Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Urban Design

What Kind of Pedestrian Are You?

By Mathew Katz | Oct 8, 2009 | No Comments

Categories of pedestrians, based on their walking patterns. Courtesy: Norbert Brändle, Austrian Institute of Technology. Part of designing more walkable cities — a goal of this week’s Walk21 Conference — is figuring out how pedestrians actually interact with the space around them, something that seems inherently difficult because of the erratic and unique behavior of […]

Planetizen Unveils Its Top 100 Urban Thinkers

By Elana Schor | Sep 15, 2009 | 7 Comments

Jane Jacobs. Photo: BusinessWeek She may be experiencing an intellectual reconsideration in some corners, but Jane Jacobs is still a beloved figure for the urban planners and designers of Planetizen. After a month-long online poll that saw more than 14,000 votes cast, the site released its list of the "Top 100 Urban Thinkers" today — […]

The Pedestrian Crush: It Doesn’t Have to Be Like This

By Clarence Eckerson Jr. | Sep 11, 2009 | 24 Comments

Although there is undoubtedly an amazing streets renaissance going on in NYC, there still remain places in dire need of improvement. Every workday, heavily-used areas like the blocks surrounding Penn Station are overwhelmed with pedestrians making their way home via buses, subways, the Long Island Railroad and Amtrak. The sidewalks are so clogged by this […]

When Dodging Death Becomes a Fact of Life

By Brad Aaron | Aug 19, 2009 | 38 Comments

Lisa Sladkus sent in this photo of yesterday’s mayhem at the 72nd Street subway station. For the second time (that we know of) in less than a week, a yellow cab driver has wreaked havoc on Manhattan streets, terrorizing pedestrians and leaving a trail of destruction. Miraculously, unlike Akim Saiful Alam, the unidentified driver in […]

DOT: Nine New Public Plazas in the Works

By Brad Aaron | May 1, 2009 | 5 Comments

Before and after: Fulton St. and Marcy Ave. Image via DOT. DOT has announced its selections for round one of the NYC Plaza Program, which invites non-profits throughout the boroughs to propose the development of new public spaces. According to DOT, applicants were chosen based on organizational and site-specific criteria, with special consideration given to […]

New Video Series Tells the Story of Sprawl

By Brad Aaron | Apr 21, 2009 | 1 Comment

As livable streets advocates work to make headway in breaking the cycle of American auto dependence, the folks at Planetizen have put together a video narrative that explains how we got here. "The Story of Sprawl," a double DVD set produced by Managing Editor Tim Halbur, is a compilation of historical films dating from 1939 […]

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