World

Global issues, U.N., etc.

Augmented Reality

Making a Place for Virtual Reality in Planning

As virtual reality technology becomes more accessible, it's time to start considering how immersive virtual experiences could help inform visioning process and design decision-making.

August 15, 2018 - IDEA New Rochelle

Urban Grid Logic

Chart Your City's Street Network to Understand its Logic

The roads in your city might conform to a grid, or they might divert around natural resources or landmarks. A new tool aims to help you visualize the "hidden logic" behind urban growth.

August 14, 2018 - CityLab

Sprawl

Mapping 25 Years of Urban Expansion

What comparing 25 years of urban expansion on six continents reveals about the changing nature of the built environment.

August 14, 2018 - Vivid Maps

Minecraft Model

Real World Lessons From the Virtual World of Minecraft

The popular game Minecraft offers deep lessons what building in the virtual world means in the real world.

August 9, 2018 - Places Journal

Seattle View

How Setting Makes a Place: A Seattle Retrospective

Chuck Wolfe reflects on his rapidly changing hometown, arguing that Seattle’s signature location and setting—however rearranged by the regrades of the past, Freeway Park, or a pending James Corner-led waterfront remake—remains for all to see.

August 7, 2018 - Crosscut

SimCity BuildIt

How a City Planner Plays SimCity

A gaming video on the popular City Beautiful YouTube channel shows of the Sim City skills of a professional city planner.

August 7, 2018 - City Beautiful

Transportation Network Companies

Study Finds UberPOOL Adds to City Traffic by Competing with the Subway

Past studies have shown how ride hailing services have added to congestion. A new study by Bruce Schaller suggests that even ride shares add to traffic, because they pull riders off of more efficient transit options like public transit.

July 29, 2018 - The Washington Post

Yosemite Smoke

A Map of 'Smoke Events' Around the World

Fire season is back, and it's not safe to breathe in huge swaths of the world.

July 27, 2018 - The Mercury News

Louisiana Flooding

30 Years of Climate Change Proof

It's been 30 years since James Hansen told Congress about global warming. We might call it climate change these days, but Hansen was right.

July 26, 2018 - Associated Press via The Mercury News

High School Football

New Report Contradicts the U.N.: More Like 84 Percent of the World Lives in Urban Areas

"Everything we've heard about global urbanization turns out to be wrong."

July 14, 2018 - Place

Small Town Pedestrian

Sidewalks and Footpaths 'Functionally Obsolete' in the Near Transportation Future

With so much attention devoted to how technology will change roadways and vehicles, less speculation has attended to the ways technology will change walking.

July 14, 2018 - Foreground

LA Ciclavia

Gehl Institute Releases New 'Guide to Inclusion and Health in Public Space'

The Gehl Institute's new Inclusive Healthy Places Framework is a free tool for evaluating and creating inclusive public places that support health equity.

July 13, 2018 - Gehl Institute

Dublin Skyline

Asia Dominates Metropolitan Growth; California Cities Also in the Top Ten

The Brookings Institution released the Global Metro Monitor 2018 report this week.

July 13, 2018 - Brookings

Metro Paris

Friday Eye Candy: Making Subway Lines Visible From an Airplane

The transit map is useful, but doesn't always capture the scale of the engineering feat that produced the world's subways systems.

July 13, 2018 - CityLab

Climate Change Protest

Tips for Talking About Climate Change

Dr. Katharine Hayhoe is the leading expert in how to have difficult conversations about climate change—like the kind when facts aren't enough.

July 10, 2018 - Sightline Institute

Johannesburg, South Africa

Declaring a 'Pedestrian Bill of Rights'

What would equality and freedom for pedestrians look like?

July 10, 2018 - Transportist

Self-Driving Cars

Self-Driving Skepticism

Autonomous vehicles have many evangelists, but perhaps they need more skeptics.

July 9, 2018 - The Spectator

Uber

Uber Releases Open-Source Mapping Tool

Individuals and major companies alike have already found a variety of applications for the software.

July 8, 2018 - Fast Co. Design

Arrival Times

The 'Business Case' for Real-Time Transit Data

Real-time information is critical to keeping public transit a competitive mobility option, researchers suggest.

July 5, 2018 - Sidewalk Labs

Japan Shared Space

Resource-Efficient Urban Planning Helps Achieve Economic, Social, and Environmental Goals

A new report shows that low-carbon development policies can help to achieve numerous planning goals including job creation, improved safety and public health, social inclusion, and improved accessibility.

July 3, 2018 - The Economic and Social Benefits of Low-Carbon Cities: A Systematic Review of the Evidence

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.