In the 1950s, southern Orange County, California was a place of open hills, citrus groves, and scattered towns. The I-5 Freeway changed that, paving the way for today's subdivisions.

Running parallel to the coast through the heart of the county, the I-5 Freeway follows the path of the El Camino Real, a famed route from California's Spanish period. "If Orange County had a skeleton, the 5 freeway would be its spine. [...] No other piece of infrastructure so thoroughly binds together the spatial structure of Orange County."
Nathan Masters gives us photos and advertisements from the 1950s, when the freeway was extended past a sparkling new Disneyland, opening up the "Southland." Unlike some L.A. County freeways, the 5 didn't displace residents. "[...] for much of its length, construction crews paved over orange groves, bean fields, and cattle pastures rather than residential neighborhoods; when construction began, Orange County was a decidedly rural place, an agricultural landscape dotted by a few small towns, distinct from the Los Angeles metropolis."
"Its backbone in place, Orange County soon evolved from its rural, embryonic form (1950 population: 216,224) into the fully realized postmodern metropolis (2010 population: 3,010,232) we know today." The 5, also known as the Santa Ana Freeway, now runs the length of the country from Mexico to Canada.
FULL STORY: How the 5 Freeway Made Orange County Suburban

Amtrak Ramping Up Infrastructure Projects
Thanks to federal funding from the 2021 infrastructure act, the agency plans to triple its investment in infrastructure improvements and new routes in the next two years.

Ending Downtown San Francisco’s ‘Doom Loop’
A new public space project offers an ambitious vision—so why is the city implementing it at such a small scale?

Proposal Would Transform L.A.’s ‘Freeway to Nowhere’ Into Park, Housing
A never-completed freeway segment could see new life as a mixed-use development with housing, commercial space, and one of the county’s largest parks.

How to Measure Transit Equity
A new report highlights the need to go beyond traditional equity metrics to assess how public transit systems are serving the lowest-income and most disadvantaged riders.

Why Brand New Cities Won’t Solve Our Urban Problems
Building cities takes time and resources. Why not spend them on fixing the ones we have?

Former Brooklyn Sugar Refinery Reopens as All-Electric Office Tower
A historic building was reimagined as a 15-story office tower powered by renewable energy.
Urban3
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Washington University
Mpact: Mobility, Community, Possibility
Lassen County Planning and Building Services
City of San Carlos
National Capital Planning Commission
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.