The way urban planners currently assess the safety of a road involves counting the number of accidents on that particular road. Essentially, this means that there’s a "literal human cost" to measuring how safe a street is, says Megan Ryerson, a transportation engineer and urban … [Read more...] about This new metric assesses road safety before any accidents ever happen
urban planning
What this small Dutch city can teach us about smart urban mobility
Urbanists across the world often look to the Netherlands for teachings on how to do urban planning the right way, especially when it comes to mobility. So, it’s no surprise that the authors of a new book called Curbing Traffic: The Human Case for Fewer Cars in Our Lives turn to … [Read more...] about What this small Dutch city can teach us about smart urban mobility
Campaign to save giant fig tree in Kenya from proposed highway succeeds
The fig tree is considered sacred among Kenya’s most populous ethnic group, the Kikuyu. That’s why it was no surprise to see the Kikuyu people and other environmentalists stage protests when the country’s roads agency announced plans to uproot a giant fig tree in order to make … [Read more...] about Campaign to save giant fig tree in Kenya from proposed highway succeeds
How AI and the video game Minecraft can help us design better cities
While artificial intelligence (AI) is nowhere near ready to tackle the complicated task of designing an actual city, it can assist city planners, especially when it comes to the quantitative aspects of urban planning. In order to improve the urban planning abilities of AI, … [Read more...] about How AI and the video game Minecraft can help us design better cities
Public parks are showing their worth amid protests and the pandemic
During this extraordinary time in America’s cities — weeks of coronavirus lockdowns followed by mass protests against police violence and racial inequality — one theme runs through the twinned crises: the power and value of public spaces. The nation’s parks experienced a surge of … [Read more...] about Public parks are showing their worth amid protests and the pandemic