. "Ultimately, the data will go into an algorithm that scores the condition of each sidewalk and rank them citywide to prioritize fixes."
FULL STORY: San Diego Doesn’t Know How Many Sidewalks It Has
How to Integrate Light Rail and Bus Rapid Transit for Walkability and Housing
Better integration between San Diego's various transit modes—trolley (light rail), bus, bus rapid transit, and active transit—are key to increasing use and housing options, argues AVRP planner Howard Blackson III.
Op-ed: Federal austerity is funding what kills us
Tracing the backstory of the last year of cuts to multimodal transportation reveals an alarming definition of road safety that only serves one mode.
San Diego County to build treatment plant for Tijuana River sewage pollution crisis
The river has carried millions of gallons of untreated sewage into San Diego’s South Bay region.
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
New Jersey’s second-largest city bans standalone data centers
Jersey City will continue to allow co-location facilities, such as those meant for research institutions that store their own data.
Amtrak not solely to blame for New Jersey commuter rail's unreliability, report finds
A new study from the Garden State Initiative found that NJ Transit’s budget grew 20% across a 4 year period, but reliability declined significantly over the same period.
EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
Under Monday’s plan, power plants would still have some limits on how much mercury, arsenic and other contaminants they can emit.
Phoenix announces new on-demand transit service, more frequent RAPID buses
Both new services will launch in October, and are part of Phoenix's Project Effective Access Solutions for Easing Congestion.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association