• Changing street design is critical to reducing bike-ped deaths

    Planner and author Jeff Speck argues that efforts to make our streets and roadways safer will fail unless the traffic engineering profession reforms its design practices.
    The US is experiencing “a grave upswing of roadway deaths,” and that trend is most pronounced among pedestrians and bicyclists, according to Jeff Speck. “Cycling deaths are up 44 percent over the past decade, and pedestrian deaths have risen a stunning 82 percent since 2009 — and that in the...Read more

  • Portrait of a successful ‘flex street’

    Will street designers and public officials take notice of shared, flexible Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach, which contributes to both transportation and placemaking?
    On weekends, bollards go up and Clematis Street in West Palm Beach, Florida, becomes car-free. During the week, cars move slowly through the seven-block downtown corridor, sharing the curbless street with pedestrians. Clematis Street makes a bold statement at the center of West Palm Beach,...Read more

  • City wants to transform 14 miles of ‘stroad’

    Plan El Paso—a groundbreaking new urban comprehensive plan—has been in place for a decade , and still the Texas city is rolling out implementation plans. The latest is Onward Alameda , the vision to transform a 14-mile-long section of “stroad,” adopted by City Council last week. “The Alameda...Read more

  • Seven stroads that have been converted to streets

    There are thousands of stroad sections in the US. Transforming a good number of them is important to to the goal of improving quality of life and mobility in cities and towns.
    A “stroad”—a term coined by Charles Marohn of Strong Towns —is a thoroughfare that combines the complexity of a street with the design speed of a road. Stroads include the most dangerous thoroughfares in America, and they don’t serve the functions of a street or a road very well. There are...Read more