Who should design streets? The answer is as simple as it is radical: everyone.
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The greatest accomplishment of any ideology is to not be considered an ideology.
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A Raleigh home on a high-speed stroad has been hit by 6 different cars in the past nine years. This is a direct example of the way that street design can quite literally decrease the value of our places.
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I am serious about recruiting architects, planners, engineers, activists who consider themselves to be urbanists (new or otherwise) into the ranks of the small developer cohort because I think it is the best way for an urbanist to have an impact in a place they care about.
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We never calculate—let alone track—the public's actual return-on-investment (dollars in versus dollars out over multiple life cycles) when we do a project. We never even ask the question.
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Let's stop using the terrible design of our cities as a random pretext for pulling people over and, instead, be proactive about fixing the design.
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The history of city planning is largely a story of meddling and overreaction creating ever more fragile cities by reducing any apparent volatility while increasing debt, building out a system that is not financially productive, and ruining the neighborhoods of our most disadvantaged residents.
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As a general rule, engineers show a conscious indifference to pedestrians and cyclists, misunderstanding their needs where they are not disregarded completely. This is the very definition of gross negligence.
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How can I parse through the engineering jargon to determine if my town's infrastructure really needs replacement or if it just needs maintenance and rehabilitation?
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The recipe for a successful residential street is simple, timeless, and requires very little costly engineering.
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Engineers are great at building roads, but we should never ask them to build our streets.
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This classic Strong Towns video explains what's wrong with the engineering profession.
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Maine's response to a serious road maintenance funding emergency is to cling to AASHTO’s archaic code book while projecting a value system of improve, Improve, IMPROVE, even going so far as to assume massive traffic increases where there is little traffic today.
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Proposed changes to federal rules on congestion mitigation reaffirm that real responses to the complex problems we face will only come from our cities, towns and neighborhoods.
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Engineers in Obetz have built a hamster wheel for walkers and cyclists.
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It's possible that large parts of Flint could be served with really high quality water for drinking and sanitation at a fraction of the cost while preserving the existing, lead-infested system for fire fighting purposes only.
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Our new advice column hosted by the one and only R. Moses, invites your questions on engineering issues in your town or city.
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Concluding remarks and steps forward after a week of #NoNewRoads.
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When arguing for wider streets, many proponents point to bus or emergency vehicle access, insisting that a wide berth is necessary for large vehicles to pass through. In Washington, DC, I've seen firsthand how buses and ambulances have no problem navigating narrow streets.
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There are a handful of ways engineers deflect criticism. Here are five that we’ve heard time and time again.
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