Fast Company

Community Stairway

Private Equity Startup Offers Small Scale Public Development Investments

Startup, Cooperative Capital, allows investors to buy into community investment projects and vote on which projects to fund.

April 17, 2018 - Fast Company

240 'World Changing Ideas,' Including Transportation and Urban Design

Fast Company’s second-annual World Changing Ideas Awards will recognize winners in 12 categories. There are now 240 finalists.

April 10, 2018 - Fast Company

Subway Turnstiles

Why Can't Congestion Pricing Cover the Cost of Public Transit?

In the continuing debate over congestion pricing in New York, Adele Peters asks if transit advocates are stopping short of what they should be asking for: free transit for all of New York.

December 5, 2017 - Fast Company

Pedestrians

Unwalkable U.S.A.

The National Physical Activity Plan Alliance gave the United States an F for walkability because of its lack of pedestrian infrastructure.

October 6, 2017 - Fast Company

Los Angeles Skyline

Every Parking Lot, Visualized

A car spends 95 percent of the time parked, and only 5 percent of its time in use. The huge amount of space that system requires is made "intuitively and accessibly" comparable by the What the Street project.

July 22, 2017 - Fast Company

El Paso Trolleys

El Paso Streetcars to Symbolize Transnational Ties

The Texas city is moving ahead on plans to refurbish its old trolleys into a 21st-century streetcar system. The aim is to resurrect an old route that traversed the border to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

June 6, 2017 - Fast Company

Tunnel

Elon Musk Elaborates on His Plan for Tunnels Below Los Angeles

Considering it costs $1 billion per mile to dig L.A.'s subway tunnels, how does Elon Musk plan to build a series of car-carrying tunnels with out breaking the bank?

May 10, 2017 - Fast Company

China Solar

12 'World Changing Ideas'

Fast Company recently recognized the best ideas in social impact.

March 21, 2017 - Fast Company

Will the Tesla Model X Become the First Mainstream Electric Car?

What will it take for the electric car to become practical and economically feasible for the masses?

October 6, 2015 - Fast Company

Atlantic City Boardwalk

Atlantic City Could Become Empire of Innovation

Atlantic City, New Jersey, has been down on its luck lately. But, in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, AC could become the ideal laboratory for developing technologies and practices to help coastal cities build resiliency in the face of climate change.

August 14, 2015 - Fast Company

Copenhagen Bikes

New Study Examines the Value of Bicycling in Copenhagen

Key to explaining the popularity of biking in Copenhagen is its cultural attitude, which is also based on sound cost-benefit analysis. Until Americans change how they value transport modes, protected bike lanes may be elusive.

June 20, 2015 - Fast Company

Has Social Design's Most Prominent Experiment Succeeded?

Auburn University's Rural Studio program and other designers from across the U.S. have descended on Hale County, Alabama for two decades in an effort to improve the quality of life for the rural area's residents. What have they achieved?

January 20, 2014 - Fast Company

The Quest to Build the Best Map

Why are Google, Apple, Nokia, and Microsoft funneling significant resources into creating the best digital maps? "[A]ll share the same hunch that maps sit at the core of our digital future," writes Farhad Manjoo.

January 16, 2013 - Fast Company

The New Model for Low-Income Housing

San Francisco's new experiment in low-income housing is a beautiful one; a new building combines eye-popping design and amenities you wish you had.

October 6, 2012 - Fast Company

Real Estate Investment in the Hands of the 99%

A new skyscraper is set to grace skies over Bogota, Colombia. Instead of one wealthy developer, the tower is being funded by thousands of people, each with their own stake in the property.

October 5, 2012 - Fast Company

How Nightlife Drives Innovation in Miami

Miami is as much an industry town as Detroit or Washington D.C. Rather than cars or government, what drives culture (and innovation) in Miami is the city's nightlife scene, explains Emily Badger.

October 3, 2012 - Fast Company

Home at Last: Creative Communities Become Their Own Developers

Emily Badger explains how a Minneapolis-based non-profit organization is working to break the cycle of gentrification within artist communities by helping to create and preserve affordable space for artists and arts organizations.

August 17, 2012 - Fast Company

Mapping Settlements to Shift the Balance of Power

David Kilcullen creates maps to empower disenfranchised people in developing countries around the world. By combining social science and technology his firm solves tough problems in "frontier environments," reports David Holmes.

August 1, 2012 - Fast Company

Pioneering Net-Zero Building Opens in Unlikely Location

To find Oregon's first energy-neutral building, you'll have to venture 45 minutes outside progressive Portland to the Willamette Valley town of Newberg. There you'll find a first step in an effort to change our physical and cultural environments.

July 24, 2012 - Fast Company

What is the Real Reason Millennials Won't Buy Cars?

Josh Allan Dykstra argues that the reason Millennials aren't buying cars, or much of anything else for that matter, is due to "an evolution in consciousness" that is changing what it means to own something. And it isn't limited to one generation.

July 16, 2012 - Fast Company

News from HUD User

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

Call for Speakers

Mpact Transit + Community

New Updates on PD&R Edge

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

Top Books

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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.