#urban-planning

[ follow ]
fromStreetsblog
22 hours ago

Transportation Politics Is Inherently Radical - Streetsblog USA

Regular people make political transportation decisions all the time without realizing it. For example, when a person in a car-dependent place decides to go anywhere, they may not feel like they are making a transportation choice, and they may not be aware of how their choice affects others. From their perspective, they are not choosing to drive to a destination; they are just choosing to go there, and they may feel like a car is their only option.
US politics
Artificial intelligence
fromBusiness Insider
3 days ago

The computer scientist who coined 'vibe coding' says self-driving cars will 'terraform' outdoor spaces

Autonomous robotaxis will gradually reshape cities by reducing parked cars, reclaiming public space, lowering noise, and improving safety while freeing drivers' attention.
Canada news
fromwww.cbc.ca
4 days ago

New shops and cafes can open in Toronto neighbourhoods decades after being outlawed | CBC News

Toronto will allow small shops and cafes to open in certain residential neighbourhoods, reversing decades-old planning rules to increase local services and street vibrancy.
History
fromOpen Culture
5 days ago

How Paris Became Paris: The Story Behind Its Iconic Squares, Bridges, Monuments & Boulevards

Haussmann transformed Paris by forcefully replacing medieval streets with grand axial boulevards and public squares that still define the city's urban form.
Germany politics
fromwww.theguardian.com
4 days ago

The car belongs in Berlin': city backpedaling on bike-friendly policies, critics say

Berlin is reverting to car-centric transport policies, intensifying conflicts over cycling, public transport investment, and urban road use.
fromStreetsblog
1 week ago

Friday Video: The Utopia of London's Low-Traffic Neighborhoods - Streetsblog New York City

The key to these neighborhoods, which have no exact equivalent in America's biggest city, are "modal filters" that divert car traffic while allowing bicycles and pedestrians to roll and walk freely. Green-Eames shows off two types: The first employs bollards to physically block automobiles, and the second uses cameras that allow certain cars and buses to pass through without paying a fine.
London politics
fromStreetsblog
1 week ago

Book Excerpt Special: The Incomplete Freeway Revolt - Streetsblog New York City

Imagine freeways along Lady Bird Lake in Austin, through Georgetown in Washington, along the beach in Santa Monica, through the French Quarter in New Orleans, or bisecting Cambridge between Harvard and MIT. Freeway builders had their sights set on all these places. They would've had their way, too, if not for the meddling protesters who foiled their schemes. The freeway revolt of the 1960s and '70s changed the course of American history, saving some of the nation's oldest and most-beautiful neighborhoods.
SF politics
SF politics
fromFuncheap
1 week ago

The Bay Agenda: The Future of San Francisco Housing

San Francisco will build tens of thousands of homes; leaders propose zoning changes like Mayor Lurie's 'Family Zoning Plan' to increase heights along transit corridors.
Remodel
fromArchDaily
1 week ago

How Can Transport Infrastructures Take On a New Lease of Life?

Adaptive reuse of disused transport infrastructure revitalizes urban mobility, conserves resources, preserves collective memory, and supports sustainable, inclusive city development.
Public health
fromStreetsblog
1 week ago

Is a 'Life After Cars' Really Possible? - Streetsblog USA

Mass automobility inflicts physical, social, and environmental harms and requires radical rethinking of streets and public policy to restore safety and equity.
Arts
fromArchDaily
1 week ago

Foster + Partners Presents "Civic Vision" Exhibition at Sydney's Parkline Place

Foster + Partners' Civic Vision exhibition presents six decades of civic architecture, highlighting continuity of ideas, sustainability, and urban engagement across global projects.
London politics
fromTime Out London
3 weeks ago

New images show what a pedestrianised Soho could look like

Plans propose permanent pedestrianisation of parts of Soho, making Old Compton Street, Kingly Street and Greek Street car-free to improve air quality and boost businesses.
#affordable-housing
#historic-preservation
fromPortland Mercury
2 weeks ago

Book Review: 'Life After Cars' Authors Have Hope, Book Tour

"Cars ruin everything." That's the bold opening line of Life After Cars, the new book by celebrated transportation media figures Sarah Goodyear, Doug Gordon, and Aaron Naparstek. The writers make a case for that initial assertion, detailing the various ways cars-or, more specifically, car culture as we currently know it-ruin childhoods, destroy wildlife, perpetuate societal injustices, and kill people, to name a few particularly negative effects.
Cars
Cars
fromStreetsblog
3 weeks ago

Talking Headways Podcast: Life After Cars - Streetsblog USA

Societies repeatedly chose automobile-centered policies, embedding harmful car dependence despite historical opportunities to adopt alternative, less car-dependent urban paths.
History
fromwww.eastbaytimes.com
3 weeks ago

Berkeley, a Look Back: Some city leaders in 1925 felt town needed airport

Berkeley considered converting waterfront sanitary fill into an aviation landing field in 1925, urged by naval officers and local boosters to avoid future regret.
Environment
fromFuncheap
4 weeks ago

Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile

Event presents car-free solutions, traces car-centric culture's links to inequality, climate crisis, and loneliness, showcases city examples, and offers practical car-free tips.
Real estate
fromArchDaily
4 weeks ago

The Corporate City: Three Models of Company Town Design

Corporations have repeatedly built company towns, evolving into productive, performative, and redemptive corporate-city types that use architecture and planning to shape community relationships.
Alternative transportation
fromwww.vox.com
1 month ago

Cities are booming with bikes and getting safer and cleaner

Cities are replacing car lanes with protected bike lanes, making cycling safer and more attractive, increasing ridership and improving urban sustainability, safety, and livability.
History
fromwww.thehistoryblog.com
1 month ago

Monumental stone-lined water basin found in Gabii

A monumental stone water basin dating to about 250 B.C. was discovered at Gabii, revealing early Roman civic architecture and city-planning experiments.
New York City
fromFast Company
1 month ago

This addictive game is like 'SimCity' but for transit nerds

Subway Builder is a hyperrealistic simulation that lets users design and operate transit networks using real census, employment, and geographic constraints.
fromArchDaily
1 month ago

From Design Fiction to Design Futures: The Changing Role of Architecture in Cultural Production

When Archigram published their fanatical vision for pneumatic cities and walking megastructures in the 1960s, they seemed to be designing buildings. Beneath the surface, the avant-gardeists were pushing culture through radical alternatives to lifestyles and forms of organizing in the city. Laboratories found themselves between the lines of copy on Domus or Casabella magazines, propositions doubling as blueprints for the civilizations to come.
History
California
fromsfist.com
1 month ago

Sunday Links: University of California Wins Record-Breaking Five Nobel Prizes in Single Year

Major events: UC's record five Nobel wins; nurse killed in a helicopter crash; Mississippi shootings; hit-and-run arrest; Bay Area weather and urban challenges.
Bicycling
fromStreetsblog
1 month ago

Friday Video: Five Simple Ways To Get Kids Biking To School - Streetsblog USA

Most American children don't bike to school because streets lack safe infrastructure; protected bike lanes, safe routes, and community programs can restore regular cycling.
Women
fromArchDaily
1 month ago

Make Space for Girls Launches Strategy for Gender-Inclusive Public Spaces

Public parks and outdoor spaces in the UK are often designed for a default male, excluding teenage girls and harming their wellbeing.
fromTime Out London
1 month ago

This part of the City of London will soon get even more skyscrapers

Yes, London can squeeze in more skyscrapers. In fact, over the next decade, it's thought that nearly 600 more high rises could be added to the capital's skyline. There's a one next to the Walkie Talkie that's just been approved, one being built above Roman basilica ruins, and another right next to the Gherkin that's been given the green light.
Miscellaneous
Coffee
fromAustin Monitor
1 month ago

Council looks to serve up more neighborhood coffee shops - Austin Monitor

City Council will direct staff to study zoning and code changes to make opening neighborhood-scale cafés easier in residential areas while preserving home protections.
#architecture
Design
fromArchDaily
1 month ago

Hilversum Town Hall: Willem Dudok's Monument to Civic Architecture

Hilversum Town Hall redefined civic architecture by combining symbolic form, functional efficiency, and human-scale Modernist craftsmanship.
Environment
fromArchDaily
1 month ago

Pazhou South Waterfront Park / SWA Group

A 4-hectare, 300-meter waterfront park restores Pazhou’s riverfront, connecting green infrastructure, transit, residences, and ecological corridors to mitigate urban heat in Guangzhou's CBD.
Public health
fromArchDaily
1 month ago

Rethinking Urban Cooling: A Case for Low-Energy Radiant Technology

Urban heat and inadequate cooling increase heat-related illness and mortality, amplified by Urban Heat Island effects and human-caused climate warming.
Design
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

Nonconformist' architect of MI6 building Terry Farrell dies aged 87

Sir Terry Farrell, British hi-tech architect and urban planner, died aged 87; notable works include the MI6 headquarters, TV-am studios and Embankment Place.
#transportation
fromBusline News
1 month ago
Higher education

Penn Launches Richards Transportation Initiative To Drive Smarter, More Accessible Mobility Solutions - Busline News

fromStreetsblog
2 months ago
New York City

Jay Z-Backed Times Square Casino Shrinks Sidewalks and Bus Lanes to Serve More Cars - Streetsblog New York City

fromPortland Mercury
3 months ago
Portland

Think Bigger and Better

Reclaim urban space in Portland by shutting down I-5 and turning it into housing and green areas, promote transit over cars.
fromwww.mercurynews.com
3 months ago
San Francisco

VTA Launches River Oaks Station Access Study to Improve Mobility and Safety

Bay Area News Group oversees quality assurance for content, while VTA initiates a study to improve access to River Oaks Station.
fromBusline News
1 month ago
Higher education

Penn Launches Richards Transportation Initiative To Drive Smarter, More Accessible Mobility Solutions - Busline News

fromStreetsblog
2 months ago
New York City

Jay Z-Backed Times Square Casino Shrinks Sidewalks and Bus Lanes to Serve More Cars - Streetsblog New York City

fromwww.archdaily.com
1 month ago

Scenius 26003 Pavilion / Daryan Knoblauch

Laurian Ghinitoiu + 12 More SpecsLess Specs Laurian Ghinitoiu Text description provided by the architects. SCENIUS 26003 is the winning proposal developed by Daryan Knoblauch for a 10-year infrastructural adaptation plan for the city of Logrono. The competition entry received the first prize after an open call launched by Concentrico and Porto Academy. The Berlin-based studio foresees using temporal pavilions within a biyearly rhythm across the next decade.
Design
fromwww.independent.co.uk
1 month ago

New homes must be built in the right' areas to tackle shortages, Starmer told

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground.
US politics
Remodel
fromArchDaily
1 month ago

Shifting Urban Perspectives: Beimen's Journey from Obstacle to Urban Anchor in Taipei

The North Gate of Taipei shows that preserving heritage requires conserving historic structures and deliberately designing surrounding open spaces amid evolving urban priorities.
Environment
fromAustin Monitor
1 month ago

Environmental Commission applauds progress on bird-safe buildings - Austin Monitor

Austin proposes stricter bird-safe building standards and lighting rules to protect roughly 400 bird species and hummingbird pollinators in Travis County.
World news
fromFortune
1 month ago

'Black Swan' author Nassim Taleb says your city's new bike lane is the reason the economy sucks | Fortune

Advanced economies show stagnation where lifestyle-focused urban improvements signal limits of prosperity rather than genuine economic growth.
UK news
fromwww.bbc.com
1 month ago

Cornwall's capital to get 'giant smartphones' on streets

Truro will install seven 8ft Pulse Smart Hubs offering advertising-funded free wi‑fi, phone calls, charging, emergency health equipment, and local display time.
fromStreetsblog
1 month ago

Our Streets Look Like War Zones - But What if They Were 'Sites of Peacebuilding' Instead? - Streetsblog USA

Car culture has a higher body count than both World Wars combined. So why don't we think of automobility in the same way we think about the bloody and destructive global conflicts that dominate the news - and what would it take to transform our streets into a tool to make our whole society more peaceful, rather than more violent?
Environment
fromStreetsblog
1 month ago

'Government Malpractice': Marine Terminal Redevelopment Gets Approval Despite Massive Transportation Concerns - Streetsblog New York City

Mayor Adams's Brooklyn Marine Terminal plan to transform the waterfront south of Brooklyn Bridge Park from the Columbia Street Waterfront to the Atlantic Basin in Red Hook into a mixed-use community with 6,000 new apartments and a modern marine freight hub won the required two-thirds approval from an oversight task force with local lawmakers and civic groups. The plan got through the
New York City
Real estate
fromwww.archdaily.com
1 month ago

73 Social Housing Units in Vallecas - Rosilla 3 / Ricardo Sanchez Gonzalez

A residential project in Villa de Vallecas fully optimizes the allowed 6,500 m buildable area, 12 m depth, and variable heights of ground+7 (west) and ground+4 (east).
US politics
fromSlate Magazine
1 month ago

The Pro-Housing Movement Is More Popular Than Ever. Can It Survive Its Own Success?

The YIMBY movement has grown into a mainstream, well-funded political force promoting more housing and deregulation, reaching governors, congresspeople, and major donors.
Boston
fromBoston.com
1 month ago

Zoning to allow taller towers in downtown Boston approved by BPDA

Boston approved downtown zoning changes to ease residential development and small-business approvals, raise height limits in parts of the core, and preserve shadow protections for the Common and Public Garden.
Digital life
fromStreetsblog
1 month ago

Friday Video: How Car Culture and the Internet Attention Economy Waste Your Time - Streetsblog USA

Car-dependent urban design and attention-economy technologies align to maximize distraction and waste human time and focus.
Real estate
fromSan Jose Spotlight
1 month ago

San Jose Chick-fil-A moves forward after planning mistake - San Jose Spotlight

San Jose City Council removed a demolition restriction, allowing a Chick-fil-A development to proceed despite opposition over lack of mixed-use housing.
Public health
fromStreetsblog
2 months ago

How Many Americans Live in Walkable Neighborhoods? - Streetsblog USA

A new interactive walkability index measures which Americans live in walkable places and reveals most residents live in below‑average walkable areas with stark geographic disparities.
Software development
fromApp Developer Magazine
10 months ago

Next level GIS using realtime 3d solutions with Unity and Esri

Combining Esri GIS data with Unity's real-time 3D engine enables interactive visualization and simulation of urban, transportation, and energy systems for planning and asset management.
fromwww.mercurynews.com
2 months ago

A car-free stretch of highway in San Francisco leads to recall vote and warning to politicians

During the coronavirus pandemic, the city closed a stretch of a four-lane highway along San Francisco's Pacific Coast and made it an automobile-free sanctuary where bicyclists and walkers flocked to exercise and socialize under open skies and to the sound of crashing waves. But with the post-pandemic return to school and work, resentment grew among neighborhood residents who relied on the artery to get around.
San Francisco
fromFast Company
2 months ago

Why we built cities for cars, not people, and how we can fix that

Car-centric planning has hollowed out our cities. Zoning regulations, freeways, and cheap fuel gave rise to sprawling suburbs and isolated communities, dependent on personal vehicles for even the most basic tasks. It's a system that punishes the poor, marginalizes the elderly and disabled, and makes public life thinner and more precarious. The car promised freedom, and delivered debt, pollution, and dependence.
Environment
US politics
fromPortland Mercury
2 months ago

You Got Your Wish, Sellwood

Keeping narrow two-lane streets and rejecting planned roadway upgrades produced severe congestion, reduced access, and increased pollution in Sellwood.
Design
fromArchDaily
2 months ago

Copenhagen Architecture City Guide: 25 Projects Defining Denmark's Capital of Livable Design

Copenhagen exemplifies people-centered urbanism through high cycling rates, ambitious carbon-reduction strategies, transit-oriented planning, pedestrianized streets, and global leadership in contemporary architecture.
fromArtforum
2 months ago

Machinelike Tendencies

AMONG A GROWING ARRAY of government-sanctioned informational systems, motion sensors, acoustic monitors, biometric scanners, and thermal cameras work in tandem with sprawling private networks of data brokers to track social and environmental flows with forensic precision. They measure footfalls, scan license plates, log financial transactions, and inspect the movement of people alongside particulate matter. As sensing technologies increasingly oversee and overwrite the spatial production of contemporary life, proposals for "smart cities" and other data-dependent composites-proliferating since the early 2010s-obfuscate regimented environments of surveillance and control through rosy prospects of connectivity, security, and risk management, all sustained by the tenacious dystopian dream we call information.
Privacy technologies
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

In Paris it's normal to raise a family in a three-bedroom apartment. Why aren't we building more in Australia?

Given the unaffordable prices of a standalone house in Randwick, a vibrant suburb in the city's east, they opted to renovate a sunroom. We had to take a creative approach and create a flexible third bedroom, Henderson says. Otherwise we would need to move away from here, and we'd be moving further away from jobs, further away from work and schools. The compromise we came up with was to remain where we were, but create a third space.
Real estate
fromwww.dw.com
2 months ago

How can Indian cities become safer for women? DW 09/12/2025

Having lived in Delhi and now in Mumbai, I find Delhi streets are poorly lit and unsafe. I faced ogling, eve-teasing [public sexual harassment] and inappropriate touching on buses while I was a college student. Even in upscale areas, I was chased by drunk men. You are always on high alert, especially after 8:30 at night,
Women
Digital life
fromGeoffreylitt
2 months ago

AI as teleportation

Teleportation boosts commerce and connectivity while reducing physical activity, eliminating transitional moments, and eroding serendipity, fundamentally reshaping mobility and social habits.
fromianVisits
2 months ago

Brixton's lost motorway: Exhibition reveals Lambeth's 1960s housing plans

As the exhibition explains, the council was granted new powers to direct local development in 1963, and its new department was led by a London County Council architect, Edward Hollamby, giving them a significant advantage when planning large estates. He was more interested in Scandinavian style modernism than the British New Brutalism exemplified elsewhere, and despite what you might see if you travel through the area, was more interested in low-rise developments instead of tall blocks.
London
Real estate
fromFast Company
2 months ago

Name that town: How Pentagram solved one of the hardest problems in branding

Woodbury transformed a 700-acre former steel mill in Vineyard, Utah into a planned, walkable city and hired Pentagram to create a distinctive name and identity.
SF real estate
from48 hills
2 months ago

The six fatal flaws in Mayor Lurie's so-called 'Family Zoning Plan' - 48 hills

Mayor Lurie's rezoning threatens neighborhood character and displacement by privileging real estate investors and upscale high-rises, transforming neighborhoods into a commercialized 'Potterville'.
Public health
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

UK children face barriers to outdoor play due to poor planning, says study

Urban planners prioritise housebuilding over parks and play spaces, limiting children's opportunities for outdoor play across British cities.
fromLos Angeles Times
2 months ago

Commentary: L.A. parks are too vital to suffer such neglect. Here's your chance to weigh in on a rescue plan

But as I said in my last column, L.A.'s roughly 500 parks and 100 rec centers, occupying 16,000 acres, are generally in bad shape and not easily accessible to many residents. In fact, in the latest annual ranking by the Trust for Public Land, they fell to 90th out of the 100 largest recreation and parks systems in the nation on the basis of access, acreage, amenities, investment and equity.
Los Angeles
Environment
fromArchDaily
2 months ago

Urban Mobility as a System: From Car-Centric to Human-Centered Cities

Cities must redesign mobility to prioritize people, places, and equity, treating cars as one component within a multimodal, human-centered urban system.
London politics
fromwww.bbc.com
2 months ago

Outdoor dining 'must become the norm' in London

Outdoor dining should become the norm rather than the exception across London, modeled on cities like Barcelona and Paris.
Design
fromArchDaily
2 months ago

Unconventional Playgrounds: Built from Junk, Shaped by Concrete, Freed by Play

Play that embraces risk, loose materials, and self-direction fosters creativity, independence, and transformative learning more than overly safe, controlled playgrounds.
Brooklyn
fromGothamist
2 months ago

A new guide in Brooklyn for measuring access to opportunity. How does your area stack up?

Brooklyn neighborhoods show stark disparities in commute times, health, safety, housing, economic opportunity, and environmental exposures resulting in wide outcome gaps.
fromArchDaily
2 months ago

A Natural Childhood: How Architecture Connects Landscape, Culture, and Play

How do nature and landscape dialogue within spaces designed for children? How are architecture and urban design capable of shaping natural atmospheres that integrate practices of play, participation, and exploration? From participatory projects that involve children in the design process to built environments that incorporate furniture adapted to their needs, the conception of spaces for childhood entails the creation of places for encounter, learning, and coexistence.
Design
New York City
fromwww.brooklynpaper.com
2 months ago

Broadway Stages owners allegedly bribed city official to scuttle McGuinness Boulevard redesign Brooklyn Paper

Gina and Anthony Argento allegedly bribed Mayor's aide Ingrid Lewis-Martin to halt McGuinness Boulevard bike-lane redesign in exchange for cash and benefits.
Real estate
fromwww.archdaily.com
2 months ago

Shenzhen Art High School / O-office Architects

Luohu's planning prioritized functional efficiency over integration with nature, treating people and activities as functional objects rather than diverse inhabitants.
New York City
fromQNS
2 months ago

Elected officials outline continued support for 31st Street protected bike lanes in Astoria - QNS

Elected officials support DOT's protected bike lanes plan for 31st Street after a court injunction, citing safety and historical data on fatalities and injuries.
New York City
fromNew York Post
2 months ago

Crowds wowed by 'Sauronhenge,' a stunning 'LOTR'-inspired astronomical event with 'evil' NYC tower

Brooklyn's "Sauronhenge" phenomenon occurs when the sun aligns with the Brooklyn Tower resembling Sauron's lair, attracting local spectators.
#traffic-safety
#akon-city
SF real estate
fromABC7 San Francisco
2 months ago

New skyscraper could replace Golden Gate University site in downtown SF, reports say

A new skyscraper may replace Golden Gate University in downtown San Francisco, with proposals for office spaces and housing.
#new-york-city
fromStreetsblog
2 months ago

Short Sunset Dunes Update - Streetsblog San Francisco

The changes will create two clearly defined zones: a Park Zone on the west side and a Multi-Use Zone on the east side. The Park Zone will be calm, designed for walking, yoga, play, and picnics. Non-motorized bikes will be welcome if ridden by children. The Multi-Use Zone will accommodate cyclists, runners, walkers, and e-bikes. Users will be guided to keep to their right side to create predictable movement. Pedestrians will always have the right of way at crosswalks.
San Francisco
#speed-limits
fromFortune
3 months ago
Public health

Today's speed limits grew out of studies on rural roads from the 1930s and 1940s. Now states are looking to change guidelines

fromFortune
3 months ago
Public health

Today's speed limits grew out of studies on rural roads from the 1930s and 1940s. Now states are looking to change guidelines

#greenways
Environment
fromKqed
3 months ago

As Flood Risk Grows, Suisun City Weighs Annexing California Forever Land | KQED

Suisun City is considering annexation to boost its tax base and protect against rising sea levels.
fromMission Local
3 months ago

This Tenderloin street closed to cars and opened to kids. It could be a model for S.F.

The closure of Elm Street to cars allows Tenderloin Community Elementary students to play and engage in creative activities, transforming it into a safe and welcoming space.
Education
Real estate
fromCity Limits
3 months ago

Midtown South Rezoning Passes City Council With Ease

Midtown's rezoning plan aims to add approximately 10,000 homes, including 3,000 affordable units, signaling changing attitudes toward housing development.
fromCornell Chronicle
3 months ago

Building energy model offers cities decarbonization roadmap | Cornell Chronicle

The software tool developed by Cornell researchers models small city energy use quickly, allowing simulations for cost-effective decarbonization strategies. It can inform policy prioritization.
Environment
California
fromABC7 San Francisco
3 months ago

Why Oakland residents are pushing back against street upgrades in Chinatown

Oakland's Chinatown will receive major upgrades to increase pedestrian safety, including widened sidewalks and lane reductions.
Boston
fromBoston.com
3 months ago

What you need to know about Boston's plan to cut emissions by 2030

Boston aims for a 44% emissions cut by 2030 as part of its climate action plan.
[ Load more ]