Traffic Calming
Zen & The Art of Traffic Calming
This week's guest 'Shaker, Rob Dalton, talks roundabouts, bollards and buffers to get your feet into a 禪 Zen street.
Sick of Speeding, Baltimoreans Deploy DIY Traffic Calming
Fed up with speeding cars, and a city bureaucracy seen as slow to respond to their complaints, residents and artists in Baltimore have taken it upon themselves to remedy the situation by creating their own traffic calming measures.
Road Diet Paves the Way for Town's Return to a 'Wonderful Life'
Community resistance stopped plans for widening Hamburg, New York's Main Street. By embracing calmer streets, the town is flourishing and once again enjoying comparisons to the idyllic Bedford Falls of 'It's a Wonderful Life.'
Canadian Officials See Long-Term Threat from Short-Term Urbanism
A series of tactical urbanist interventions inspired by a recent talk given by Mike Lydon, Principal of the Street Plans Collaborative, have raised the ire of the powers that be in the Canadian city of Hamilton.
Removing Sidewalks to Make Room for Peds
WAMU's Michael Pope reports on an Alexandria, VA's plan to level the playing field for bikes, pedestrians and cars by taking out curbs.
Annual PARK(ing) Day Lessons (Re)Learned
Last Friday was annual PARK(ing) Day, and for Howard Blackson, who participated in a pilot park(let) project in San Diego, the reasons to enable context appropriate civic space was underscored again.
Friday Funny: Trading in Stop Signs for Sex Dolls
An elderly woman in China has implemented an innovative traffic calming measure in her neighborhood. Could sex dolls replace stop signs at an intersection near you?
Guerrilla Traffic Calming Spreads in Southern California
Alexandria Abramian Mott spotlights several grassroots ways -- from signs to screams -- in which "fed-up residents are reclaiming their streets, or at least trying to."
Do Stop Signs Make Streets Safer?
When communities feel like street traffic is unsafe, they usually demand stop signs or traffic lights to be installed. But studies show that those devices may actually make streets less safe.
Snow as Traffic Calming
Recent snowstorms in much of the U.S. have left many cities with major snow cleanup jobs on their streets. In some instances, though, the buildup of snow has created natural traffic-calming curb extensions.
Smart Growth's Future in Northern Virginia
In an interview with Arlington County Board Vice-Chairman Christopher Zimmerman, Jonna McKone asks the local official about current and future transit-oriented development (TOD) and managed growth in the Washington, D.C. region.
Britons Move Towards A New Era of "Civilized Street Design"
Designers and "movement specialists" in Great Britain are pioneering various street designs that aim to bring traffic speeds down to teens, which they claim is the speed range that allows vehicles to safely share a space with pedestrians.
Not All Want NYC Bike Infrastructure to Pedal Forward
The surge in city investment in bicycle lanes and the recent passing of various pro-bicycle laws has greatly irked many residents. Complaints have been leveled at everything from vehicle flow disruption to "extraordinarily ugly" lane paint choices.
Living Alley Establishes Permanent Roots in San Francisco Neighborhood
Street furniture and plantings transform a small strip of roadway within a bustling San Francisco neighborhood, much to the delight of the planners and designers who fought for the change for over five years.
Halloween Costumes for Urban Planners - 3rd Edition
It's Halloween time again, the day when dressing up in silly costumes is required of every conscionable person. Some opt for the scary ghost or the sexy nurse, but others, more thoughtful others, make more of this opportunity.
Neighborhood Design Prompted Speed Hump Homicide
Grist digs deeper into the Virginia Speed Hump murder - showing how the street configuration of the suburban neighborhood may have contributed to the rage, and why it's unlikely to see more neighborhoods like it in the future.
Virginia Speed Bump Leads to Neighborhood Activist's Murder
A Virginia man who rallied to have a traffic-calming speed bump installed on his street became the source of so much local controversy that a neighbor recently shot and killed him.
Advocates Push for Tearing Down Freeway Through Olmsted Corridor
Buffalo's Kensington Expressway cut the Humbolt Parkway neighborhood and its Frederick Law Olmsted-designed corridor in half in 1958. Activists are pushing the state to consider tearing it down and replacing it with a pedestrian-friendly boulevard.
How To Design Your Own Speed Bump - In German
A German homeowner is frustrated with the traffic in his neighborhood, so he designs and installs his own speed bump for his street. While there are no English subtitles, the pictures and sounds illustrate the directions and results all too well.
Finland Special: Snow As Traffic Calming Device
Very snowy holiday greetings from Finland, everyone! While here visiting my in-laws and friends, I wanted to take a quick moment and share an interesting observation about the way Finns handle the incessant layers of snow that blanket their chilly winter country. It seems that aside from limited access highways and some primary arterials, the Finnish standard for snow treatment is to plow to a reasonable depth, but not worry too much about an inch or two of snow base layer covering streets. Some streets get sand treatment as well, but salt is used very, very sparingly.
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.
Caltrans
Smith Gee Studio
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
Salt Lake City
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
