Street Design
Trick Out Your Street With Two New Design Tools
People-powered street design is getting a major boost with the help of two new tools that make it easy to reimagine unsatisfactory streetscapes.
Streetmix Socializes Street Design
OK, so we missed this relaunch for our just-published list of the Top Websites. Another remarkable venture from the fellows at civic tech leader Code for America, Streeetmix is an impressively user-friendly and attractive tool for designing streets.
In Rethinking Shared Spaces, Sidewalks Take Center Stage
Joe Nickol pens a paean to the often overlooked sidewalk: "our neighborhood's breadwinner, bringing vitality, safety, and economy."
Using the Wrong Metrics for Creating Great Streets
Gary Toth considers the damage to the quality of our streets and urban environments caused by the use of travel projection models and Levels of Service (LOS) as performance metrics.
Guide to Street Design in Urban India
A new guidebook illustrates ways to create safer streets and more livable public spaces.
Density without walkability
I had heard of “dense sprawl” and “density without walkability” in the past, but before spending a week in Jerusalem last month, I had never really lived through these problems. My parents (who I was staying with) rented a unit in a high-rise condo complex called Holyland Tower. Although Holyland Tower was the tallest building in the area, there were numerous mid-rise buildings, and lots of two-and three-story apartment and condo buildings. While walking through the idea, I saw nothing resembling a single-family home. In sum, this area was a pretty dense neighborhood in a pretty dense city (Jerusalem’s overall density is roughly comparable to that of the city of San Francisco).
New Urban Design Looks at Shared Spaces
In urban street design, a new movement known as 'shared spaces' has been emerging. This new movement "aims to reduce the dominance of cars by getting people and vehicles to share the road space," according to Walkonomics.
Promoting Livable Streets In Philadelphia
Creating livable streets starts at the grassroots level by gathering support from the community. Better Blocks Philly was a project that created temporary changes to streets, promoting the concept of the "complete street" for the residents.
'The Johnny Appleseed of Walk-able Communities'
Walkability guru Dan Burden's long-preached message of pedestrian-focused planning is increasingly becoming policy in cities across the country.
The History and the Flaws of the Cul-de-Sac
This episode of 99% Invisible looks into the history of the cul-de-sac, and why its design flaws overpower its benefits.
Emergency Avenue
Your streets could be killing you -- or at least making it harder for emergency services to reach you in times of need.
More evidence that walkability is marketable
A few days ago, I was in a Chicago neighborhood called Lincoln Square, on Lincoln Avenue just south of Lawrence Avenue. Lincoln Avenue looks like many posh urban neighborhoods- narrow, walkable streets inhabited by gelato-eating, prosperous-looking people. Even on a weeknight, the shops and streets of Lincoln Square betrayed no evidence of a recession.*
Sustainable Streets in St. Louis
The city of St. Louis has been testing out a new sustainable streetscape design that calms traffic and helps absorb stormwater. The test run has been so well-received, the city is thinking about rolling out the design permanently.
Jeff Speck reviews the NY Street Design Manual
Suburban Nation co-author Jeff Speck cracks the new New York Street Design Manual and finds a lot of useful material and some that falls short.
America's Killer Roads
This oped takes on American street design and blames it for causing countless road injuries and deaths.
Rethinking the Street Space: Why Street Design Matters
Streets aren't just for driving, and cities are starting to realize it. Amber Hawkes and Georgia Sheridan explain why street design matters and where we are today in terms of designing the "street space."
Citizens Redesign Brooklyn Street
On Monday, Gothamist revealed the winners of a contest to redesign the traffic-clogged intersection of 4th Avenue and 9th Street in Brooklyn.
Two kinds of sprawl
Once every few semesters, I teach a seminar on "Sprawl and the Law." On the first day of the seminar, I ask students what "sprawl" is. After getting a variety of answers, I reveal the truth: most definitions of sprawl involve one of two separate definitions: "Where we grow"- Sprawl as movement from the core to the fringe of a region. "How we grow"- Sprawl as development oriented towards drivers as opposed to nondrivers.
Pro-Pedestrian Policies Can Be Pro-Driver Too
Some transportation writers seem to believe that the interests of drivers and those of nondrivers are irreconcilable. For example, I just searched on google.com for websites using the terms “traffic calming” and “anti-automobile” together, and found over 60 such sites. But in fact, the interest of pedestrians in calmer, more walkable streets sometimes intersects (pun intended) with the interests of at least some motorists.
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.
City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
