Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Urban Planning

Trading Cars for Transit Passes “in the Middle of the Corn and Soybeans”

By Angie Schmitt | Aug 15, 2014 | No Comments

This post is part of a series featuring stories and research that will be presented at the Pro-Walk/Pro-Bike/Pro-Place conference September 8-11 in Pittsburgh. If Champaign-Urbana can make it easier to leave your car at home, any place can. That’s what local planner Cynthia Hoyle tells people about the progress her region has made over the last few years. With great intention […]

De Blasio Housing Plan Meekly Suggests Parking Reform

By Ben Fried | May 7, 2014 | 20 Comments

There’s a deep connection between parking policy and housing affordability. The more space New York devotes to car storage, the less space is available to house people. And yet, 50 year old laws mandating the construction of parking in new residential development persist in most of the city, driving up construction costs and hampering the […]

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Lakewood, Ohio: The Suburb Where Everyone Can Walk to School

By Clarence Eckerson Jr. | Apr 29, 2014 | No Comments

The inner Cleveland suburb of Lakewood (population 51,000) calls itself a “walking school district.” Lakewood has never had school buses in its history, and kids grow up walking and biking to school. Mornings and afternoons are a beehive of activity on streets near schools, as kids and parents walk to and from classrooms. You can feel […]

The Problem With Prescribing “Access to Cars” in the Fight Against Poverty

By Angie Schmitt | Apr 4, 2014 | No Comments

It goes without saying that the mass suburbanization of the past 60 years has been very bad news for people who can’t afford cars, and it’s getting worse as poverty levels rise in the suburbs. In nearly every place America has built since the 1950s, owning a car is a prerequisite for participating in the […]

Smart Growth America: Sprawl Shaves Years Off Your Life

By Tanya Snyder | Apr 2, 2014 | No Comments

Want to live a long, healthy, prosperous life? Don’t live in sprawlsville. Atlanta, I’m looking at you. Nashville, you too. Southern California’s Inland Empire: ouch. Meanwhile, break out the bubbly if you live in Atlantic City, Urbana/Champaign, or Santa Cruz — which all rank close to giants like New York and San Francisco as some […]

Rewriting the Manual: How Safe Streets Will Be the Rule, Not the Exception

By Stephen Miller | Apr 24, 2013 | 1 Comment

Cities and towns have been leading the charge for safer streets, incorporating design elements like protected bike lanes and sidewalk extensions. But design guidance from state highway officials often gets in the way when agencies don’t have the technical or political heft to deviate from “the rules” that have long held sway in the field […]

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