Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Livable Streets

A vision for what 13th Street in Columbus, Georgia, could look like. Image via Gehl Studio

Two-Week Pilot Lets Columbus, Georgia, Test Road Diet as Part of Bigger Plan

By Stephen Miller | May 9, 2017 | 2 Comments

A pilot project in Columbus, Georgia, is the latest chapter in an effort to improve walking, bicycling, and public space in this city along the Alabama border.

Study: High-Traffic Arterial Roads Reduce Quality of Life, Even Blocks Away

By Angie Schmitt | Aug 16, 2016 | 4 Comments

Seminal research by Donald Appleyard in the 1970s found the volume of traffic on a street affects quality of life for residents in profound and unexpected ways. For example, the amount of social contact people had with their neighbors was curtailed for those who lived on high traffic streets compared with those living on quieter streets. People even defined their “home […]

Photographic Proof That America Can Make Streets for People Instead of Cars

By Angie Schmitt | Apr 6, 2016 | 12 Comments

Need some inspiration to make your city’s streets safer and more inviting? Here’s a good place to start: URB-I, a collective of urban designers based in São Paulo, has been collecting before and after images of street transformations using Google Street View’s time lapse feature. The stockpile has grown to include 1,000 places around the world, including […]

Feds Propose Major Rule Changes to Eliminate Barriers to Safer Streets

By Angie Schmitt | Oct 8, 2015 | 22 Comments

Applying highway design standards to city streets has been a disaster for urban neighborhoods. The same things that make highways safer for driving at 65 mph — wide lanes, “clear zones” running alongside the road that have no trees or other “obstacles” — make surface streets dangerous and dreadful for walking, killing street life. The one-size-fits-all approach to […]

Vote to Decide the Best Urban Street Transformation of 2014

By Angie Schmitt | Dec 17, 2014 | 72 Comments

If you’re searching for reasons to feel positive about the future, the street transformations pictured below are a good start. Earlier this month we asked readers to send in their nominations for the best American street redesigns of 2014. These five are the finalists selected by Streetsblog staff. They include new car-free zones, substantial sidewalk […]

Meet Streetmix, the Website Where You Can Design Your Own Street

By Stephen Miller | Aug 12, 2013 | No Comments

Last fall, Lou Huang was at a community meeting for the initiative to redesign Second Street in San Francisco. Planners handed out paper cutouts, allowing participants to mix and match to create their ideal street. Huang, an urban designer himself, thought the exercise would make for a great website. Now, after months of work beginning at a January […]

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