World

Global issues, U.N., etc.

Road Rage

On the Psychology of Road Rage

Few of us are fully immune from the effects of road rage. Psychologists are asking why driving can provoke changes in behavior—and how to avert them.

March 15, 2015 - Pacific Standard

Seaside Entrance

The Four Phases of New Urbanism

Robert Steuteville discusses the slow, phased emergence of the New Urbanism. We are only partway through a change that will take generations. We are now immersed in the revitalization of cities. More phases will come.

March 12, 2015 - Better Cities & Towns

A stream of mobile apps

Why Coding Can Teach Planners How to Be More Creative

I want to learn HTML and CSS, or maybe get a refresher on the current state of web technology—where should I start?

March 10, 2015 - Civicly

A History of 'Urban Dashboards' and their Impact on City Governance

Welcome to the age of "Dashboard Governance"—when a good user interface offers the potential for performance advantages to city management.

March 9, 2015 - Places Journal

Warning Sign

Study: Dynamic Road Signs Make for Better Drivers

A psychological experiment finds that warning signs depicting more movement gain more attention, making drivers navigate more carefully.

March 9, 2015 - The Atlantic

facades of victorian style residences in San Francisco

A Modest Proposal: A Scientific Method for the Beauty of Cities

Alain de Botton has an idea that beauty is not in the eye of the beholder, when it comes to cities anyways. He also proposes a system for evaluating the beauty of the world's cities (spoiler: most cities don't qualify).

March 4, 2015 - CityLab

Visualizing the Spread of the OpenStreetMap Project

OpenStreetMap has released an animated map to illustrate the impressive growth of the project over the first ten years of its existence.

March 3, 2015 - Maps Mania

World population

How Dense Cities Reap Green Benefits

What they may lack in peace and quiet, crowded cities more than make up for by requiring residents to live smaller. Tangible environmental benefits follow.

March 1, 2015 - The Washington Post - Wonkblog

Locals and Tourists - Pittsburgh

Friday Eye Candy: Maps Reveal Differences in How Locals and Tourists See the City

The cities that visitors see will always be different than the city that locals see. A new mapping project reveals the distinctions between the local perspective and the tourist perspective for 136 cities around the globe.

February 27, 2015 - Huffington Post

CityMap Expands to the Global Stage with its Social Mapping System

The owners of CityMap call it one of the most social and most monetizable maps in the world. With a new expansion plan announced this week, the app—which launched in 2012 with a map of every shop in New York City—is going global.

February 26, 2015 - Crain's New York Business

Shared Street

Naked is Better! On the Many Benefits of Shared Streets

Experiments with shared (also called "naked") streets in Auckland, New Zealand show that mixing motorized and non-motorized modes can be safe, friendly, and economically successful.

February 26, 2015 - Shared Spaces Website

Planning Model

Has the Urban Planning Profession Made You Boring?

Urban planning can be an exciting and rewarding profession. It can also be extremely political and sometimes downright boring.

February 25, 2015 - Civicly

Mining the City

Rapid urbanization and climate change will make it harder for cities to provide crucial resources for their citizens. In this article, Arup consultants Amy Leitch and Laura Frost examine how the built environment can fill this emerging need.

February 24, 2015 - Arup Connect

The Far-Reaching, Lasting Effects of Low Oil Prices

With SUV sales up, car sales down, and mileage driven up, the effects of lower gas prices could soon extend to land use, making suburban and exurban commuting more affordable. Economists have a term for these effects: demand response.

February 24, 2015 - The Wall Street Journal - The Outlook

Beyond Eternal: Identifying The World's Oldest City

Cities from India to Syria to Hungary can claim to be the world's oldest continually inhabited city, with permanent habitation going back more than 4,000 years. But when the evidence is thousands of years old, the title becomes elusive.

February 22, 2015 - The Guardian

Map Fail

Friday Funny: How to Fail at Maps

It's too bad there isn't a map that can lead us to the place where all the fact-checkers have gone.

February 20, 2015 - Vox

A sign for pedestrians and cars

Lessons from 'The Human Scale'

How can we redirect our city building into a form that can handle the expected doubling of urban residents over the next 40 years? Great ideas can be found in this collection of soundbites from the film, "The Human Scale."

February 17, 2015 - PlaceShakers

The Best and the Worst Airports to Access

If you want great access to an airport, go overseas—that's the main finding of a study by Golden Gateway Alliance, a Manhattan-based airport advocacy organization. Tied for dead-last in terms of access is Denver and a certain New York airport.

February 17, 2015 - New York Post

A Valentine's Day Message from Diversity Plaza in New York City

We at Planetizen hope that there's lots of love in your day today.

February 14, 2015 - StreetsBlog NYC

Obituary: Jon Jerde, Founder of the Jerde Partnership

Jon Jerde—one of the country's most recognizable and prolific architects and urban designers—passed away this week.

February 14, 2015 - CityLab

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.