My friends/colleagues & I cowrote a commentary for #JournalOfPlanningEducationandResearch that we're thrilled to get out: "Notes from the Trenches: Reflections from Recent #PhD Graduates on Navigating the #Academy"

I am so grateful for the friends/colleagues who collaborated on this and the chance to practice together the kind of academy we want and believe is possible.

#Publication #Academia #JobMarket #UrbanPlanning #AcademicJobs

https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/9FMUFDZXEMGCFE8CMVP7/full

Thanks to Rodrigo at Cogitatio for inviting me onto the "Let's Talk About" podcast to talk about my recent article "Radical Solidarities in Punk and Queer Refusals of Safety and Inclusion Narratives in Planning" in Urban Planning journal.

#podcast #OpenAccess #PublicScholarship #punk #Ottawa #SpatialJustice #UrbanPlanning #gentrification #placemaking #MusicCities #CulturalRevitalization

https://www.cogitatiopress.com/wp/lta/safe-spaces-punks-radical-take-on-inclusion

The cycle lanes through Manchester's Curry Mile don't quite meet the latest standards and suffer from pedestrian overspill in the evenings. But cycling along here is a world better than it was before they went in, when you took your life in your hands with every trip.

Not perfect, but good enough to have made a huge difference to safety and got a lot more people cycling along here.

#Cycling #urbanism #urbanplanning #infrastructure #manchester

A little joy ride on the #REM, Montreal's new commuter rail to Brossard. #PublicTransit #LightRail #CommuterRail #UrbanPlanning #Transportation

Speed limits don't matter

"While crash frequency and severity did correlate with higher speeds, the most statistically reliable trends that emerged had nothing to do with property damage or personal injury. It was enforcement outcomes that were most demonstratively impacted. In other words, when speed limits go up, fewer people get tickets; when they go down, the opposite happens."

#UrbanPlanning #bancars #SpeedLimits

https://www.autoblog.com/2023/08/23/speed-limits-dont-matter/

Grand Rapids is hiring a Planning Supervisor. #GrandRapidsMI #urbanplanning #urbanplanner #jobs
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/city-of-grand-rapids_urbanplanning-cityofgrandrapids-jobopportunity-activity-7100497563119747072-sVCO?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android

Traffic engineering claims another victim

"John Rearick's death was a result of by-the-book traffic engineering and road design, and he wasn’t the first victim on this corridor. It turns out, 18 other pedestrians had been hit by drivers.

The absence of sidewalks forced pedestrians to walk perilously close to speeding vehicles, putting their lives at constant risk. And the presence of five car lanes encourages drivers to floor it."

#UrbanPlanning

https://speakeasy.substack.com/p/traffic-engineering-claims-another

"Legislation that makes it dangerous to teach the history of things like redlining, white flight, rural land loss, and the countless federal and local policies that exacerbated racial inequities in housing, will particularly affect urban planning departments and related courses of study, such as urban studies and sociology."

#CriticalRaceTheory #UrbanStudies #UrbanPlanning #Sociology #HigherEd #Academia

https://shelterforce.org/2023/08/16/will-critical-race-theory-attacks-undermine-urban-planning-education/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=will-critical-race-theory-attacks-undermine-urban-planning-education

"What if we could watch our children play safely indoors in some of the #ThirdPlaces we already visit?"
#Playgrounds #Sociology #Childhood #UrbanPlanning
https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/its-time-to-bring-back-the-indoor-playground

This writer uses a wheelchair and wants more bike lanes

"The comments sections of every social media post about these upgrades are littered with insincere cries about the removal of car parks...Well planned, inclusive and accessible infrastructure benefits all members of society, especially the marginalised. Lack of cycle infrastructure is negligent, ableist and ageist. "

#bikelanes #UrbanPlanning

https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/24-08-2023/i-use-a-wheelchair-and-i-want-more-bike-lanes

Sticks Not Carrots Needed To Get Drivers Out Of Cars, Say Climate Scientists

“The most effective thing we can do to reduce cars in cities is to use carrots and sticks to reduce car use and increase public transport, walking, and cycling. But carrots alone are not sufficient to overcome the entrenched infrastructure and incentives, which today favors car use.”

#UrbanPlanning #BanCars

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2023/08/17/sticks-not-carrots-needed-to-get-drivers-out-of-cars-say-climate-scientists/?sh=1132777429af

My #bookreview of Gendered places: The landscape of local gender norms across the United States, by William J. Scarborough is now up on Journal of Urban Affairs website.

Just in time for syllabus writing if you're teaching a class in #gender and the #Geography / #UrbanPlanning / #TownPlanning / #Sociology of #Place https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07352166.2023.2238483?journalCode=ujua20

What Will it Take to Close Cleveland's Market Avenue to Cars for Good?

#Cleveland #UrbanPlanning #BanCars

"In the four years since Market Ave.'s brief identity as a pedestrian street, questions as to how to try again to close the avenue off are resurfacing in earnest, as the support for the avenue's permanent closure grows in its collective intent. But, as in 2019, quagmires continue to arise."

https://www.clevescene.com/news/after-successful-pilot-efforts-what-will-it-take-to-close-market-avenue-to-cars-for-good-42493025

The US Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices is getting a new edition. NACTO says to look for these changes (I can't figure out, though, if these are expected changes or just hoped-for changes.)

* Elevate the goal of eliminating serious injuries and deaths

* Don't set speed limits by looking at how fast cars go

* Reform signals to make street crossings safer

* Remove restrictions on colored paint for crosswalks

#UrbanPlanning

https://nacto.org/2023/08/14/reshape-the-mutcd/

Recent issue of *Cities & Health* is full of articles that #urbanists will find interesting (noise, air quality, active transportation, ageing in place...), including:

"Promoting children’s play in Calgary, Alberta: A case study of collective impact and municipal leadership".

https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcah20/6/2?nav=tocList

#urbanism
#UrbanPlanning
#UrbanDesign
#Architecture
#Health
#Calgary
#Play
#wellbeing

Data suggests fears of bike lane-induced vehicle traffic nightmare on Old Georgetown Road are unfounded

"Overall traffic flow has been unaffected: “In the northbound AM and PM peak directions, travel times along the entire corridor increased by about 60 seconds since implementation of the bike lanes...Southbound, travel times initially increased, but have since reduced to the levels before the bike lane project.”

#UrbanPlanning #BikeLanes #Maryland

https://ggwash.org/view/90503/data-suggests-fears-of-old-georgetown-road-bike-lanes-causing-vehicle-traffic-nightmare-are-unfounded

@benfulton Somehow this is already on Google Street View. I guess because it's a T intersection #UrbanPlanning can justify the same bike lane going one direction about 20 feet from when it goes the other direction. https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1621654,-86.5272188,3a,90y,351.86h,47.93t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sux3nZh1A1w5zcQIqOKUTWQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu I'll have to go see it.

I'm no urban planner, not a traffic engineer, etc, but I'd go to the Joint ITE International and Western District Annual Meeting and Exhibition if I could!

https://tooledesign.com/insights/2023/07/meet-us-in-portland-for-ite-2023/

#urbanism #UrbanPlanning #ITE

Let's flip this new survey from @pewresearch.

Two out of five Americans would prefer living in smaller homes, closer to each other, if schools, stores, and restaurants were within walking distance. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/02/majority-of-americans-prefer-a-community-with-big-houses-even-if-local-amenities-are-farther-away/

#Walkability #SmartGrowth #UrbanPlanning

North American cities need to push for secure bicycle parking

"As more professionals opt to bike to work, the question looms: where do these bikes go during the workday? Many downtown office buildings and commercial spaces lack the infrastructure to accommodate this influx. Without adequate facilities, these bicycles end up chained to poles, stacked against walls, or worse – left at home."

#cycling #UrbanPlanning

https://momentummag.com/north-american-cities-need-to-push-for-secure-bicycle-parking/