• Can an electric bicycle take the place of a car?

    Not if you can't use it for shopping—and that's why protected bike lanes are one key to reducing carbon emissions.
    These days I’m riding an electric bike. I didn’t intend to. I believed that a decarbonized future would be ushered in by electric cars. I bought one. I wanted one that I could throw a bicycle in the back. The car was expensive, even with the tax incentives. But boy was it quiet! And the...Read more

  • Retreats, eco-villages, and walkable communities

    A retreat is often used in real estate marketing to describe anything from a gated suburban resort subdivision to enclaves and eco-villages. Ideally, a new urbanist neo-traditional version includes the same fundamental principles of villages and neighborhoods in towns and cities—walkability,...Read more

  • Placemaking is going places: 20 years of transportation-related award winners

    From transit-oriented development to Tactical Urbanism, transportation themes have resounded through the first two decades of the CNU Charter Awards.
    The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) Charter Awards, which highlight the best in urban design in the United States and around the world, have celebrated good interdisciplinary design since 2001. As the Charter Awards head into their 20th year, a reflection on some of our past awards shows how...Read more

  • Hard lessons of disaster and recovery

    In the wake of Hurricane Dorian, which destroyed much that was good in The Bahamas, it is worth reviewing the lessons from recent natural disasters on how to build to last and recover local culture and economies.
    I spent most of my life inland before moving to Miami Beach in 2003. Where I grew up, the main disaster threats were tornadoes, which are exceptionally violent, sudden, and focused. Within 60 seconds of the warning being issued for the Airport Road tornado November 15, 1989, close to a dozen people...Read more