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 MoreBuses are an important part of a city’s transportation system, but they’re considered a mode of last resort for many people. Here’s why it’s important to make bus systems more appealing — and a few ideas on to do so.
Read MoreIn this episode, host Norm Van Eeden Petersman is joined by Sully Israel, a Local Conversation leader, to discuss his group’s efforts to keep their city’s main street closed to cars.
Read MoreDriving from my dismal exurban hotel to the walkable downtown of a Florida beach town led me to a resolution: Start seeking out the kind of lodging that accentuates the best reasons for visiting a place, and hopefully discourage the kind of development that’s contributing to its demise.
Read MoreTo build a Strong Town is to develop governing habits and shared cultural understandings that result in a long run of small wins that may be individually imperceptible but cumulatively result in broad and meaningful change. Today, I want to share one of those small wins with you.
Read MoreThe East Coast Greenway spans 3,000 miles and is one of the most popular biking routes in the world. But as much as 65% of this route puts bikers in close contact with vehicles that are moving at high speeds. This has predictably terrible results.
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 MoreIn the battle for street safety, crossing guards are on the front lines. Their verdict: The streets outside of schools are extremely unsafe. One crossing guard in Denver decided to do something about it.
Read MoreOn this episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, Chuck discusses safe streets advocacy with Amy Cohen, the co-founder and president of Families for Safe Streets.
Read MoreYou’ve just completed a Crash Analysis Studio and you have a report in hand. Or you found the "Beyond Blame" report compelling and you want to share it with your community. Now what?
Read More"Be the change you want to see in the world." It’s a slogan many aspire to live by, including Professor Gingrich of Dordt University in Iowa. He’s doing just that this year, bringing his students to the forefront of the evolving traffic engineering field by training them in crash analysis and safe street design.
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 MoreAll of the land used in cities can be divided into two categories: Places and Non-Places. Places are productive destinations, while Non-Places are unproductive padding between destinations. Once these Places and Non-Places are marked on a map, it becomes obvious how much land cities waste on Non-Places.
Read MoreStrong Towns ideas have started permeating the wider culture at an increasing rate. But even as many cities and organizations embrace the movement, others twist it to serve their own agendas. Now more than ever, the movement needs advocates who uphold the true principles of building strong towns. It needs you.
Read MoreThousands of elected officials and people who work in local government want to make their streets safer. Here’s how you can help them do that.
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 MoreAfter a Crash Analysis Studio was conducted in Rochester, New York, the city quickly established safer street design standards. Now, the county has created a first-in-state Community Traffic Safety Team to proactively address citizens’ concerns regarding street safety.
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