• How roundabouts transformed Carmel

    The fast-growing Indianapolis suburb had the gumption to reform its suburban street network—a rare achievement that should get more attention.
    We made serious mistakes in planning and building suburbs in the 20th Century, which is why the New Urbanism movement began. For example, planners separated the integral uses of cities and towns, including live, work, play, civic functions, and parks, and put them in different locations. Traffic...Read more

  • Legacy Report highlights a walkable public realm

    Camp Washington, a neighborhood in Cincinnati, has tremendous potential to grow. Planners offer a blueprint for walkable development, focusing on public realm improvements like a two-step process for intersection repair.
    The final report of CNU’s Camp Washington Legacy Project in Cincinnati was delivered in early August, and it is outstanding. Legacy Projects leverage CNU’s planning and design expertise to impact the host region for the annual Congress in the long term. Four projects were initiated in the...Read more

  • Highlighting the rising pedestrian deaths nationwide

    The semi-annual Dangerous by Design identifies the most dangerous regions and deadly modern thoroughfares, designed so that too many people die in the prime of life.
    This week is a big one for the ongoing battle for safe, livable streets. The important book Killed by a Traffic Engineer was published, and Smart Growth America released its semi-annual Dangerous by Design report. US pedestrian deaths have risen 75 percent since 2010 (see chart above), and that...Read more

  • Exposing the pseudoscience of traffic engineering

    Wes Marshall’s new book, Killed by a Traffic Engineer, reveals the profession’s shaky, unscientific foundations—and points the way to safer, healthier streets.
    Profound frustration with traffic engineering has bedeviled New Urbanism since the movement formed in the early 1990s. Of all of the barriers to building good urbanism, two stand out: land-use codes and street planning and design. While code reform has steadily advanced, changes to street practice...Read more