Technology

Public Meeting

Collecting Comments on a PDF Planning Document on the Web?

How do you collect public comments on a web-based PDF planning document? It should be simple. But it isn't.

June 2, 2015 - Chris Steins

New App Would Enable On-Demand Public Transit

As transportation network companies like Uber and Bridj make it easier for some to opt out of the public transit system, a new app would help transit agencies offer more user-centric services.

May 27, 2015 - Fast Co.Exist

Imagining Neighborhoods Filled with 3D Printed Homes

Gensler, along with partners in China, is exploring ways to implement 3D printing technology. It's time for planners to start letting their imaginations run wild with possibilities.

May 24, 2015 - Rice Kinder Institute for Urban Research

Friday Eye Candy: 'Time-Lapse Mining' Reveals a Changing Planet

Someone's done the hard work of finding, sorting, and stitching together millions of photos from the Internet to create animated portraits of the evolution of places.

May 22, 2015 - The Verge

Google's Loss is LinkedIn's Gain in Silicon Valley

The city of Mountain View chose to allot most of the redevelopment rights in its much sought-after North Bayshore area not to the city's largest employer and taxpayer but to LinkedIn's more conventional proposal.

May 19, 2015 - The New York Times - Bits

How 3D Laser Scanning Helped Save Earthquake Damaged Buildings in Napa

The 3D scan provided a safe and quick solution for potential restoration, rehabilitation, and preservation by capturing thousands of points a second and creates a virtual photograph of the object that it scans.

May 16, 2015 - Preservation Leadership Forum Blog

Positive Early Returns for Solar Bike Path

The performance of the world's first solar bike path in the Netherlands have so far exceeded expectations in its first six months of operation. Now the question becomes: What next?

May 15, 2015 - Quartz

Identical Trucks

Malcolm Gladwell on Transportation Safety

Looking at the history of car recalls, Gladwell recognizes a tension between the way engineers see malfunctions and how the public sees them. It's easy to blame the machine, but that doesn't always solve the problem.

May 15, 2015 - The New Yorker

Friday Eye Candy: Maps as Pop Art

A creative cartographer has created a series maps in the cartoon style of pop art.

May 15, 2015 - CityLab

Small Bus

Op-Ed: Microtransit Shouldn't Replace Public Transit

Halfway between public transit and private cars, new and varying forms of 'microtransit' threaten to out-compete traditional public services. Concerns about equity, inclusion, and employee compensation follow.

May 14, 2015 - Human Transit

Regulation Not Keeping Pace with the Popularity of Drones

The use drones for planning and its related fields has obvious and immediate potential. So far, however, the use of drones lacks a coherent regulatory framework.

May 11, 2015 - ZwillGen

New App Shares Connected Car Data to Government, Businesses

This is what "smart cities" technology looks like: A new product called Inrix Insights offers planners and businesses a platform by which to access the data created by the use of connected cars.

May 10, 2015 - ITProPortal

Meet the World's First Self-Driving Big Rig

The world now includes a technology that raises the stakes of the collective interest in self-driving cars to a whole new weight class: a self-driving big rig.

May 8, 2015 - The Verge

NASA Looking for Help Planning the Built Environment—On Mars

You've got big ideas about how to make life better for lots of people. But are your ideas big enough for a home on Mars?

May 8, 2015 - Network World

The New L.A. Story: Waze Partners with City; Neighbors Get Upset

A partnership between Waze and the city of Los Angeles has prompted a cry of "not on the street in front of my frontyard!" from residential neighborhoods around the city.

May 5, 2015 - Los Angeles Times

Gangnam, Seoul, Korea

Cities Try to Turn on the Dark

Of all the inventions of the modern world, few have been so embraced as artificial light. But constant light, like that which floods city streets and illuminates buildings, is not necessarily healthy or safe. Some cities are trying to go dark.

May 3, 2015 - The Architect's Newspaper

Uber Driver

Uber Now Employs 20,000 in the Bay Area

With over 162,000 full- or part-time "driver partners" nationwide, Uber is an employment giant. The company's 20,000 Bay Area workers place it among the top five regional employers.

April 29, 2015 - SFGate

Wave of the Future? Tapping Wave Energy for Desalination

The future has arrived in Western Australia thanks to new technology created and implemented by Carnegie Wave Energy. The CETO project marries renewable power with desalination—a timely marriage when droughts and climate change take center stage.

April 27, 2015 - The New York Times - Energy & Environment

New App Alerts Drivers Before Traffic Lights Turn Green

A suburban city in the East Bay Area will allow commuters to use a new app that links their smartphones to traffic lights.

April 24, 2015 - San Jose Mercury News

Foresight and the Built Environment

In the ever changing global landscape, organizations need to anticipate and adapt to shifting circumstances to survive. AJ Artemel spoke to Dr. Gereon Uerz of the Arup Foresight + Innovation team to discuss how this can be realized.

April 21, 2015 - Arup Connect

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.