• New Urbanism boosts social connections and health

    An academic survey of a Florida traditional neighborhood development shows higher social engagement and better health outcomes.
    The value of New Urbanism in promoting social connections is gaining recognition among social scientists, not least because of a growing body of evidence demonstrating that social connections are highly important to overall health and well-being. The latest example is a recent academic study of...Read more

  • How roundabouts helped to build a downtown

    Carmel, Indiana, has been called the “roundabout city.” It has also built a major downtown from scratch in the last quarter-century. These two facts are related.
    Carmel, Indiana, a city of just over a hundred thousand people, has eliminated nearly all of its traffic lights—a remarkable achievement—and replaced them with 158 roundabouts that calm traffic and keep it flowing on a network of suburban arterial roads. Carmel is a “ boomburb ,” defined as a city...Read more

  • Playa Vista: High density, happy residents

    A quarter century after the iconic Los Angeles development was launched, a community survey shows high levels of resident satisfaction.
    Playa Vista in Los Angeles was one of the most ambitious and artistically stunning early New Urbanist plans, designed in a 1989 charrette by two of the movement's founding firms. A major developer, Maguire Thomas Partners, called DPZ CoDesign, led by a young Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk...Read more

  • Study calls for land use changes to improve road safety

    Land use has a profound and largely unacknowledged role in the death and injury of pedestrians and bicyclists, according to researchers. There are two answers—but one is far superior.
    New research from Florida Atlantic and Columbia universities examines why the US has failed to make streets safer for “vulnerable users”—people outside of cars, especially pedestrians and bicyclists. That failure is evident despite the proliferation of Complete Streets and Vision Zero policies over...Read more