Automobile Dependency
How Cities Can Plan For the Rise of Autonomous Vehicles
When cars first started proliferating on American roads, it led to increased sprawl and flight from central cities. What can we do now to prevent the same problem as AVs become more widespread?
What Is Greenfield Development?
Greenfield land has remained untouched by previous development. Some definitions of greenfield land also include agricultural land. Thus, greenfield development encroaches on the natural environment to expand the built environment.
Getting to Work: New Commute Duration Heatmaps
The Mineta Transportation Institute's new interactive website produces heatmaps that illustrate commute duration—the number of minutes that workers spend traveling to their jobs—plus related information, for most U.S. communities.
What Will It Take for the U.S. to Kick the Car Habit?
Government played a big role in creating the car-centric United States that exists today. Climate change requires that government take the lead in reducing automobile dominance.
GOP Counterproposal Aims to Restore the Infrastructure Status Quo
Of the $568 billion in spending proposed by the "Republican Roadmap," $299 billion would go to infrastructure for cars.
Austin City Council Urges TxDOT to Reconsider I-35 Expansion
In a letter to the department, the city called for an increased focus on shifting demand away from single-occupancy vehicles and boosting other forms of transportation.
Did the Pandemic End the Car's Domination of New York Streets?
Imagining a post-car (or car-lite) New York City.
Reversing Car Dependency
A new report examines how governments can encourage citizens to use alternatives to private cars in order to reduce car dependency.
Watch: How Induced Demand Explains the Vicious Cycle of Congestion
A new Vox video tackles the controversial and counterintuitive concept of induced demand.
Automobile Dependency: An Unequal Burden
Automobile-dependent planning has changed automobiles from a luxury into a necessity. Excessive vehicle costs leave many households without money to purchase essential food, shelter and healthcare. They need more affordable transportation options.
Walkability Plan, Including Parking Reform, Adopted in Houston
The city of Houston is embarking on an ambitious plan to reshape how new development in the city prioritizes walkability, and deprioritizes the automobile.
Liberating Cities from Cars
Examining models of progress toward restrictions on the use and storage of automobiles from urban areas around the world.
New York Poised to Become a Biking City
Could the pandemic be a tipping point for a century of car-centric planning in New York City's to give way to a more bike-friendly city?
How Cities Are Responding to Automobile Congestion
As economies begin to reopen around the world, some cities are taking action to prevent widespread gridlock.
Chain Restaurants and Cars Go Together. Driving Ruins Local Flavor
City Observatory research shows that urban regions where residents drive less and rely more on other travel modes have more independent restaurants and more varied dining options. Bon appetit for walking, bicycling and public transit.
Three Ways Cities Can Combat Extreme Heat
As temperatures rise, there are some relatively simple changes cities can implement to cut cooling costs and deal with spells of extreme heat.
Breaking the Cycle of Automobile Dependency
Many current planning practices reinforce a cycle of increased automobile use, more automobile-oriented community redevelopment, and reduced mobility options. There are good reasons to break this pattern.
The Wonderful World of Vicious Circles
Government's pro-sprawl and anti-density policies often create problems that justify more of the same.
The Automobile as Prison. The City as Freedom.
The automobile has been pitched as a machine for freedom, but travelling inside a small metal box, strapped to a chair, forced to focus on the road while your life is threatened by two-ton projectiles doesn’t sound like freedom to David Levinson.
Economic Independence or Auto Dependency?
A new study calls for "universal auto access" to combat poverty. It recommends subsidizing auto ownership or access for those who are economically unable to afford the high cost of owning, maintaining, and operating a personal motor vehicle.
City of Costa Mesa
Licking County
Barrett Planning Group LLC
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Universal City TX
ULI Northwest Arkansas
Town of Zionsville
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.
