Exclusives

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small">Why are otherwise generous and smart people sometimes selfish and irrational? </span> </p>

October 25 - Todd Litman

BLOG POST

<span style="widows: 2; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font: medium 'Times New Roman'; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; color: #000000" class="Apple-style-span"> <div style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10px"> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"> This week, Hoboken is announcing its version of a highly successful awareness campaign practiced throughout Europe and, more directly translatable, the UK. In the UK, the <a href="http://www.20splentyforus.org.uk/">campaign</a> is called “20&#39;s Plenty for Us”, and in cities that adopt this policy, a 20mph speed limit area is established and signs are posted requiring drivers to obey the lower speed limit.

October 23 - Ian Sacs

BLOG POST

I write this blog from the concrete cradle of Nokia Plaza, an urban space so wondrous that the global arm of the Urban Land Institute has bestowed upon it one of five “<a href="http://www.uli.org/sitecore/content/ULI2Home/News/PressReleases/2010%20archives/Content/GlobalAwards2010.aspx" target="_blank">2010 Global Awards for Excellence</a>.&quot; In winning such a distinguished award, you’d think that developer AEG would have invited the Laker Girls and be pouring Champagne for an ebullient crowd here in one of the world’s great public spaces. Except they’re not. In fact, I’m pretty much alone. <p class="MsoNormal">I don’t suppose the pigeons are carrying Cristal underwing? </p>

October 21 - Josh Stephens

FEATURE

October 18 - Galina Tachieva

FEATURE

The objectives of urban redevelopment and meeting the needs of underserved communities are not mutually exclusive goals, says Carlton Eley.

October 14 - Carlton Eley

BLOG POST

<p> <span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 12pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri">I’ve worked on designing, planning and preparing the way for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) projects around the world. For some reason this particular proposed TOD caught my attention. Maybe because I thought I was an expert and in this case I was caught off guard. Or maybe because TOD advocates have made so much progress collectively and yet there is still so far to go. Probably a bit of both. </span></span> </p>

October 14 - G.B. Arrington

BLOG POST

With the passing in February 2010 of Canada&#39;s last surviving Great War veteran, we no longer have a living link to that conflict. Its infamous miseries, desolate battlefields, poison-gas attacks and industrial-scale slaughter are known to us now only through history. <p> While the veterans themselves are silent, Manitoba historian Jim Blanchard reminds us in his new book <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Winnipegs-Great-War-City-Comes/dp/088755721X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1287069475&amp;sr=1-1"><em>Winnipeg&#39;s Great War</em></a> that the city of Winnipeg has its own story to tell about the First World War.

October 14 - Michael Dudley

BLOG POST

<p> Every so often, I read something describing defenders of sprawl as &quot;contrarians&quot;, implying that they are underdogs fighting against the elitist, anti-sprawl Establishment. For example, when I did a google.com search for sites including Robert Bruegmann (author of one of the better defenses of the status quo) and the word &quot;contrarian&quot; I found over 1400 &quot;hits.&quot;  Similarly, a search for websites using the terms &quot;smart growth&quot; and &quot;elitist&quot; yielded over 6000 hits. </p> <p> But realistically, most of the U.S. built environment is sprawl by any concievable definition. So how can it be &quot;contrarian&quot; to defend the status quo? </p>

October 13 - Michael Lewyn

FEATURE

CEOs for Cities recently published a blistering criticism of The Texas Transportation Institute's "Urban Mobility Report", saying that the way they measure mobility helps justify sprawl. Norman W. Garrick says CEOs for Cities doesn't go far enough.

October 11 - Norman Garrick

BLOG POST

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October 10 - Rick Abelson

BLOG POST

<p> Ostensibly, the <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69648520101007">actions today</a> by NJ Governor Chris Christie to cancel the &quot;Access to Region&#39;s Core&quot; (ARC) tunnel project seem like a vicious blow to the future of rail in our country (fatal even, given the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/us/05rail.html?_r=1&amp;hp">recent commentary</a> from conservatives country-wide on opposition to the national high speed rail network projects).  I myself am extremely disappointed that our state&#39;s fiscal circumstances have led the Governor to make this decision, and I am sincerely empathetic to the construction and operational jobs and potential to improve mobility conditions that this cancellation jeopardizes. </p>

October 7 - Ian Sacs

BLOG POST

<p> Over the past year, we&#39;ve been guiding the City of Hoboken, NJ towards providing sufficient alternative modes of transportation such that owning a car for a large number of residents becomes more than unattractive, it&#39;s simply not necessary.  The goal is not to tell residents that they can&#39;t own a car, but to make life without a car so easy that every single family in Hoboken can freely choose whether owning a car is what they want to spend their money on.  For those who decide that a daily commute by car is most practical, my job is to make it possible to find a parking space and travel in and out of town without too much friction.  However, for the overwhelming majority of Hobokenites who commute daily on foot, bicycle, or via transit, life without a car should be as

October 7 - Ian Sacs

BLOG POST

<span>My hometown of Winnipeg is going through a <a href="http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Bike-path-should-be-finished-before-lawsuit-settled--103638144.html">particularly nasty battle over cycling infrastructure</a>. Its current mayor, Sam Katz, while he may be reviled by rapid transit advocates for cancelling one BRT scheme and <a href="http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/epc-endorses-light-rail-transit-98007694.html">then muddling another </a>(will it be a bus? A train? A streetcar?), has nonetheless managed to accomplish more for cyclists than his predecessors. In recent years we have seen new bikelanes, multiuse pathways and a cycling culture invigorated by such events as Winnipeg&#39;s <a href="http://www.downtownwinnipegbiz.com/home/events/ciclovia/">Cyclovia</a>.</span>

October 6 - Michael Dudley

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman">Climate change has become a focal point of urban planning in the U.S. and abroad as cities grapple with so-called sustainability. </span><a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1562561&amp;show=html"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman; color: #800080">I’ve been a critic</span></a><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Times New Roman"> of many attempts to implement sustainability plans, not so much because I disagree with the intent as much as I believe the tools used to achieve sustainability are not particularly effective.

October 5 - Samuel Staley

FEATURE

The latest in a series of academic challenges to the New Urbanism turns out to be weak in all the areas that matter most, argues author Michael Mehaffy.

October 4 - Michael Mehaffy

BLOG POST

<p> The term Green Urbanism keeps showing up unexpectedly in newspaper articles, conference session titles, blog posts, and casual conversation.  While there is an innate, intuitive sense of the meaning, green urbanism may also seem as elusive as it is evocative.  Having given this topic a fair amount of thought over the past several years, I, and my colleague and collaborator Ted Bardacke, arrived at the following working definition: </p> <p> <strong><em>green urbanism:</em></strong><em> the practice of creating communities mutually beneficial to humans and the environment </em> </p>

October 1 - Walker Wells

FEATURE

September 30 - Giulia Mastrangelo

BLOG POST

<div>As young planners bursting into the real world we are anxious to create communities that are vibrant, fun, and speak to the urbanity that will host future generations of our civilization.  What we lack in experience we make up for in enthusiasm, and hope that our superiors guide us on the finer points of less crystallized aspects of critical infrastructure such as designing for the elderly, disabled, and those semi-attached to a stroller.  In traffic engineering, we often hear a common rebuttal to technical traffic analysis from communities; they say, “I drive these streets every day, so I understand traffic here better than you.”  Well, they’re right.

September 30 - Ian Sacs

FEATURE

Yesterday's infrastructure can become tomorrow's agriculture, says Ed Harwood, by converting underused industrial warehouses and factories to hydroponic and aeroponic growing.

September 27 - Ed Harwood

BLOG POST

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt" class="MsoNormal"> &#160; </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small">Why <strong><em>didn’t</em></strong> the chicken cross the road?</span> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small">Because pedestrian Level-Of-Service was below “C”.</span> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt" class="MsoNormal"> &#160; </p>

September 22 - Todd Litman