• Why are fire officials hung up on street widths?

    A focus on one dimension ignores more important geographical aspects to public safety in a walkable city.
    Last week the Baltimore City Council voted to repeal the "20-foot-clear" requirement for fire access on city streets—replacing that standard with more flexible rules recommended by the National Association of City Transportation Officials. The change, which the mayor is considering signing, would...Read more

  • Why street grids have more capacity

    The greater choice offered by well-connected street networks leads to more capacity and efficiency, according to pioneering smart growth engineer Walter Kulash.
    I recently posted “ The copious capacity of street grids ” making the case that traditional street networks are not just better for walking, biking, and livability, but also offer far greater vehicle capacity. In the comment section, somebody posted a link to a long-forgotten talk by Walter Kulash...Read more

  • The copious capacity of street grids

    Historic street grids can handle greater traffic of all kinds—so why aren’t we building more of them?
    As far as I have been able to determine, no one has ever scientifically compared the capacity of historic street grids with modern road systems. If they did, this comparison is well hidden—which is amazing because the US has invested trillions of dollars on automobile-oriented street networks on...Read more

  • Urban roundabouts: A tool for placemaking

    Well-designed urban roundabouts solve traffic delay problems while slashing the kinetic energy of motor vehicles in intersections, improving safety and allowing for placemaking.
    Rampant sprawl in Orange County, Florida, was creating rush hour back-ups half a mile long at the Town of Windermere’s quaint Main Street. The conventional solution—widening Main Street to four-lanes—would have destroyed the town’s character. Planner Brian Canin and transportation designer Jurgen...Read more