How to best deal with cars, trucks, and the street network has long been a major preoccupation of planners — as the many articles we've published on this attest!
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Roundabouts are an increasingly popular approach to improving traffic flow and safety at intersections. Transportation engineer Michael Wallwork explains how roundabouts work, and compares their use to traffic signals.
An introduction to “traffic calming” — with examples of several techniques for reducing traffic speed and improving the pedestrian environment.
“Getting Started” is the theme in the first of three columns by Richard Untermann on how our streets can work better not just for cars, but for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit.
What impression do you get when you exit the highway and head into town? Can you tell when you’re leaving one neighborhood and entering another? A look at how planning for gateways can help create and strengthen our sense of place.
Part I: the origins of today’s typical residential street standards, and why some planners have begun to question them. Part II: curves and cul-de-sacs. Part III: the influence of the modern land development pattern
1. The Parking Conundrum provides an overview of parking standards; 2. Parking Lot Design looks at issues in the landscaping and design of parking lots; 3. Parking Lots: Storm Water Runoff & Shared Parking considers these two issues.
Historian Larry Gerckens traces the evolution of greenway and parkway systems, and their role in softening the edges of the urban environment.
Greg Dale provides an overview of traffic impact studies.
Street lighting profoundly affects how or towns and cities look. Robert Prouse provides an introduction to the basics of lighting. Plus: Astronomer David Crawford and author E. Annie Proulx on the impacts overlighting on viewing the night sky.
Streets define the character of our neighborhoods. Yet too many communities still rely on outdated standards for local streets.
How we can make our streets more “pedestrian friendly” by developing a network of sidewalks and crosswalks and by learning to control the automobile.
