• How countryside becomes sprawl in four steps

    So many rural places have been incrementally destroyed by rural sprawl. You see it on the outskirts of metro areas and off of Interstates and other highways from coast to coast. Most communities don't see it happening until it is too late. To help explain this incremental erosion of rural land, I...Read more

  • Transformative transit this year

    New rail and bus rapid transit routes are being built in virtually every large metropolitan area in the US, Canada, and Mexico. Almost 800 route-miles of new transit infrastructure–most of it with dedicated lanes–is now under construction, at a total cost of almost $80 billion, to eventually serve...Read more

  • Land use, meet transportation

    About thirty years ago, someone told me that “The best transportation plan for a city is a good land use plan.” Over the years, the more I thought about it, the more sense this idea made to me. I realized that the potential for land use changes to help the average city from a transportation...Read more

  • What is a Smart City?

    When it comes to achieving a "Smart City," the qualities that make up the very lifeblood of urban living take priority over technocratic solutions.
    At a recent conference three words — smart, safe, sustainable — were used to define a "Smart City." However, the follow-up explanation for the words encouraged high-capital investment in technocratic solutions, yet did not mention quality of life, urban form, community, or placemaking — the very...Read more