The way we design our cities, the metrics we track, and even our language — they all betray how we’ve come to prioritize cars over human bodies. What’s lost when our transportation paradigm doesn’t account for the diverse ways people still use our streets?
Read MoreWhen you’re moving about in the world, it’s really hard to appreciate just how much land is devoted to accommodating high-speed car travel—or just how much life we could cram into the same piece of land if we didn’t have to.
Read MoreUntil communities get serious about slowing the cars, pedestrians will continue to take safety into their own hands…often in very creative ways.
Read MoreSlip lanes are the quintessential embodiment of what happens when speed is the #1 priority and safety becomes secondary. They are incredibly dangerous for pedestrians. Yet states and communities keep building them. Why?
Read MoreDoes walkability promote economic mobility? A new study suggests so. But will planners, engineers, and policy-makers take notice?
Read MoreA trip to Italy reveals the physical, social, and even cultural benefits of walking. But coming home to the auto-oriented U.S. reveals something too: just how dangerous, difficult, and unpleasant we’ve made things for pedestrians.
Read MoreDan Burden has been called the “Johnny Appleseed of pedestrian and bike design.” You asked one of the world’s foremost experts on planning for healthy, active communities your questions in our latest Ask Strong Towns—and now we’re sharing the video.
Read MoreWe hear it everywhere we go: people want, and cherish, the kind of complete neighborhood where you can meet most of your daily needs within a 15-minute walk. What will it take to create more such places in North American cities and towns?
Read MoreIf your goal is to promote public safety, design streets for the humans you have, not the perfectly obedient ones you wish you had.
Read MoreLos Angeles, where the car is famously king, may have one of the best shots of any American city of becoming a car-optional place at scale—not just in a few trendy neighborhoods lucky enough to have good transit. Here’s why.
Read MoreDuring a semester in Spain, I realized that an urban, walkable place need not imply high rise buildings, crazy traffic and overcrowded streets. Traditional development offers the convenience and productivity of urban living at a small-town pace.
Read MoreMixed-use, walkable neighborhoods have enduring appeal, are more financially productive than auto-oriented places… and we still don’t allow nearly enough of them to be built. A new study surveys the landscape of walkability in America’s large metropolitan regions.
Read MoreHere are four ways that walking your dog—or a loaner pup from your local rescue group—can give you a unique insight into how your place can get a little more resilient.
Read MoreCould it make sense to put the onus on pedestrians to ensure their own safety—in Honolulu’s case, by considering making it illegal to cross the street outside of a crosswalk after dark? Maybe, but only if we had a system that actually gave people on foot equal opportunity to get around safely and conveniently. We don’t.
Read MoreEven in cities that tout their commitment to walkability, once it snows, those who walk (and roll!) often aren’t treated as equally important street users.
Read MoreLearn to dispel the common myths you hear from transportation agencies with regard to safe streets. The guidance isn’t as sacred as they want you to believe.
Read More3 dollars and cents arguments that definitively prove the need for people-oriented, walk-friendly places.
Read MoreIn places with heavy foot traffic, an unusual type of intersection just might be the key to keeping walkers and drivers alike safer and less stressed out.
Read MoreMost cities’ zoning and development regulations obsess over things that are easy to measure, like building height and density, at the expense of the things that actually determine whether we’re building quality places.
Read MoreMacon-Bibb County, Georgia, could address pedestrian safety by making real, substantial improvements to the design of its streets. Instead, it’s urging people on foot to… dress in brighter colors?
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