Technology

Vision from the Future: A 'Dating App' for Deciding Where to Live

One of the earliest researchers at Skype makes a compelling case for one of the potential applications of artificial intelligence: helping humans decide where and how to migrate.

November 23, 2015 - Medium

A Planner's Perspective on Brazil's Water Crisis

With water shortages in São Paulo making headlines around the world, Brazil is rethinking its approach to water infrastructure. Arup's Pablo Lazo gives his perspective on the various entities that are acting for change.

November 23, 2015 - Doggerel

Early Reviews Are In: Chicago's New Transit App Makes it Easy to Pay the Fare

The Ventra app hits the streets—or the tracks, perhaps—this week. Steven Vance of Streetsblog Chicago has already tested the new tool.

November 20, 2015 - Chi.Streetsblog

How to Prevent Hackers from Infiltrating the 'Internet of Cars'?

Which should we trust to insulate connected cars from the threat of hackers: private companies or government regulation?

November 20, 2015 - Atlanta Business Chronicle

Melting Pots and Shrinking Islands

Brooklyn-based artist Ekene Ijeoma newest piece shows what parts of New York City are affordable to different people across the spectrum of salaries in the form of crystalline islands called "wage islands."

November 17, 2015 - Doggerel

Microsoft, City of Bellevue Developing Tech to Predict—and Prevent—Bike Crashes

If it's successful, a public-private partnership between Microsoft and the city of Bellevue, Washington could produce Minority Report-style predicative capabilities to prevent bike crashes.

November 16, 2015 - GeekWire

The Time the Google Self-Driving Car Got Pulled Over for Driving Too Slowly

Google's response to its self-driving car getting pulled over by police in California: " "Driving too slowly? Bet humans don't get pulled over for that too often."

November 15, 2015 - San Jose Mercury News

Santa Monica Bikes

Santa Monica Debuts GPS-Enabled Bikeshare

Serving beach-side Santa Monica and nearby Venice, Breeze Bikeshare equips its bikes with GPS tracking. The program claims to be more advanced than an L.A. Metro system set to debut in early 2016.

November 14, 2015 - Los Angeles Times

Uber Driver

The Ride-Share Revolution

"If the 20th century was devoted to building the infrastructure to service the personal automobile, then perhaps the 21st century will be devoted to undoing most of it."

November 12, 2015 - TechCrunch

Ultimate Tech Guide to Boston

Whether you're a lifelong resident of Boston, just moving there, or simply passing through, this guide has 18 apps and services for navigating and enjoying the city life to its fullest.

November 9, 2015 - Netted

Port

Ten Innovations for the Cities of the Near Future

The World Economic Forum offers a reminder of just how drastically things could change, and soon, in cities.

November 9, 2015 - Citiscope

Mall Map

The Future of Mapping is Going Indoors

Cartographers have a new world to map, as technology opens up the interiors of malls, museums, and other large spaces to online exploration.

November 7, 2015 - Citymetric

A Robot to Go the 'Last Mile'

Contrary to one some urbanists believe, some of the advancements of the new economy might better serve less dense, even suburban, environments. Example: a delivery robot created by the co-founders of Skype.

November 6, 2015 - The New York Times

Mapping U.S. Road Fatalities from 2003-2014

An intrepid mapmaker and data cruncher has created a map that illustrates the ubiquity of fatalities on U.S. roads and highways.

November 6, 2015 - Metrocosm

How to Get Lost in a City Using a Smartphone

Maybe Halloween isn't the best night for it—but otherwise consider the weekend as a good time to get lost in a city.

October 31, 2015 - Citymetric

Control Room

Technologies for Understanding Cities

Researchers are examining technologies that can aid in understanding many aspects of our cities, from how citizens interact in plan making, where residents use social media, and how to understand our changing communities.

October 29, 2015 - Jennifer Evans-Cowley

Google Self-Driving Car

Humans Faulted in Autonomous Vehicle Accidents

Reports from the California DMV blame human drivers for minor collisions involving Google's self-driving cars. Drive carefully in Mountain View.

October 28, 2015 - Techradar

What Does the Connected Home Mean for Energy Policy?

As cities look to the Internet of Things to reimagine urban infrastructure, one hope is that real-time data collection will help increase energy efficiency at the regional level. Where do homes outfitted with a network of smart devices fit in?

October 28, 2015 - VerdeXchange News

Construction

The Hidden Costs of Building Green

New green buildings may be de riguer, but preservation does less harm.

October 26, 2015 - Boston Society of Architects

An Online Portal for Making Sense of Toronto Traffic Data

With so many potential sources of data with which to analyze traffic behaviors and real-time conditions, University of Toronto engineers have created an online portal that could one day help drive a system populated with autonomous cars.

October 25, 2015 - U of T Engineering News

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.