• Five scenarios that make street transformation possible

    Why street design has not kept pace with automotive safety improvements, and what you can do about it.
    On my recent holiday travels, I pondered the tremendous improvements in motor vehicle safety in my lifetime. We didn't have shoulder straps, air bags, anti-lock brakes, front and rear crumple zones, and other now-standard life-saving features when I first rode in cars. Seat belts were strictly...Read more

  • A philosopher embraces New Urbanism, at home and in the classroom

    “The pattern of post-World War II development I witnessed in Orange County struck me as fundamentally wrong-headed. But others appeared to accept it as inevitable and somehow normal.”
    My flight was scheduled to arrive at LAX at 11:30 in the morning. Perfect, I thought. I could get a rental car and be out of Los Angeles before rush hour, heading up the California coast to visit my father by mid-afternoon. But my plans were spoiled by a thunderstorm in Chicago, which added five...Read more

  • Vincent Scully, ‘spiritual father of the New Urbanism’

    The great Yale lecturer had an impact on movements that are changing the face of communities in the US and beyond.
    In late 2017 America lost an intellectual giant, a rare academic lecturer in the humanities who had a real impact on American communities in his lifetime. Architectural historian Vincent Scully, who taught for five decades at Yale and after retirement lectured at the University of Miami, was a...Read more

  • Road diet bridges a barrier, boosts safety

    A breakthrough design on La Jolla Boulevard in San Diego cuts crashes by 90 percent and gives local business a shot in the arm.
    Note: This case study will be discussed at CNU 26 in Savannah . It was written for the Institute for Transportation Engineers new book Implementing Context Sensitive Design on Multimodal Corridors , funded by the Federal Highway Administration. The reconstruction of a section of La Jolla Boulevard...Read more