If not the spot for it let me know where it should be!

I am looking for software to create site plans, mostly residential. Does anyone have any recommendations? I am a local land use consultant and do not have any experience in CAD or programs like that but I also don’t need anything super crazy.

Any help would be appreciate.

I’ve been thinking a lot about public benches recently and their role in encouraging movement, especially for older adults or people with limited mobility. Some research suggests that well-placed benches in parks or along sidewalks encourage people to walk more, knowing they can take breaks when needed.

However, I’ve also noticed that public benches seem to be disappearing in some areas. It got me wondering—are benches being seen as less important, or is it just too expensive for cities to maintain or install them?

Does anyone know what it typically takes (costs, permissions, etc.) to install a public bench? If you’ve noticed a decline in benches where you live, how do you think that impacts people’s willingness to walk or spend time outdoors? Do benches really make neighborhoods more walkable, or are there other solutions we’re missing?

There are a lot of different forces at play when it comes to getting things done in cities. Determining what happens to who and where is the fundamental aspect of planning and the field of Urbanism. So, the plain question is: what have you done to change your city for the better? (besides advocating for zoning reforms)

#Note: This post is a companion post for a series that we're doing on /r/left_urbanism on the book Urban Politics- Power in Metropolitan America Seventh Edition by Bernard H. Ross and Myron A. Levine, which can be purchased online for no more than $12 depending on where you look. The topic being covered today deals with two chapters describing the formal and informal institutions that affect American Municipalities

For the last 2 and 1/2 years I’ve been working for a city as a planner, and in that time, essentially my entire job has been reviewing plats and writing memos to present to P&Z. Very bureaucratic. Mind-numbingly dull. Just recently for work, I was able to go to my first genuine planning conference.. and they spoke about more than plats? You mean other planners work on genuine projects? I guess I’m just frustrated at the complete routine mundanity of what my job currently is vs. knowing what it could be. For a city of my size, compared to other cities at the conference, we should have about four times the planning staff than we currently do. Is the really answer just work in a different city? I guess I’m mostly just ranting, but any answers, opinions, or feedback would be really appreciated.

Let's say I'm a billionaire and wanted to make a public transit system (buses) around my city let's say 500k people and 1 million in the metro area. Is it possible for someone to just start a public transit buisness? Assuming you would get some kind of local government tax breaks and whatever other benifits. Is it possible for someone to start said business and still turn a profit?

Here’s the pic that I’ve labeled

With the increase in e-commerce, and foreign suppliers, do cities plan in the impact of truck and delivery traffic? The old parts of Los Angeles had alley ways and rear delivery entrances, but all the new centers don’t have any rear parking or delivery entrances. With the rise of Amazon and other delivery services it seems like a large part of daily traffic and double parking is just from trucks and vans making deliveries. Do cities even try to plan for this or do they just let the developers figure it out?

I hope that some readers might be interested in a recent piece for the NJ Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal (summer 2024), “ ‘Multiple Municipal Madness’ or What I Learned

About Cities and Suburbs by Working for the NJ Legislature.” Sort of an insider’s view of the legislative reaction to and the  consequences of two monumental  rulings: Robinson v. Cahill (1972) equalizing state funding for public schools and  NAACP v. Mt. Laurel(1975) outlawing exclusionary zoning. I would be particularly interested in reactions to my argument that not just the privileged but nearly all suburbs, rich, poor, or otherwise, will resist efforts which might alter the social makeup of their communities. No paywall! Free pdf download!

We´re working on a project in two areas divided by a river, connected by a ferry for bicyclists and pedestrians, the two areas are mainly residential with small cute, but old, wooden houses.

I feel like the talk is always about third spaces and meeting points always end up with the café and some square.

You have examples of pther physical/spatial solutions

Norway: lisleby and sellebakk in Fredrikstad city

I live in Alexandria, Virginia. ACPS recently opened a new satellite campus for the high school, but hasn't been able to move students timely between them. See https://www.alxnow.com/2024/10/11/notes-achs-student-newspaper-slams-botched-rollout-of-new-minnie-howard-campus/

The two campuses are a half-mile apart. It should be easy for students to walk between the campuses. However, right now it isn't safe due to the King-Quaker-Braddock intersection between the two campuses. Students have to take a bus, and the buses simply are struggly to ferry students back and forth between the campuses. See https://www.google.com/maps/@38.8271217,-77.0900975,16z?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTAxNi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

With that as the background, the City of Alexandria is apparently considering a redesign of some sort for this intersection. I'd like to get involved early in the design, but the interchange is so BAD that I don't even know what to ask for. Is there any clever transportation engineer here who can give me an idea on what to push to the staff to consider for the King-Quaker-Braddock road intersection in Alexandria? Any assistance is definitely appreciated.

Some examples:

Washington Court House, Ohio Philadelphia, Mississippi Harrisonburg, Virginia Kirksville, Missouri

The following is from the perspective of applying personal rapid transit (PRT) systems to relatively low density cities. There's a lot of mass transit fans here, but mass transit has a ton of issues and will never fix traffic issues. It's hardly a coincidence that the cities that have the most mass transit, they also have some of the worst traffic issues. I'm not saying that mass transit isn't needed in very large and very dense cities like New York City, but then again, NYC is a long shot from car oriented Midwestern cities where I would propose a PRT system as a test case. Mass transit also doesn't typically fit with the patterned development of low density cities, where the majority of the population actually resides in suburban areas rather than urban cores. Public buses are one of the better public transit options I've seen in a less dense city, but public bussing has several issues and struggles with attracting ridership. This is mainly due to how slow it is because you have to wait at multiple stops that have nothing to do with your end travel destination. In fact, public transit averages about double the commute time of private vehicle travel and this is pretty consistent nationwide. As a vehicle owner, this is very unattractive and why would I ever wait at a bus station when I can just pick the much more convenient option and just drive instead?

As we see the crux of the issue, the only way to attract a significant proportion of ridership to replace private vehicle travel in low density cities is to decrease transit times at or below what it takes to travel in a private vehicle. That is why I propose that these types of cities should install a personal rapid transit (PRT) system throughout the city. The system I am thinking of is much like this concept (SkyTran): https://youtu.be/OEMOpCRktm4?si=FUlDdKYYtM7tzd1I

Due to the reduced footprint of the system, it is capable of having the same capacity as 3 lanes of expressway with much smaller land use. If sufficient track could be placed in a city to allow high speed travel along the main transportation corridors (arterials and expressways), I could see transit times being <20 minutes anywhere throughout the entire city, which would greatly improve connectivity throughout the city and massively reduce congestion. This would definitely increase the attractiveness of a public transit system for those who have been conditioned to use cars as the main means of travel.

I am heavily against the new push to propose light rail and streetcar systems in low density cities as PRT is just so much better. Tearing up concrete and installing light rail has an exorbitant cost that just doesn't make sense for most cities. Instead, a well designed personal rapid transit system would be far better, far cheaper (5-10x per mile), and could be installed in many more locations throughout the city than a light rail system. Grade separation and off-line stations are the key enablers that allow rapid transit while at the same time practically eliminating congestion and unnecessary stops. The grade separation component also doesn't conflict with existing traffic throughout the city, and in fact, every rider we could attract to this system would actually reduce a vehicle from the existing road network and even relieve congestion on our existing system, especially during rush hour traffic in the morning and afternoons. It is the right time that we should be at the onset of a transportation revolution, and that is why I think cities should adopt this proposal for an innovative personal rapid transit system, with benefits of improving connectedness throughout the city and significantly eliminating traffic congestion.

Yes there's a lot of adjectives. I'm also assuming there is some sort of rent cap based on a percentage of the median income (land trust).

Considering how expensive mixed-use redevelopment is, and the need for a high return of investment, how can this work out? I've seen that it can be hard to create these developments because lower income residents usually won't have the resources to attract new or existing retail. Maybe bringing in a wider range of incomes (albeit more risk of gentrification) could support this? Are there any examples or studies that relate to this?

Hi all! I'm currently completing an ERR for a HUD-funded housing rehabilitation, and I'm hung up on the noise abatement and control portion, evaluating the impact of local noise generators. There is a Norfolk Southern rail line about 1200 ft from the site, and at best I believe I'm supposed to use HUD's day-night noise level calculator (https://www.hudexchange.info/environmental-review/dnl-calculator/) . When filling out the calculator, it requests info like the types of trains using the track, the amount of daily traffic, number of cars, engines, etc. Where can I/Where do you find this sort of information? Or how else do you complete this section of an ERR? My next option may be to call Norfolk Southern, but I hear rail companies are notoriously stingy with their information. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Hey all, I'm doing research on modern urban regeneration projects, particularly focusing on individual projects and neighbourhoods rather than entire districts or regions. I've got a decent list so far, but I'm realizing that this is a really huge topic and there is a LOT out there. So I'm wondering if anyone knows of any projects that I should add to my list?

Here's some of what I have so far: Oakridge Mall, Vancouver; Senakw, Vancouver; Battersea, London; Quayside, Toronto; 4th Quadrant of Victory Square, Prague; Clyde Place, Glasgow; Bassin 7, Aarhus; Van Aiken District, Cleveland; Woodwards, Vancouver; Darling Square, Sydney.

There are a few others I have but you get the gist. There are a lot of different scales and locations I'm looking at, and like I said, there is a LOT out there so I'm a little overwhelmed. If there are any super obvious projects I'm missing I'd love to be reminded!

How would annexing most of the small municipalities (populations less than 500-1000) within Upstate counties (especially within the Southern Tier) to larger and more populated municipalities fare in improving the poor condition of said counties?

An ongoing situation in Tower Hamlets, a metropolitan borough in London, UK raises questions about sustainable urban development and the challenges of balancing different stakeholder interests.

The local council is considering removing recently implemented urban improvements, including:

One of the few segregated cycle paths in the borough Public spaces and pocket parks Traffic calming measures

These improvements, costing £2 million, were designed to reduce air pollution and traffic in residential areas. However, they're now at risk due to pressure from a minority of car-owning residents (only 30% of households in the area own cars).

The impact on cyclists will come from increased danger on roads due to the loss of safe cycling routes as well as potential ripple effect across London and beyond

For visual context, here are before-and-after videos of the area:

https://x.com/SaveBGstreets/status/1843366003008479240

https://x.com/SaveBGstreets/status/1842150991325511992

For those interested in following this case further, there is ongoing community action regarding this issue, including a petition:

https://go.saveoursaferstreets.org/petition-tt

I spent a year and a half in Toronto for high school, where I could easily take a bus to the Line 2 and then hop on the subway to get around the city either through streetcars or buses. It was efficient, convenient, and honestly amazing.

I’m curious why Mississauga – or many other cities for that matter – don’t adopt more extensive streetcar networks like Toronto’s. Streetcars seem like they’d be a game-changer for cities without the density needed for full-scale LRT systems. Streetcars, with dedicated right-of-way lanes, could provide a safe and convenient alternative to driving and reduce car traffic and congestion.

So why do we often stick to buses instead of expanding streetcars? What are the barriers or downsides that make cities hesitate on this type of transit infrastructure? Honestly kind of confused because it seems like a brain-dead, stupidly easy decision. It's way cheaper than constructing highways and moves a hell of a lot more people.

Hello all, I am lost on a career path but I have always been interested in civics and geography. Urban Planning seems like a good crosse section in theory but I am looking to inquire more on the actual day to day of a planner for a city. I have been told I would be good in sales, I work best on my feet, talking and working with the problems in front of me. I enjoy reading and learning but if I just had to do research in GIS and write reports I don’t know how well I would enjoy that. I want to be out in the city, talking with citizens, explaining the role of planners and how their requests may fit into the master plan. To meet with developers and work on development that benefits the area, which is good for the citizens and in theory the developers. Is this a career path that would benefit those strengths? Thank you for any insight.

What do you think the impact of the internet on cities, from remote work to hybrid work, to amazon, etc. It seems that it challenging to plan for the future when you don't know what human behaviors will be impacted and if it is just temporary or permeate. If demand for central offices never come back will the idea of a downtown be obsolete and if more workers are remote or hybrid what will that do to civic engagement.

Wondering how much downtime is normal across planners who work in government and more specifically Planning Council/ COG or MPO’s.