• I-81 transformation begins in Syracuse, but design is still an issue

    New York State DOT is moving forward with replacing the I-81 viaduct, which has divided the Upstate city for six decades, with a grid of streets. But the design will determine whether this is a human-scale community grid or marred by a suburban arterial.
    The City of Syracuse and the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) agree that a "community grid" best replaces the aging Interstate 81 viaduct that has divided the city since the 1960s. Despite an ongoing court challenge from opponents, the state started clearing trees in July to...Read more

  • Toward a pattern language of corridors

    These five design and implementation ideas could be repeated in many locations to create more equitable and sustainable, socially and economically robust corridors.
    Automobile-oriented thoroughfares are the dominant form of corridors in modern urban America. Finding a way to tame those corridors—making them multimodal and valuable for many kinds of users—is a prime task for urban planners, jurisdictions, land developers, and traffic engineers. These corridors...Read more

  • Florida’s success with context-based street classification

    If context-based street design works in the most automobile-dominated state, it can make a difference anywhere.
    Attempts to create walkable places become an order of magnitude more difficult when state-owned thoroughfares are involved. The laudable goal of creating a human-scale neighborhood may descend into a multiyear battle—sometimes won by planners, more often by the engineers—and the outcome is nearly...Read more

  • Four ways to transform ‘stroads’

    Every city has commercial strip corridors, but there are proven strategies for rebuilding them as places for people.
    The functional classification system used by departments of transportation tends to build commercial strip arterials that are hostile to pedestrians and bicyclists, notes Portland-based architect and urban designer Laurence Qamar. At CNU 31 in Charlotte in early June, Qamar outlined four techniques...Read more