• Walkability indexes are flawed. Let's find a better method

    Walking is vital to the economy, livability, and environment. Why can't we measure how many people are walking, versus driving, using data from smart phones?
    Walk Score was launched in 2007 and it was hailed as a big advance for pedestrians and urbanists. For the first time, you could type in an address anywhere in the US and get a score from 0 to 100 on “walkability.” Walk Score began as a small-scale project with a mission, “to promote walkable...Read more

  • Are street trees the key to better cycle tracks?

    Research shows that bicyclists prefer street trees, especially between the bicycle lanes and traffic.
    City streets and sidewalks in the United States have been engineered for decades to keep vehicle occupants and pedestrians safe. If streets include trees at all, they might be planted in small sidewalk pits, where, if constrained and with little water, they live only three to 10 years on average ...Read more

  • The amazing route diversity of street grids

    A mathematical equation helps to explain the endless variety of cities and the cookie-cutter sameness of conventional suburbs.
    After Public Square published an article on the capacity of street grids to handle traffic, developer Vince Graham sent us a mathematical equation that helps explain their power. Graham calls it the Hawthorne Equation—named for Casey Hawthorne, a math whiz who came up with it—which shows the number...Read more

  • Learning from the past, planning for the future

    Research presented at CNU focused on transportation and architecture, with an eye toward inequality, social justice, and climate resilience.
    During any CNU Congress, its impossible to hear all the information provided or meet all the people who attend. Over several months, Public Square is highlighting people and ideas that CNU 26.Savannah attendees may have missed. The three hundred years of history were evident everywhere you looked...Read more