The Daily Source of Urban Planning News

BLOG POST

As the president and co-founder of Friends of the High Line prepares to leave the park he helped to create, it is a good time to consider the legacy of what is now one of the most famous contemporary landscapes in the world.

December 8 - Mark Hough

A new report and interactive website from the Knight Foundation attempt to define (broadly) and measure the growing synthesis of technology and civic life.

December 8 - The Atlantic Cities

Jan Gehl argued at the Royal Institute of British Architects annual research symposium that architects and urban planners must do more research on how their schemes affect people.

December 8 - Future Cities

Already one of only two states to require criminal background checks of registered architects, the Texas legislature has gone one step further by requiring them to be fingerprinted. It's the first state in the country to embrace the practice.

December 8 - The Architect's Newspaper

I know, it's a bit early in the "Best of" season to get this specialized, but gosh darnit if these protected bike lanes aren't the cutest things. Chicago, Indianapolis, Austin, and the other winners: You've got a lot to celebrate.

December 8 - People for Bikes

This train is not steel wheels on steel rail - it is multiple two-wheeled rubber tires, commuting together, providing support and safety to novice cyclists, but sometimes it backfires. Interviewed is a frustrated motorist who intimidated them.

December 7 - NPR

Alison Prato speaks with architect Chris Downey, who lost his eyesight five years ago following surgery to remove a brain tumor, about how his approach to design and his experience of the city have changed.

December 7 - TED Blog

A pilot project hopes to pioneer a new type of investment by alleviating asthma among lower-income children. Project developers hope the Fresno Asthma Impact Model could become a national model for improving health and reducing costs.

December 7 - The Fresno Bee

A preliminary map of D.C. Metro's long-term expansion plans that was unveiled this week has riders salivating at the prospect of a station finally being built in Georgetown. A third line could serve Virginia.

December 7 - WAMU

After three years of operation, Melbourne's publicly subsidized bike share system is for sale. Though ridership has increased each year since opening, private investment is seen as crucial for expansion.

December 7 - The Age

Illustrative diagrams are one of the primary tools used by architects and planners to explain existing conditions and design concepts. An art project that produces frivolous diagrams reveals the heft that well crafted drawings bring.

December 6 - WebUrbanist

A new report from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) estimates the impact that all those actors, writers, and artists have on the national economy.

December 6 - Next City

With the long-awaited extension of Boston's Green Line train to Somerville expected to arrive in a few years, the city has embraced a planning and development process much different from the one that "left behind some of Somerville’s worst spaces."

December 6 - The Boston Globe

Embracing the inevitability of some sort of carbon pricing scheme being adopted by the U.S. Government, many of the nation's biggest corporations are incorporating such costs into their financial planning. One major player isn't giving up the fight.

December 6 - The New York Times

A new report from the National Center for Safe Routes to School finds that the percentage of students walking to and from school "increased significantly" between 2007 and 2012.

December 6 - DC.Streetsblog

Charles Birnbaum, president of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, offers his assessment of the notable controversies, credits and completions in landscape architecture over the past year.

December 6 - Huffington Post

After suffering a major setback from a court decision that prevents the authority from selling $10 billion in voter-approved bonds, a key federal agency has ruled that the authority must comply with environmental regulations before laying tracks.

December 6 - Los Angeles Times

Thriving bike share systems in DC and NYC are models for success. But other cities have struggled to create sustainable systems (DC's first effort failed, in fact). A new report offers a comprehensive guide to establishing bike share in your town.

December 6 - Treehugger

The EPA has seriously underestimated the emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas, methane, particularly from oil and gas activity (five times) and from cattle and livestock operations (two times), according to a new report published in the PNAS.

December 6 - The New York Times

With traffic deaths in New York City approaching falling homicide rates, calls for improving road safety are increasing. William Bratton, the former and future NYPD Commissioner, has signaled street safety will be a priority, exciting advocates.

December 6 - WNYC: Transportation Nation