• Walkable places gain market share, economic impact

    The latest Foot Traffic Ahead report benchmarks walkable urbanism across the US, demonstrates pent-up demand for walkability and its outsized economic impact, and ranks metro areas according to this characteristic.
    Although the last two years have seen a population movement out of some large cities, walkable places both in cities and suburbs continue to gain market share, according to Foot Traffic Ahead , a report from Smart Growth America and Places Platform LLC. Walkable downtowns, town centers, and...Read more

  • How the human face influences driver behavior in urban places

    New research shows that psychology is important in street design, and drivers proceed with more caution in tight, changing, walkable places where facial expressions of pedestrians are visible.
    Being able to read facial expressions in a complex urban environment causes drivers to pay attention and proceed cautiously, according to a University of Central Florida paper, Identifying Mental Frameworks Underlying Driver Behavior in Urban Contexts . The research, prompted by a shift in Florida...Read more

  • Form-based codes boost tax revenue and construction, don’t catalyze gentrification

    New report aligns with other recent research that form-based codes have not translated to gentrification.
    Form-based codes generate economic benefits without significantly altering the racial makeup of communities—and while keeping rent increases down—according to a new report and study called Economic Benefits & Shared Prosperity with Form-Based Codes , by The Form-Based Codes Institute and Smart...Read more

  • Ten economic benefits of walkable places

    This is second in a series of articles on the advantages of building human-scale cities and towns.
    Human-scale cities and towns: What’s their worth? Generating taxes, saving the Earth Social, health, safety, economy, too Walkable places do so much for you There are many benefits of building walkable places, backed up by research and common sense, to the point where explaining and distilling...Read more