Walkability’s greatest gifts to health are most accessible when we encounter one another in the flesh. In pedestrian-friendly environments, others amenitize space. On the highway, they encumber it.
"Leading into the Thanksgiving weekend, a video of holiday traffic on Los Angeles’ 405 Freeway hit the Twitterverse. Kinda hypnotizing, but probably not as fun to experience if you were in one of the cars 'stuck in traffic.' (Smart Growth transportation planners couldn’t resist tweeting one of their favorite jabs: 'If you find yourself in this situation, you’re not stuck in traffic. You ARE the traffic.')"
"Most of us have been the traffic at one time or another, crawling along in a slow-moving line, ruing the route we chose and cursing the billboard that creeps into view: 'If you lived here, you’d be home now.'”
Ben Brown talks about the difference in energy when we are queuing up in our cars, versus on foot with our neighbors. And how the urban context matters.
Read the full story: Step Away from the Vehicle (And take back the journey)
Congestion Costing Reality Check, Part 2: A congestion costing critique
There are good reasons to be skeptical of highway industry claims that traffic congestion is a growing problem. Their analysis is often incomplete and biased. Let’s pull back the curtain on some major congestion cost studies.
Induced demand is real: Commutes on Houston's 26-lane freeway take 51% longer after expansion
A massive freeway expansion only led to longer drive times, showing that building more lanes won't solve congestion.
Study: NYC congestion pricing didn't impact parking demand
A city report shows that free parking, not congestion pricing, is the main driver of limited parking demand in the city.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Chicago breaks ground on $3 billion megadevelopment
The new neighborhood, titled Foundry Park, will one day host 3,700 residences.
Want to study the Missouri River? Soon, you may need unanimous approval from 10 states
Legislation would require 10 governors’ permission to study or build projects moving water outside the basin.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
This road in NYC is infamously dangerous — and Mamdani can't fix it
New York City's Ocean Parkway is known for reckless driving, but the power to implement safety measures lies with the state rather than the city.
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.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority