• 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

  • What covid proved about traffic safety

    In mid-April of 2020, we published an article indicating that as traffic was plummeting, traffic deaths were rising. This counterintuitive claim was not backed by firm numbers at the time, and the world was more focused on deaths from the pandemic anyway. But as Chuck Marohn of Strong Towns...Read more

  • A trenchant critique of traffic engineering

    Charles Marohn points the way to reviving cities and towns through reform of the profession that builds the framework for sprawl.
    Charles Marohn, founder of Strong Towns, retired as a civil engineer in Minnesota at the end of last week. Marohn is not yet 50, has not practiced engineering in more than a decade, but maintained his credentials as one of the most prominent critics of traffic engineering of our time. He was caught...Read more

  • A new era of people-oriented infrastructure

    We have been investing in automobiles, at the expense of people, for too long. The story of Oklahoma City indicates that change is possible, because the dialog is shifting.
    “You are winning,” says Christopher Coes, principal deputy assistant secretary for transportation policy at US DOT, told the CNU 30 audience in Oklahoma City last week. “The argument for more connected, livable communities, is resonating on the left and right, on the national level and on main...Read more