Trends

Urban planners have no shortage of urgent issues to delve into, from a deepening housing crisis to an increasingly unpredictable climate to a new federal administration bent on slashing key funding for everything from electric cars to housing assistance.

March 7, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

APA’s third annual Trend Report for Urban Planners is out and offers a comprehensive look at potential drivers of change that could impact communities and the work of planners for decades to come.

February 11, 2024 - American Planning Association

Seventeen transportation experts and professionals weigh in on what they think trends in the sector will look like in 2023.

January 1, 2023 - The Verge

A list of innovative projects, intriguing design, and flummoxing failures.

December 6, 2022 - Medium

Building a framework of understanding for the year to come.

January 12, 2022 - James Brasuell

Part one of two of Planetizen's review of 2021—re-assessing failed predictions and daylighting the biggest planning stories of the year.

December 20, 2021 - James Brasuell

The nation is now tasked with the challenge of changing course in the middle of multiple, global crises. The necessity of finding a way to overcome the failures of the past and lay the groundwork for a new kind of future has never been more clear.

January 31, 2021 - James Brasuell

Here's your "tl;dr" treatment of the "Urban Planning Trends to Watch in 2020" article published by Planetizen earlier this year.

February 18, 2020 - Planetizen Courses on YouTube

William Riggs, assistant professor at the University of San Francisco School of Management, predicts the trends that will continue an ongoing revolution in transportation.

February 10, 2020 - William Riggs

A look back at the biggest stories and themes from the world of urban planning in the decade that was the 2010s.

December 16, 2019 - James Brasuell

Large American cities are losing bus and train riders, but in France, most cities have seen the opposite trend.

September 15, 2019 - theTransportPolitic

Some thoughts on what we might have learned in 2018 and what it might mean going forward.

January 3, 2019 - Steven Polzin

Segways were invented 17 years ago, but the technology feels as if it's been dead for a while. So why are scooters continuing to attract cities and investors?

June 13, 2018 - Bloomberg

Once, trains dominated the city’s economy, now it's "brains, bikes and beer," according to city officials.

May 13, 2018 - Governing

There was plenty of good to go with the bad from a year of professional and academic practice in the field of landscape architecture.

December 13, 2017 - Huffington Post

Transit malls and voter support have buoyed a system that continues to attract commuters and other riders.

October 21, 2017 - CityLab

A deeper look at the traffic data on Planetizen reveals trends from the planning and urban design conversation of 2014.

December 31, 2014 - James Brasuell

The New York Times Upshot and Google team up to reveal the top three most-searched holiday gift items for U.S. cities, revealing local and regional trends.

December 25, 2014 - New York Times - The Upshot

As they reflect on a year of exciting advances in urbanism, and look forward to the next, the writers at The Atlantic Cities discuss the most loathed trends they hope will die in 2013.

January 2, 2013 - The Atlantic Cities

Max Nisen discusses how cities like Boston and Edmonton are successfully applying popular trends from the private sector - on topics such as mobility, engagement, big data and innovation - and changing the way we live.

December 17, 2012 - Business Insider