Better Cities & Towns
A New Theory for Traffic Engineering
If transportation officials embrace a new approach backed by science, safe and effective mobility no longer need conflict with the multidimensional role of streets as public spaces and with people's varied modes of travel.
Traffic Fatalities Rising Again—As Does the Blame Game
Traffic fatalities are on pace to reach 35,000 in the United States this year. Some advocates are saying it's time for traffic engineers to stop blaming the victims.
Cities Honored for Smart Growth
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 13th annual Smart Growth Achievement Awards recognize communities that lead the way in compact, walkable growth.
The problems of success in the new urban era
Cities face challenges associated with rising values, an influx of more educated residents, and gentrification. Here's what cities can do.
Another Study Shows That Narrow Is Safer Than Wide for Traffic Lanes
Better Cities & Towns gives its imprimatur to the "narrower is better" approach to lane width for traffic safety thanks to a study by Toronto transportation planner, Dewan Masud Karim, presented at the Canadian ITE annual conference.
Debating the Feasibility of Retrofitting Suburbia
Is the challenge of retrofitting sprawl intractable or unavoidable?
The 'Little Asphalt' Solution for Better Communities
Little Asphalt minimizes pavement in cities, towns, and suburbs so that real estate can be used for higher value purposes—such as buildings and people-centered activities.
Top 5 Ways to Tell You're in 'Big Asphalt'
You are surrounded by parking lots and pavement so vast you can see the curvature of the Earth.
They Paved Paradise, Put Up a Parking Lot …
"Big Asphalt" has compromised our health, safety, and welfare—but we can defeat it if we try.
The Four Phases of New Urbanism
Robert Steuteville discusses the slow, phased emergence of the New Urbanism. We are only partway through a change that will take generations. We are now immersed in the revitalization of cities. More phases will come.
Are You Getting the Change You Want from the Status Quo?
That question may seem like a contradiction, but it couldn't be more pertinent to communities and land use—existing codes and policies generate change by shaping investment.
How Form-Based Ideas Could Transform Community Planning
Let's discuss how community planning could be fundamentally reorganized to improve both efficiency and placemaking.
10 Misconceptions about Form-Based Codes
Several common assumptions about new urban codes fail to stand up to scrutiny.
A Collection of Benefits for 'Walkable, Compact, Diverse' Neighborhoods
A meta-analysis published in Housing Policy Debate finds that extensive studies in recent years support positive claims about walkable neighborhoods.
Can the Walton Family Help Reverse Arkansas Sprawl?
Led by the Walton Family Foundation, Northwest Arkansas officials look to "sense of place" and walkable urban solutions for future economic growth and attraction of talent.
Place-Based Development and Streetcar Transforming Downtown Tucson
Restaurants, retail, offices, and adobe homes pop-up in and around the long-suffering downtown damaged by urban renewal.
Why 'Place' Is the New American Dream
The new American Dream will transform cities and towns in the 21st Century. To understand it, we have to grasp a few features of the previous American Dream.
Place Mobility: Sometimes Good Transportation Is Slow
Streetcars are expensive and slow, and that drives Matthew Yglesias crazy. He fails to grasp Place Mobility, which can be an excellent transportation investment for a city.
Higher Home Values Preserved in Mixed-Income, Medium-Density Suburbs
A new study of the Philadelphia area commissioned by the Congress for New Urbanism “finds new urban characteristics play a role” in how households and neighborhoods weathered the recent economic downtown.
Does Urbanism Correlate with Happiness?
Planning policies related to the economy and environment are easier to measure, but Hazel Borys asks, "how do we measure national happiness, well-being, and social capital as they relate to the way we plan our neighborhoods, towns and cities?”
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.
