Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Urban Planning

Trucks and Cities Are Like Oil and Water. Is There a Solution?

By Tanya Snyder | Jan 9, 2014 | 87 Comments

About 350 pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists are killed each year by large trucks in this country. Big freight trucks are incompatible with cities in many ways, bringing danger, pollution, noise, and traffic congestion. They park in bike lanes and have shockingly big blind spots, putting everyone around them at risk. And yet, most cities haven’t […]

Robert Grow on Utah’s Decision to Build Transit and Shun Sprawl

By Tanya Snyder | Dec 3, 2013 | 7 Comments

In the late 1990s, an organization called Envision Utah brought together a broad spectrum of people to figure out how to plan for major population growth. They started by asking participants to mark out areas that shouldn’t be developed — wilderness, national parks, agricultural land. Then, they had to figure out how to fit future […]

Q&A With Robert Grow: How Utah Decided to Embrace “Quality Growth”

By Tanya Snyder | Dec 2, 2013 | 1 Comment

If you’ve ever wondered how a deep-red state like Utah has managed to build some of the most ambitious transit expansions in the country, the short answer is: Envision Utah. Starting in the late nineties, the non-profit Envision Utah brought together an incredibly broad spectrum of interests, including plenty of people without a specific stake in […]

New Software Lets You Virtually Stroll Down Streets That You Design

By Angie Schmitt | Nov 27, 2013 | 11 Comments

Folks across the blogosphere are geeking out over this new software created by Spencer Boomhower at the Portland firm Cupola Media. “Unity3D Visualization” lets users manipulate the features of a street and then evaluate the changes in an immersive animated display. The software uses video game technology to help people understand how different designs will “feel.” […]

Talking Headways: A Streetsblog Podcast, Episode 3

By Tanya Snyder | Nov 26, 2013 | 1 Comment

This week, Jeff and Tanya take on the Atlanta Braves’ terrible, no-good, very bad decision to move their stadium to Cobb County, Georgia. We discuss cities that are (and are not) shaped like wedding cakes, and whether that means you need to smoosh your spouse’s face in it. Tanya makes a pedestrian-rights argument against high-heeled […]

“If/Then”: A Review of the Broadway-Bound Musical About City Planning

By Liisa Ecola | Nov 11, 2013 | 26 Comments

What rhymes with “waterfront redevelopment plan”? I wondered that after recently reading that the storyline of an upcoming musical whose plot revolves around a 40-ish city planner moving to New York. Clearly a musical needs a larger audience than 40-something women with city planning degrees, but as the bulls-eye of their target demographic, I felt […]

Show More Stories