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In what kind of community are you most likely to end up dead in a pool of blood?

July 11, 2014 by Connor Jones 1 Comment
ambulance car crash accident

The chief question of urban planning is, “How does our built environment affect our lives?” In some ways, however, the way we choose to structure our communities contributes to untimely death. Environmental Health Researcher Richard Joseph Jackson, MD, MPH famously presents his audiences this provocative question, “In what kind of community are you most likely to end up … [Read more…]

Posted in: City Planning, Public Health Tagged: car crashes, health, pool of blood

The four biggest myths about induced demand

July 7, 2014 by Connor Jones 6 Comments
Suburban sprawl

Two weeks ago, I laid out the economic argument for induced demand: the idea that building more roads does not reduce congestion. It is a simple model that uses concepts from Economics 101 to explain the relationship between road construction and driving behavior. Even so, this idea, like many associated with new urbanism, challenges the status quo. … [Read more…]

Posted in: City Planning, Sustainability, Transportation Tagged: induced demand, supply and demand

Public transportation reduces drunk driving deaths

June 26, 2014 by Connor Jones 2 Comments
Seattle streetcar

For decades, the message to Americans has been “Don’t drink and drive!” which translates to “don’t drink,” if you have to drive. Reducing drinking as a public policy goal hasn’t really ever been successful. While campaigns mounted against drunk driving have been somewhat successful, it’s hard to imagine coming close to ending drunk driving deaths when, in most communities … [Read more…]

Posted in: Public Health, Transportation Tagged: drunk driving

The street economics of induced demand

June 25, 2014 by Connor Jones 3 Comments

There’s a lot of misinformation out there about induced demand, a widely established city planning model that attempts to explain why cities tend to maintain a steady state of congestion. I’ll go into some more detail on the theory of induced demand later, but I wanted to start with the economic model. Auto transportation market The … [Read more…]

Posted in: City Planning, Urbanist.co Tagged: congestion, induced demand, Jeff Speck, traffic, walkability, Walkable City

Why do liberals predominate in cities?

June 18, 2014 by Connor Jones Leave a Comment
Republicans think you're a better person if you live here.

It has long been established that urban areas heavily lean blue and the countryside bends to the right. Explanations for this phenomenon usually rely on demographics: cities tend to house more minorities, educated white-collar workers, and young people—all demographics that tend to be more liberal. Yet data from the Pew Research Center released last week showed a stark … [Read more…]

Posted in: City Planning Tagged: polarization, politics

Want to reduce reliance on foreign oil? Start with walkability

June 12, 2014 by Connor Jones 4 Comments

I started reading Jeff Speck’s new book Walkable City this week. I’m only a few dozen pages in, but one stat jumped out at me early on. Portland is, in many ways, the paragon of urban planning success. While other cities were focused on easing traffic by widening highways, Portland implemented a strict urban growth boundary, inside … [Read more…]

Posted in: City Planning, Economic Development, Sustainability Tagged: drilling, foreign oil, fracking, walkability

Primer: Why we need city and regional planning

June 10, 2014 by Connor Jones 1 Comment

Welcome to Urbanist.co, a new blog focused on the not-so-sexy topics of city planning, urban design, and economic development. City planning may not be an issue that divides public opinion and draws protesters. But it should. The structure of community life is determined by how cities and localities are laid out. Do you need a car … [Read more…]

Posted in: City Planning Tagged: hey, hi, introduction, what's up
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