Walkability
Is Driving Still an American 'Rite of Passage'?
Economist Joe Cortright doesn't seem to think so. According to his findings, Americans are driving less, with Millennials leading the way, and this unprecedented trend is here to stay.
Tackling Climate Change Through Density
Increasing mileage standards will do little to measurably reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In order to seriously tackle climate change we need to ditch the cars, and the development patterns they encourage, and move to walkable places.
Testing Density with Trick or Treaters
Planner and urbanist Brent Toderian explains why Halloween is his favorite holiday.
Visualizing the Connection Between Transportation and Public Health
An informative infographic produced by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation illustrates the role of walkable, bikeable, and transit-oriented communities in producing healthier populations.
Millennials Seek Downtown Living, Planners Respond
Recent studies show that upwards of 77% of Millennials are opting to live in urban areas. The impact on the local economy will be huge, IF urban planners rethink how we build our downtowns.
How Does Placemaking Pay?
Hazel Borys compiles an extraordinary list of studies quantifying the role of livable, walkable places in building equity, city coffers, health, and social capital.
Formulating a New Metric for Walkability
Going beyond the analytical parameters of the popular Walk Score website, a new site aims to broaden the scope of analysis to include more qualitative information, such as safety and streetscape, in determining which areas are pedestrian friendly.
A New Tool for Measuring Walkability
Steve Mouzon finds fault with the uniform application of the 1/4 mile walkability radius, regardless of context. And, in the first in a series of articles, he introduces a new tool for understanding and building walkable places.
Who's Building Livability? And Where?
Several collaborative Google Maps cover Traditional Neighborhood Developments (TNDs) across the US and Canada as well as form-based codes globally. Are yours listed?
Free-Range Children Are Good for the Community
Even though crime has gone down in the U.S., parents are less likely to let their children walk alone, even to school. Will Doig discusses the argument that "free-roaming" children are a benefit to themselves and the larger community.
Residential: The Obvious Undervalued Ingredient in Town Centers
Geoff Dyer describes the essential role that a residential component plays in any mixed-use town center. For Dyer, residences are "the substrate on which a healthy mixed-use environment is based."
Towers in the Park, 2012 Style
Julie V. Iovine laments that while walkability is the watchword of the day, architects have to design what they're hired to design -- and that often means designing iconic buildings that turn a blind eye to pedestrians.
What's the Difference Between a Strip Mall and Paris?
Geoff Dyer points out why the difference between the typical strip mall and the multi-way boulevard may be more subtle than you think.
The Value of Walkability
In an opinion piece for The New York Times, Christopher B. Leinberger summarizes a new report he's co-authored for the Brookings Institution that demonstrates the correlation between walkability and real estate value.
The U.S. Military: The Next Apostle of New Urbanism?
The Department of Defense has released new guidelines encouraging mixed-use, compact, walkable development throughout the nation's military bases, Sean Reilly reports.
Is Walking a Liberal Value?
Will Oremus investigates an occurrence he noticed recently in Tom Vanderbilt's series on walking – that the cities with the highest "walk scores" were all liberal – and asks why conservative cities don't walk.
Scoring Your Walkability
For the third installment of his series on America's pedestrian problem, Tom Vanderbilt profiles Walk Score, the venerable walkability website and evaluation system.
Does Improved Walkability Reduce Crime?
Adam Davies writes about the results of an experimental policing project in the Netherlands that seems to demonstrate that improvements to the pedestrian environment have reduced crime in Rotterdam.
Friday Funny: March Mobility Madness
This weekend, the Final Four of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament will be decided on courts in cities across the country. Earlier this week, however, Kaid Benfield crowned his own champion - based on walkability.
Suburbless in Seattle
Mark Hinshaw calls an end to the use of the term "suburb" to describe the communities ringing Seattle, and the inferior connotations attached to it. It's a term that he thinks has outlived its usefulness.
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