Infrastructure

Can Boston Become a Bicycling Mecca?

Efforts to expand bicycle-friendly infrastructure across the country have revealed the importance of comprehensive planning. Peter DeMarco reports on ways in which planners in the Boston area are trying to fill in the gaps in their emerging network.

July 14, 2012 - Boston.com

What Does the Built Environment Mean to the Well-Being of a City?

Michael Kimmelman reports on the strong ties that exist between the economic and social well-being of a city and its architecture, infrastructure and public spaces, as evinced in Bogotá, Colombia.

July 14, 2012 - The New York Times

Is Thomas Jefferson to Blame for Los Angeles's Sprawl?

Jeremy Rosenberg examines why Thomas Jefferson may have had more of an impact on the development of Los Angeles than you might suspect. The city's street grid can be traced back to this American founding father.

July 13, 2012 - KCET

Slow Progress on America's High-Speed Rail Efforts

Milton Lindsay examines America's efforts to build a national system of high-speed trains and finds mixed results in the nation's eleven intended corridors.

July 13, 2012 - Next American City

Boston's Big Dig Buries Other Transportation Projects

Completed years ago, the true cost of Boston's "Big Dig" is finally being tallied. Unfortunately, for residents of Massachusetts, the tab is far from paid, imperiling funding for other necessary transportation projects, reports Eric Moskowitz.

July 12, 2012 - Boston.com

Bridging the Gap: Freeway Caps Proposed in Smaller Cities

As plans progress in many large cities to cap their below-grade urban freeways, smaller cities, like Ventura, California, are looking to benefit from similar proposals.

July 12, 2012 - Ventura County Star

Consuming Class to Rapidly Expand and Shift Markets by 2025

A new report by the McKinsey Global Institute finds that the global consuming class will grow by 1 billion people by 2025, and undergo a profound geographic shift. Cities and businesses should prepare for this shift with targeted investments.

July 11, 2012 - McKinsey & Company

CA Rail: Funded But With Nowhere To Go?

After a much heralded vote on July 6 in the state Senate, the embattled CA high-speed rail project is now eligible to receive $7.9 billion in state and federal funds, but formidable obstacles remain, not the least of which is finding $60 billion.

July 10, 2012 - The Wall Street Journal

'Bi-Partisan' Transportation Bill Now Law

President Obama signed the transportation bill known as MAP-21 on July 6 that also maintains low student loan rates, ending the three-year process of three-month extensions of SAFETEA-LU. He praised the bill as bipartisan and job-saving.

July 9, 2012 - The Hill's Transportation Blog

Seattle Makes Small Scale Stormwater Management Easy

Seattle's innovative Residential RainWise Program provides tools for stormwater management at home, in the hopes of reducing flooding, safeguarding property, and restoring the area's waters for people and wildlife.

July 8, 2012 - Global Site Plans - The Grid

Awesome Infrastructure Projects Around the World

Unsurprisingly, most of the projects compiled by the company KPMG called "Infrastructure 100: World Cities Edition" are in expanding countries like China and Saudi Arabia. Tyler Falk pulls out some favorites.

July 7, 2012 - SmartPlanet

Can D.C. Afford to Put Power Lines Underground?

It all depends on who you ask, argues David Alpert. Ratepayers have pushed for buried lines before; now, there's reason to doubt it would cost as much as the utility company once quoted them.

July 6, 2012 - Greater Greater Washington

Building a 'Slow' Streetcar to 'Speed' Development

A common criticism of streetcars are their relative slow speed combined with high capital and operating costs. Still, streetcars are being constructed in both large in small cities to help incentivize development.

July 6, 2012 - The Naked City

TIFIA Amount Increases & Eligibility Expands - Too Much?

In the coming days readers will learn more about America's new transportation funding plan MAP-21, which will guide surface transportation planning through 2014. In this piece, Tanya Snyder centers on changes to the popular TIFIA lending program.

July 5, 2012 - Steetsblog Capitol Hill

One of D.C.'s Largest Infrastructure Projects Gets the Go-Ahead

On Tuesday, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors voted 5-4 to support extending D.C.'s Metrorail to Dulles Airport, ending months of uncertainty over the project's fate.

July 4, 2012 - The Washington Post

Coney Island Meets the Grid

In order to save Coney Island from dwindling unemployment rates and high poverty levels, developers rezone the 46-year-old amusement park, but the plans may never actually leave the paper.

July 3, 2012 - The Brooklyn Bureau

Global Warming: It's Real, And It's Here

Editorial draws attention to the impact of global warming on our cities and advocates planning for climate change.

July 2, 2012 - Los Angeles Times

The Incredible, Deficit-Reducing Transportation Bill

Just how does a transportation bill that doesn't increase fuel taxes or introduce new user charges, and maintain the same level of spending reduce the deficit by $16.3 billion? Ask the Congressional Budget Office.

July 1, 2012 - Taxpayers For Common Sense

"Gazelles" Are Leading the Pack

Economist David Birch coined the term "gazelle" to refer to small businesses that double their size every four years. Charlie Gandy says these gazelles are incredibly useful when it comes to placemaking.

June 29, 2012 - Project For Public Spaces

Filmmaker Shows New Yorkers Tripping on Subway Step - Over and Over

Filmmaker Dean Petersen noticed a troublesome step at the 36th Street subway exit in Brooklyn, and decided to find out how many people tripped over it. Video evidence shows this hazard in action.

June 29, 2012 - Boing Boing

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.

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.