Technology

Cars in the snow

It's Snowing—There's An App for Tracking That

A snow storm came through overnight, your street hasn't been cleared. When can you expect to have your street cleared? Cities are increasingly providing snowplow tracking information to residents.

January 11, 2016 - Jennifer Evans-Cowley

Hyperloop

Friday Eye Candy: A First Peek at the Hyperloop

The futuristic transportation idea known as the Hyperloop is starting to look real. CNN Money caught up with the leaders of one of the companies working to make the dream of super-fast, efficient intercity travel a reality.

January 8, 2016 - CNN Money

San Francisco's Yellow Cab to File for Bankruptcy

San Francisco's largest cab company is planning to file for bankruptcy very soon. The competition from transportation network companies is forcing the company, and likely the industry, to completely restructure.

January 7, 2016 - San Francisco Examiner

Streetmix

Top 10 Websites - 2015

The annual list of the ten best planning, design, and development websites, representing some of the top online resources for news, information, and research on the built environment.

January 6, 2016 - James Brasuell

Coming to Missouri: The War on Red Light Cameras

The backlash against the use of red light cameras has legislative backing in the Missouri State legislature.

January 5, 2016 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Map and Phone Navigation

The Best Planning Apps for 2016

A list of mobile apps that support planning, as part of an annual update. Learn about exciting new ways to explore cities and enhance planning via mobile apps. Please feel free to add your own favorites.

January 4, 2016 - Jennifer Evans-Cowley

Imagining Oceanscrapers

Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut has released a series of futuristic and amazing drawings that envision what sustainable, floating cities could possibly look like.

January 3, 2016 - Huffpost Science

Self-Driving Car

Google and Ford Partner-Up to Develop Self-Driving Cars

Google and Ford have partnered to bring together their software know-how with their auto building know-how as the launch of autonomous cars moves one step closer.

December 28, 2015 - Yahoo! Autos

For Christmas 2016: A Video Game to Explore the Physics of Architecture

Couldn't find what the perfect gift for the plannerd in your life? There's always next year.

December 25, 2015 - CityLab

Uber Car

Uber's Impact on the New York Rush Hour

Researchers found a small uptick in Manhattan traffic during rush hour, as Uber gains more riders from 4 to 7 p.m. than taxis lose. Uber also holds general sway over the other boroughs when it comes to for-hire vehicles.

December 23, 2015 - FiveThirtyEight

Parking Meter Fail

Minor Tweaks and Major Advancements Suggested for L.A.'s Parking System

Responding to aggravated parkers in Los Angeles, a citizen's advisory committee has come up with a raft of recommendations to make parking fines fairer and to add technological innovation for finding a parking space and avoiding tickets.

December 21, 2015 - KPCC

Civic Engagement

Rating the Effectiveness of Eight Approaches to Civic Engagement

Code for America has released an Engagement Standard that provides concepts for measuring the quality of new engagement platform technology—not a bad tool to have in the perpetual quest to increase the quality of engagement processes.

December 19, 2015 - User Experience Magazine

An App for Navigating While Walking

A new app called Walc makes navigating while walking easier to do. Even more ambitiously, Walc aims to make it easier to make the choice to walk, rather than drive.

December 18, 2015 - Fast Coexist

Friday Eye Candy: Take a Virtual Stroll Around the World

The Mapillary app allows users to upload their street-level photos into a geo-tagged sequence.

December 18, 2015 - The Mapillary Blog

Shut It and Gut It: Anchorage Takes Hard Look at Transit Center

After 500 hours of analyzing its downtown transit center, Anchorage officials have come to one conclusion: The only way to fix this building is to shut it and gut it. The transit center, over three decades, has become a blight on Downtown.

December 18, 2015 - Alaska Commons

New Year 2015

The Most Popular Planetizen Posts of 2015

The results of a year's worth of writing, reading, sharing, and commenting are in. These are the most popular Planetizen posts from the year 2015.

December 18, 2015 - James Brasuell

A New Atlas of American History

A new online mapping project called American Panorama earned rave reviews this week from CityLab and Gizmodo.

December 16, 2015 - CityLab

First There Were Electric Vehicles—Will Electric Roads Be Next?

Two Texas universities received a federal grant to embed sensors in road asphalt to create renewable electricity from the wind created by passing vehicles to power roadside lights and traffic signals.

December 16, 2015 - Energy Harvesting Journal

Bus Stop Winter

The Quest for Accuracy in Predicting Bus Arrivals Has a New Friend

With better predictions, an app may help alleviate the urban annoyance of waiting for the bus that was supposed to arrive 10 minutes ago.

December 14, 2015 - Medium

Vancouver Street Scene

The Perils of Walking While Under the Influence of Your Phone

Everyone seems to do it, in fact you may be doing it right now, but beware the injuries that await from distracted walking.

December 13, 2015 - New York Times - Well

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.

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.