Car-Centric Planning

Advocates Hope the Next Texas Freeway Widening Won’t Be the Like the Previous
Community Design Fort Worth, a nonprofit collective of planners and designers, is pushing the Texas Department of Transportation to do something revolutionary with its plans to widen Interstate 30.

Friday Funny: The Onion Satirizes the Federal Government’s Electric Car Fetish
The totally satirical, not-at-all-real website The Onion is back with another planning-related fake news take.

California Coastal Commission Nixes Parking Reforms Intended to Spur ADUs in San Diego
Environmental causes run into conflict with zoning reforms intended for environmental benefit once again, as the California Coastal Commission requires San Diego to reinstate parking requirements for ADUs.

Judge Blocks Minneapolis 2040 Implementation, Citing Lack of Environmental Review
Environmentalists have used the power of the legal system to protect the car-centric status quo of single-family zoning once again, overturning a landmark planning innovation in Minneapolis.

Southern California Freeway Expansion Plans Scrapped
After more than a decade of planning, Caltrans has officially dropped the I-710 Corridor Project, a plan to widen Interstate 710 for a long stretch of the freeway near the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Boise’s New Planning Director Warns Against 'Dysfunctional Highways'
On the heels of his stint as Atlanta’s planning director, Tim Keane says Boise should avoid following in the path of American cities that have let highway expansion and sprawl go unchecked for decades.

Traffic Fatalities Set Records as Pandemic-Era Road Carnage Shows No Signs of Stopping
An estimated 42,915 people died in automobile crashes in 2021, according to recent federal data. The increasing fatalities continue a trend that began with the outset of the pandemic.

How U.S. Infrastructure Perpetuates Car Dependence
The assumption that it’s “impossible” to live without a car in many American cities perpetuates infrastructure projects that privilege and induce driving.

Can Portland Have its Climate Goals and Expand its Highways Too?
Portland wants it both ways, but so do most places. But if Portland can't quit the car habit, which cities can?

Planning for Congestion Relief
The third and final installment of Planetizen's examination of the role of the planning profession in both perpetuating and solving traffic congestion.
City of Bothell
Town of San Anselmo
Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency (TPA)
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Harvard Graduate School of Design Executive Education
Harvard Graduate School of Design Executive Education
City of Apache Junction
City of Helena
Gallatin County, Montana
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.
Hand Drawing Master Plans
This course aims to provide an introduction into Urban Design Sketching focused on how to hand draw master plans using a mix of colored markers.