transit oriented development (tod)

While cities across the West are implementing different approaches to transit-oriented development, the end goal is the same: create vibrant commercial, residential, and business centers, accessible by public transportation that capture the community's unique needs.[read more]

Jarrett Walker, author of Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking About Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives, told us he was at CNU20 to preach a little fire and brimstone:  transportation planner to new urbanist. While I wouldn’t call it brimstone, he definitely spoke passionately about real issues that need to be...[read more]

 

Could the still-messy housing market actually be helping us become more sustainable? What do you think?[read more]

“No matter the cost of gas we need to get to work and each minute shaved off the commute is a minute-golden and fat and glowing- added to our real lives, the life that begins after work, at home, in the bars and restaurants, with the children and the bills and the dog.” T. C. Boyle, The New York Times.My ideal self-narrative goes like...[read more]

Density is not livability, and livability is more than shops and cafes. Livability is a complex issue. One man’s livability may be another man’s claustrophobia.[read more]

Today’s post is by Ryan Glass. I first met Ryan at a Places, Spaces and Faces Community Dinner. I subsequently ran into Ryan’s insightful and hilarious blog Relevant Wit through some mutual urbanist friends. When I saw Ryan at Lola’s on Roosevelt a while ago, I knew I had to hit him up for a guest post! The Downtown Phoenix Public...[read more]

   The chart above comes from Arthur C. (Chris) Nelson of the University of Utah, as reported by Rob Steuteville in his New Urban Network blog.  It compares three estimates of American consumer housing preferences – from Nelson’s own research, market analysts Robert Charles Lesser & Co. and the National Association of...[read more]

With gasoline prices and the effects of greenhouse emissions evermore evident, an integration of transportation, energy and climate policies is critical. Photo by richardmasoner. The New America Foundation hosted a discussion on transportation, energy and climate policy today in Washington, D.C., in an effort to investigate the role...[read more]

A rendering of Diridon Station in San Jose, California, as envisioned by the California High-Speed Rail Authority. Credit: California High-Speed Rail AuthorityMuch of the controversy over high-speed rail in the United States has been centering on where to put it and who will accept it. Most recently, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Florida spurned...[read more]

  While meeting in Oakland last week, my NRDC colleagues and I were treated to a tour of that city’s Fruitvale Transit Village, a multi-layered, inclusive, highly walkable, multiple-use development built around the Fruitvale neighborhood’s BART (rail transit) station.  We were immensely impressed, as have been many before us,...[read more]

In his state of the union address, President Obama called for 80 percent of Americans to have access to high-speed rail by 2025. An ambitous goal, but perhaps more achievable given Vice President Biden and U.S. Transportation Secretary LaHood just announced the administration was going to invest more than $53 billion in high-speed...[read more]

Peter Calthorpe, author of “Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change,” is principal of Calthorpe Associates and was named as one of the 25 “innovators on the cutting edge” by Newsweek magazine for his work redefining models of growth in America. In the early 90’s, Calthorpe developed the concept of Transit Oriented Development (TOD), which...[read more]