• Exposing the pseudoscience of traffic engineering

    Wes Marshall’s new book, Killed by a Traffic Engineer, reveals the profession’s shaky, unscientific foundations—and points the way to safer, healthier streets.
    Profound frustration with traffic engineering has bedeviled New Urbanism since the movement formed in the early 1990s. Of all of the barriers to building good urbanism, two stand out: land-use codes and street planning and design. While code reform has steadily advanced, changes to street practice...Read more

  • Thinking globally, building locally

    A gathering in Italy will join new urbanists with international allies to explore and learn from great urbanism past and present.
    Cortona, Italy, may seem idyllic, but it faces many of the same challenges as other towns and rural regions in other countries: the need to provide viable economic opportunities, especially for young people; the need to build a healthy and resilient urbanism in the face of growing climate threats;...Read more

  • Beauty is essential for sustainable cities

    Modern science explains the role of beauty in creating places that can save the planet. Fortunately, beautiful places are within our power to design and build.
    The motto of the CNU is Building Places People Love. To this end, New Urbanists have employed a variety of tools, but the one that’s rarely heard is the role beauty plays the built environment. Why is one of the most commonly used words in the English language not mentioned in the Charter for the...Read more

  • Vermont is bringing back missing middle housing

    The Vermont Homes for All Toolkit comprehensively promotes Missing Middle housing for more diverse and affordable living in the Green Mountain State.
    Eighteen years ago, when Lilli West got into the real estate business, she saw a need. Back then, it was short sales and foreclosures—and she grew her business at an unlikely time when real estate agents were leaving the industry left and right. Today, as the owner of Maple Leaf Realty, the largest...Read more