My Journey from Free Market Ideologue to Strong Towns Advocate, Revisited

I’ve had to reconcile my foundational belief in markets with my experiences working with cities. This has been a painful process.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnOctober 25, 2021Market Urbanism, infrastructure cost, small towns, infrastructure, engineers, minnesota, local government

Will We Have an Infrastructure Bill? Who Cares?

We get a lot of questions about a federal infrastructure bill, but at the end of the day…does it really matter?

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnOctober 4, 2021infrastructure bill, infrastructure cult, federal government, american jobs plan, infrastructure

The Strong Towns Hiring Process

We often get questions about our hiring process, so we’ve laid it all out here so that others can put it to use in building their own teams.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnSeptember 20, 2021Strong Towns, jobs

The Environment Question

Where does the Strong Towns approach intersect with environmentalism?

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnSeptember 16, 2021environment, strong towns approach, Electric Vehicles, walkability, streets

Learning from Biology, Not Physics

In general, engineers treat cities like a physics problem, but what we need is engineers who are able to humbly grasp the overwhelming complexity of human habitat and work.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnSeptember 10, 2021engineering ethics, engineers, leadership, confessions of a recovering engineer

The Bottom-Up Revolution is... Taking a Strong Towns Approach to Transportation

Chuck Marohn joins this week’s show to talk about his new book.

Podcast, Marohn, Top StoryStrong TownsSeptember 9, 2021The Bottom-Up Revolution, books, taking action, confessions of a recovering engineer

"Improvements"

So many engineering projects are formally called "improvements." The subtle bias of this language provides a glimpse at the values embedded within the profession.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnSeptember 9, 2021engineering ethics, traffic engineering, pedestrians, safe and productive streets, engineers, confessions of a recovering engineer

All Traffic Models Are Wrong

Traffic engineers use projections of future traffic to make recommendations and decisions on transportation investments… The problem is, those projections are all wrong.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnSeptember 7, 2021traffic projections, traffic engineering, engineers, confessions of a recovering engineer, infrastructure

Just Another Pedestrian Killed

This one’s on you, engineering profession. Society is done tolerating this level of indifference, incompetence, and incoherence. What are you going to do?

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnSeptember 2, 2021safety, engineering ethics, traffic engineering, pedestrians, engineers

Chuck Marohn Answers Your Questions

We get a lot of questions over at the Action Lab, and today we’re going to answer some of them!

Podcast, Marohn, Top StoryStrong TownsAugust 30, 2021Strong Towns Community, Action Lab, incrementalism, incremental development, local economy, safe and productive streets, podcast

Iterating to Safety (Excerpt from Confessions of a Recovering Engineer)

We need to #SlowTheCars on every street that's been the site of an auto-related fatality. The best way to do so? Through an iterative approach.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnAugust 30, 2021iteration, streets, Street Design, pedestrians, safe and productive streets, confessions of a recovering engineer, safety

The Spooky Wisdom of Pompeii

What lessons can we glean about anti-fragility and human psychology from a 2,000-year-old fast food restaurant?

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnAugust 23, 2021history, spooky wisdom, Strong Towns Book, traditional development pattern, human scale, psychology, europe

The Projections Fallacy

We spend billions every year on our transportation network, large percentages of it based on traffic projections—despite the fact that we don’t accurately project traffic.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnAugust 16, 2021traffic projections, traffic congestion, engineers, transportation, traffic engineering

Automated Vehicles Will Make Our Streets Worse

Automated vehicle technology will do nothing to make our streets better places to be.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnAugust 12, 2021auto-oriented, cars, technology, self driving cars

The Key to Slowing Traffic is Street Design, Not Speed Limits

Two simple photos show the difference between a street simply designated as 20 mph, and one actually designed to be safe. We can't regulate our way to safety.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnAugust 5, 2021speed, traffic engineering, engineers, transportation

Our Transportation Budget Is a Fraud We Perpetuate on Ourselves

The Senate has agreed to discuss an infrastructure bill…but what does it matter when real reform isn't going to come from multitrillion-dollar infrastructure proposals?

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnAugust 2, 2021infrastructure, infrastructure bill, federal government, end highway expansion

Traffic Congestion Was Last Century’s Problem…but It Is This Century’s Solution

Our national transportation obsession has been about maximizing the amount that you can drive. We now need to focus on minimizing the amount you are forced to drive.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnJuly 29, 2021congestion, gas tax, traffic congestion, transportation, end highway expansion, safe and productive streets

One Billion Bollards

If the federal government wants to fund transportation, skip the megaprojects. Start with a billion bollards.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnJuly 26, 2021public safety, transportation, pedestrians, safety

Crossing the Street is Like Dodging Bullets

The continued street/road hybrid approach of America's countless stroads causes needless tragedy, with the side effect of our cities going bankrupt in the process. #SlowTheCars

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnJuly 22, 2021negligence, stroad, new york

A Plan for Parking That You Can Use in Your Place

Today I’m sharing a plan I offered to my colleagues on our local parking committee. My hope is that it'll benefit those who are thinking through similar issues in their places.

Marohn, Top StoryCharles MarohnJuly 19, 2021parking minimums, development pattern, strategic plan, resource, minnesota, end parking mandates and subsidies

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