Walkability

North America Needs a New Model for Pedestrian-Friendly Planning
Where pedestrian-only streets have failed to draw business, the problem may be a failure to think big enough.

Walkability: It's About Experience
The Surgeon General's call to action, Step It Up, asks us all to get moving. And that to do that, to clear the hurdles to walkable, bikeable, rollable places. We knew that sitting is the new smoking, and now we have the full admonition to go with it.

Reinventing a Storied Thoroughfare in Mexico City
A team of designers will convert one Mexico City's most dangerous highways into an urban oasis.

What Makes a Streetscape Appeal to Pedestrians?
Researchers who studied the appeal of New York City streetscapes find an additionally significant factor on the streets of Salt Lake City: the photo op.

Strategies for Maximizing Transit Ridership
Jarrett Walker outlines the conditions under which transit serves the greatest number of travelers. Maximizing ridership, he argues, requires thinking like a business and catering to demand.

A Decade of Walkable Strides in Transit Innovation
A new Transit Center report shows what it takes to enact change.

Pedestrianization Models from China
For urbanization in China's cities to be truly human-centered, pedestrianization plans must be thoroughly considered.

New App Plots the Most Beautiful, Walkable Route
Interested in finding the road less traveled by? Walkonomics has launched in seven cities around the globe.
Improving Mental Health May Be As Easy As a Walk in the Park
A new study offers evidence that walking in a natural setting is more beneficial to mental health than walking in an urban setting.
Imagining Livability Design Tools
The "Imagining Livability Design Collection" by the AARP Livable Communities and the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute provides a visual portfolio of placemaking solutions that can be implemented quickly, for not too much money.

Maryland Parking Lots Go Underground
For a long time, surface parking lots blanketed Maryland's Montgomery County. Developers and county officials now prioritize mixed-use infill with parking concealed underground.

Fort Worth Wants Residents to Live Longer
The Texas city is the largest municipality so far to sign onto the Blue Zones Project, an initiative for improving longevity. In a nutshell, Blue Zones wants to make healthy choices the easy ones.

The Walkable, Healthy Rural Community: A Case Study
Albert Lea, Minnesota proves that small towns can reinvent themselves—often faster than big cities—and that walkable communities aren't only possible in urban neighborhoods.

Op-Ed: Los Angeles Walkability Needs More Crosswalks
Although Los Angeles isn't famous for its walking culture, many neighborhoods are actually quite suited for it. That is, if streets could be made friendlier to the pedestrians they currently repel.

Bold Plans Unveiled for Converting Durham's Historic Downtown Loop
The city of Durham hosted a public workshop this week to discuss urban design plans for converting a circuitous couplet to a two-way street grid.

Walkability 'Growing Pains' in Los Angeles
By many estimates, a city known for its pedestrian unfriendliness is developing pockets of local walkability. Minor disputes over pedestrian rights may add up to something bigger.
Oakland Crosswalk Engineering Mistimes Walkability Goals
A well-informed, social media savvy observer is shedding light on a seemingly small change with big impacts on the quality of life available to pedestrians along Oakland's streets.

The Case for a Walkable Cleveland
In this long-form article, G.M. Donley reminds us why walkable and diverse communities have become such a planning staple. In Cleveland, New Urbanism contends with a history of sprawl and decreasing population.

Report: Complete Streets Deliver More Than Just Good Vibes
Better safety and multimodal ease are not the only benefits offered by complete streets. According to this report, on the average they pay for themselves and then some.

Philly Pleads with Landlords to Fix Sidewalks
In some cities, maintenance of sidewalks is not the responsibility of the city but of adjacent landowners. Philadelphia is finding what a hassle this arrangement can be. With countless blocks in disrepair, everyone is passing the buck.
Pagination
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.
EMC Planning Group, Inc.
Planetizen
Planetizen
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service