Texas
Dallas Area Rapid Transit Overhauling Fare System to Improve User Experience
The changes to DART's fare system will target improvements in the user experience for residents without bank accounts or enough cash to buy monthly passes—i.e., some of the people who need transit most.
Gender Neutral Bathrooms Designs Respond to Controversial North Carolina Law
While the Justice Department and North Carolina duke it out over proper access to bathrooms, many places, including the White House, have designed gender-neutral bathrooms that address many of the problems associated with sex-segregated bathrooms.
Planning in Houston: No Longer an Oxymoron
Houston, Texas, adopted its first general plan called Plan Houston late last year. Plan Houston covers everything from economic development to education to public health to arts and culture.
Dallas Doesn't Deliver on Promised Libraries
In 2006, Dallas voters approved a bond package that promised $42 million for new libraries. Ten years later, and after $11.75 million in spending, none of the projects are close to completion.
As the Speed Limit Goes Up, So Do the Costs
As a number of Western States raise their speed limits, the costs of road maintenance, environmental damage, and lost lives keeps going up.
Parking Benefit Districts Around the U.S.
As Pittsburgh moves forward on a parking management program to fund neighborhood improvements, take a look at how other cities have adapted this Shoup-inspired redevelopment strategy.
What's a Tree Worth?
The U.S. Forest Service has continued to refine the valuable i-Tree software program, which allows cities to calculate the benefits, in dollar figures, of the urban forest.
How Austin Renters Are Resisting Displacement
Rapid development in Austin, TX has severely impacted rental housing, including mobile home parks, which are a source of low-income housing.
Houston's Floods a Reminder of the Importance of Wetlands Protection
The executive director of the Bayou Land Conservancy takes to the pages of the Houston Chronicle to describe the conservationist and landscape-focused efforts that can prevent floods like those that struck Houston this week.
Texas Highway Opens Shoulders to Drivers—Congestion Disappears
An experiment in Irving on SH 161 is defying the rules of induced demand, but not by building new lanes.
30-Story Mixed-Use Tower Planned for Downtown Austin—Without Parking
Thanks to the elimination of minimum parking requirements downtown, a vacant one-story building "could be transformed into a 30-story tower with 135 luxury apartments, office space, a restaurant and a bar," reports the Austin-American Statesman.
Revitalization and Baseball in Downtown Houston
The recent on-field success of the Houston Astros is matched by a wave of building in the neighborhood around their home ballpark. All of that means baseball fans might have a harder time finding a place to park this season.
More Than One Way to Gauge How Much Americans are Driving
Last year the U.S. Department of Transportation reported an increase of 3.3 percent in miles-traveled. During that same period, use of toll facilities, i.e., where motorists elect to pay to drive, increased 7.7 percent according to a new analysis.
Texas School Bans Walking to School
Not only does Bear Branch Elementary School in Magnolia ISD prohibit walking to and from school: Montgomery County constables will arrest scofflaws.
Austin Waterfront District Due for Big Redevelopment Investments
The city of Austin is hoping to avoid a "piecemeal, haphazard" approach to redevelopment in the South Central waterfront district.
How to Overcome a Legacy of Racist Housing Policy
An editorial by the co-director of the Texas Low Incomes Housing Information Service argues the benefits of a proposed public and subsidized housing project in Houston.
Austin Updates Small-Lot Amnesty Program
The city of Austin has approved land use regulation changes on one of those traditional hot button planning issues: small-lot developments.
Wind Powered New Energy Construction in 2015
The overhaul of the U.S. energy grid is already well underway.
Critic Sees 'Dallas Logic' in Latest Trinity River Plans
Mark Lamster has eviscerated the city of Dallas for its plans to build the Trinity Toll Road before—and he'll probably do it again.
Trinity Toll Road 'Dream Team' Disappoints in Dallas
Dallas reached another milestone in its years-long battle over a proposal to build a toll road through a park along the Trinity River on the edge of downtown. The latest version of the proposal so far hasn't cleared any controversies.
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
