City Planning, Transportation Policy, Sustainable Life
Great transportation projects are built through broad, inter-disciplinary cooperation. For major projects, city planners and civil engineers usually work together during project development, with planners setting the scope, vision and major design features and engineers making sure the details work and engineering standards are met. […]
I recently spent a weekend in Oklahoma City. I stayed in Bricktown where I weaved around the construction of their new streetcar line and ventured out into nearby downtown neighborhoods and several residential areas. It was my first time in the city and I was […]
I’m a big fan of the Polis blog. I haven’t found any other collaborative blog that touches on so many interesting global planning and development issues. An article in their archive compared universal social policies with targeted programs. Should education, health care, and other human […]
The last book Jane Jacobs completed before she died was Dark Age Ahead. It’s a rant against the evils (real and imagined) that she felt were crippling society. Meandering and pessimistic, it lacks the eureka moments of Death and Life of Great American Cities, but […]
Nashville has recently become an economic mecca for young professionals looking for jobs out of college, but before its development boom it was mostly known for its music. Nashville started one of the first major music radio stations in 1925 which featured a live broadcast called the […]
Walk around the downtown of any major U.S. city and you’ll probably see signs indicating time-of-day restrictions for on street parking. Some streets have AM peak restrictions, while many have PM peak restrictions. The rationale behind these policies is to better accommodate peak hour traffic […]
Depending who you listen to, brick and mortar retail is either in its final breaths or is simply in a creative shift away from traditional department stores. Either way, things are changing and the death of retail as we know it offers many sustainable redevelopment opportunities. Many […]
The University of Westminster recently released a cycling safety study which used travel surveys to predict future cycling crash hot spots. By recording rider information on near misses, non-injury incidents and qualitative perceptions of safety, Rachel Aldred and Sian Crosweller showed that slower cyclists experience roadways […]
I’m currently living in Dallas, but much of my formative hands-on planning education took place in Baltimore. Baltimore has an incredible array of assets, including historic neighborhoods, great architecture and a world famous waterfront. Urban renewal took its tool on the city, however, and the […]
A community led revitalization of Broad Street in Memphis. A few buckets of paint, some pop up shops, and entrepreneurial spirit helped bring a neighborhood back to life. Temporary projects like these often encourage city agencies and politicians to re-imagine how streets can better serve […]