Technology
136 Million Rides and Counting: E-Scooter, Shared Bikes Gaining Riders Until the Pandemic Hit
New data from National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) shows the number of rides on electric scooters and shared bikes rising by 60 percent between 2018 and 2019.
Smartphone Fare Cards Now Available for D.C. Metro
The future is now.
Are Delivery Robots on Their Way to a Neighborhood Near You?
Amazon and FedEx are developing bots that would travel on city streets and sidewalks. The companies are also working behind the scenes on legislative efforts that would help them deploy the technology in the future.
For Success, Smart Cities Need Stakeholder Engagement
Smart cities technologies are not going to lead to the right outcomes unless end users are recognized as integral players in the planning process.
Book Review: 'Ghost Road' and Visions for Autonomous Transporation
Anthony M. Townsend's new book goes beyond autonomous automobiles to examine autonomous transportation in a larger context.
Five Actions to Combat COVID-19 in Hawaii
A data-driven approach is needed to figure out how the disease has spread in the islands and what can be done to contain it.
Ride-Hailing Services Shutdown in California Averted
Uber and Lyft were set to cease operations in California, but an appeals court has granted them a reprieve and the controversy continues.
Digital Roundtable Discusses Silicon Valley's Urbanist Future
Highlighting the ways in which the pandemic’s disruption is unleashing innovation, panelists share their hope for streamlining public-private collaborations to solve some of the region’s housing, transportation, and equity challenges.
Seeing the Los Angeles River in Whole New Way
We seem to have an app for everything. Now we have one that walks a viewer through the river’s history from the pre-historic era to the present.
Resilient Los Angeles: Preparing for Overlapping Disasters in Pandemic
L.A. City Chief Resilience Officer Aaron Gross elaborates on how the pandemic is shaping the city’s understanding of resilience and the cascading impact that overlapping disasters of earthquake or wildfire could have on the city’s limited resources.
Mobility-as-a-Service Still Searching for a Market Foothold
Policymakers and venture capital firms love the idea of Mobility-as-a-Service. The public hasn't proven as receptive, despite the willingness to download apps by the millions.
Ride-Hailing Companies Have Yet to Recover
While public transit tends to make the most headlines for coronavirus-damaged ridership numbers, ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft aren't exactly raking in new customers.
Cities: Skylines as an Urban Planning Tool
Computer simulations continue to play a novel and important role in urban planning, especially in finding new ways to engage the public and add some fun to the process of planning for the future of cities.
Do You Know Your COVID-19 Colors?
Harvard University's Global Health Insititute and Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics have launched a new online tool for planners, policy makers, and the public to determine the severity of the coronavirus outbreak in one's county and state.
Growing Use of Trails Highlights the Work of Trail Planners
Trails have become very popular during the COVID-19 pandemic. Find out more about how trail planners in L.A. County plan for multi-use trails and promote the safe use of trails.
How GIS Helps Plan Parks
With constrained budgets, a geographic information system (GIS) may seem like a luxury for parks agencies. But to perform data-driven planning and advance park equity, GIS is an indispensable tool.
From Ventilators to Ventilation: The Shifting Focus of the Pandemic
Ventilator availability is a major indicator for states in the South and West that are seeing record hospitalizations, but in New York, where Gov. Cuomo announced that New York City had moved to Phase III of reopening, the topic was ventilation.
19 Ways to Redesign the World in the Covid-19 Era
POLITICO Magazine surveyed designers, architects, planners, doctors, psychologists, logisticians, and others, asking them how they would redesign the world for the Covid-19 era and beyond.
New Opportunities for Big Data in Pandemic-Era Urban Planning
Big data startups and corporations are collecting information that can help planners make informed decisions about how to facilitate social distancing. Will planners center data-driven decisions in other planning processes?
Pilot Projects Launched to Test Coordinated Curb Use
Coord, a Sidewalk Labs spinoff, has selected the winners of the inaugural Digital Curb Challenge.
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.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority
