The terms chosen to describe upcoming road work often misrepresent the actual projects, ascribing a positive or negative bias that affects how political leaders interpret and underwrite them. The DOT Decoder is the perfect gift for decoding three common terms used by departments of transportation and their engineers.
Read MoreConducting a walking audit is an quick, easy and free step that anyone can take to start improving their place. In this article, trained architect and urban designer Edward Erfurt demonstrates how to do so, using a recently completed sidewalk project in his community as an example.
Read MoreLiability caps mean that a city can’t be forced to pay victims of traffic crashes above a certain amount, even in cases of gross negligence. This may seem unjust, but this kind of protection can encourage city officials and employees to be proactive in addressing past mistakes and making streets safer. Here’s how.
Read MoreLike many Strong Towns advocates, you may struggle with imposter syndrome, feeling like you’re not qualified enough to talk to city officials and staff about changing the way cities are designed or operated. But it’s essential that you keep speaking up. Here’s why.
Read MoreAt Strong Towns, we're very conscious of the words we use and the way we tell stories, especially those involving car crashes. It's not because we're trying to be dramatic; it's because we're trying to change the conversation entirely. And you play an important part.
Read MoreYou can’t call something an accident if you’re not doing anything to prevent it. You definitely can’t call it an accident if you intentionally put people in harm’s way through the design of your streets and the positioning of your infrastructure.
Read MoreThe Strong Towns Crash Analysis Studio is one of the toughest projects I’ve ever worked on. Analyzing crashes that ruined people’s lives is heartbreaking, especially when knowing that quick and easy responses could’ve prevented them. But it’s worth it to make those streets safer, to save lives and to shift the national conversation around crashes to be more humane and effective.
Read MoreTo make streets safer, we need to change the way people think about car crashes. And we need your help to do it. So, here’s the executive summary of the new “Beyond Blame” report, which shares the most important insights and recommendations from 18 months of Crash Analysis Studios.
Read MoreThe design of a roadway should reflect its intended use: streets should be designed for safety and building community wealth, while roads should be designed for fast travel. Here’s an example of safe road design and how you could apply it to a stroad.
Read MoreOn this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck discusses street safety with Melany Alliston, a project manager and civil engineer with Toole Design.
Read MoreIn many cities, officials recognize that it's better to stop a problem from occurring than try to control it after the fact. When faced with a recurring problem (like riotous parties), they pass ordinances that target its root causes. Why not do the same with street safety?
Read MoreDesigning streets to encourage safe behavior is a powerful tool for creating lasting prosperity. But when cars are designed to encourage unsafe behavior, it threatens to undo that progress.
Read MoreNice, California, doesn’t have nice streets. But it could, if city planners started thinking about road infrastructure in a way that prioritizes safety and walkability over asphalt. Here are a couple of redesign options, inspired by a Crash Analysis Studio held in the city.
Read MoreWhen trying to make a walkable and vibrant street, urban planners often think in terms of hard infrastructure like road width and crosswalks. But soft infrastructure, specifically flowers and other colorful plant life, plays an important role as well.
Read MoreTraffic calming interventions are best when they not only make the environment safer for everyone outside of a car, but when they do so in a way that reduces the mental load for drivers.
Read MoreThere’s no excuse: when members of a community see a dangerous street for what it is, it shouldn’t take a death (or several deaths) for the city to finally take action.
Read MoreIf a roof is leaking in a public building, we know to fix it asap. So why don’t our public officials move with the same urgency when dealing with a much more serious problem: the death of a person on our streets?
Read MoreStreets are some of the most hostile and dangerous places in our built environment, causing the deaths of over 40,000 people every year. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Read MoreThis timeline of tragedy shows the many, many times city officials in Springfield, MA, should have addressed the unsafe conditions of State Street.
Read MoreWhen a deadly car crash occurs, our legal system does not encourage a responsive government—and in fact, in some cases, legal structures are likely incentivizing avoiding property damage claims over saving lives.
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