Tactical Urbanism

Center-running protected bike lane on Valencia Street in San Francisco, California.

How San Francisco’s ‘People Protected Bike Lanes’ are Moving the Needle on Road Safety

A local bike safety protest has become a global phenomenon.

January 29, 2025 - Streetsblog San Francisco

Pedestrian plaza construction site with orange cones and excavator in Jersey City, New Jersey.

How Jersey City Dramatically Improved Its Public Realm

The city’s new Department of Infrastructure consolidates the management of public amenities and has guided the creation of new bike lanes, pedestrian plazas, and parks.

September 15, 2024 - CNU Public Square

A white crosswalk painted by Crosswalk Collective LA in Los Angeles, California.

Guerilla Urbanism Spurs Action From Cities

Rather than take a hostile approach to DIY urbanism, some cities are using guerilla efforts as an opportunity to understand critical infrastructure gaps.

May 24, 2024 - Smart Cities Dive

Close-up of man painting white and yellow crosswalk on asphalt.

Guerilla Urbanism: Small Interventions, Big Impact

Citizen-led projects can lead to broader changes — if cities will listen.

March 24, 2024 - Congress For New Urbanism

Close-up of pedestrian crossing button at a crosswalk in Los Angeles

Tactical Urbanism Makes Strides in L.A.

A DIY urbanism group in Los Angeles has successfully prompted the city to install permanent crosswalks at dangerous intersections, despite the city’s insistence that the group’s do-it-yourself work is illegal.

February 14, 2023 - LAist

Machine spraying white crosswalk lines on street

How Tactical Urbanism Succeeds Where Bureaucracy Fails

Making the case for do-it-yourself infrastructure.

December 5, 2022 - Bloomberg CityLab

Covered outdoor dining patio on street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Opinion: Support Citizen-Led Public Space Projects

A public space advocate outlines how Philadelphia’s city leaders could support the parklets, plazas, and other public space conversions that proliferated during the pandemic.

September 26, 2022 - WHYY

An intersection is adorned with paint depicting the Italian flag in St. Louis.

St. Louis Had Enough of the Federal Government’s Crosswalk Paint Policy

St. Louis is not the only city to decide that the Federal Highway Administration’s policies against brightly painted crosswalks. The evidence is on the side of the resistance.

September 6, 2022 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Pop-Up Park

What Is Tactical Urbanism?

Tactical urbanism, one of the most common buzzwords in planning over the past decade, describes a variety of low-cost, incremental public realm design interventions.

June 16, 2022 - James Brasuell

Higgins Avenue in downtown Missoula, Montana

Tactical Urbanism Takes Hold in Missoula

Community organizations are taking action to transform the city and pave the way for permanent infrastructure improvements.

April 6, 2022 - Missoula Current

Google Maps street view of intersection of Romaine and Serrano in Los Angeles, California

DIY Crosswalks Appear in Hollywood

A group claiming the city of Los Angeles fails to protect pedestrians is taking action on their own, painting a set of crosswalks at a busy residential intersection.

April 4, 2022 - NPR

Atlanta Scooter

Atlanta Urges Tactical Urbanism To Speed Up Vision Zero Goals

The city's department of transportation has released a guide to help community groups implement low-cost 'tactical urbanism' projects.

March 11, 2022 - Smart Cities Dive

Brooklyn, New York City

Tactical Urbanism Gurus Rethink Equity

Mike Lydon and Tony Garcia wrote the book on Tactical Urbanism, and as leading consultants of the practice in cities around the country, they have faced criticism in recent weeks and months for a lack of attention to matters of equity.

July 7, 2020 - Streetsblog USA

Dallas

Coronavirus Presents Opportunities for Resilience in Dallas

Dallasites have a history of responding to times of crisis with plans for reinvention. What could the city do to improve public life after the coronavirus pandemic?

May 1, 2020 - The Dallas Morning News

Empty Streets

Denver, Minneapolis Lead Nation in Open Streets for COVID Response

Denver now has more than 13 miles of streets closed to car traffic. Only Minneapolis has more.

April 6, 2020 - Denverite

Homelessness

Boulders Meant to Deter Homeless Cause a Ruckus in San Francisco

Desperate times. Desperate measures.

October 1, 2019 - The San Francisco Examiner

Plunger

Plunger-Protected Bike Lane Clears Path in Boulder

Someone must have tired of the cars clogging the 30th Street bike lanes and taken matters into their own hands.

September 13, 2019 - The Denver Post

Watch a Grassroots Bike Planning Effort Take Root

A new short documentary by Streetfilms shows how Jersey City built the coalition to achieve major bike infrastructure investments.

September 7, 2019 - StreetsBlog NYC

Car Bike Lane

'Red Cup Project' Gains Viral Attention for Bike Infrastructure Safety

Internet observers noticed lots of videos of red Solo cups lining painted bike lanes in cities all over the country on Friday, April 26.

April 29, 2019 - Streetsblog USA

Orlando Experiments With Temporary Road Diets

Beginning this month, Orlando officials will temporarily test a half-mile road diet concept along Curry Ford Road. This tactical urbanism project is expected to last 4 weeks.

March 18, 2018 - Modern Cities

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.