Streets and Public Spaces
Walking, sustainable transport and street design.
Start here · Essential guide
Why walkable cities matter for health, local commerce and street safety, what makes a place easy to walk, and the trade-offs planners weigh along the way.
How dedicated bus lanes and bus rapid transit affect bus speed, street space and nearby businesses, plus the design choices and trade-offs behind them.
How cities combine transit, cycling, walking, shared modes and land use so that cars become less necessary, and why no single measure does the job alone.
What makes a walk pleasant: sidewalk width, shade, crossings and nearby destinations. A look at pedestrian comfort and how designers improve it.
Land use basics for walkable neighborhoods: mixing uses, keeping blocks short and placing daily services nearby when planning new areas.
How older car-oriented districts can be retrofitted for walking through smaller blocks, safer crossings and reallocated street space, and what makes it hard.
A clearly hypothetical composite street conversion, step by step, showing typical stages and uncertain outcomes of making a car-oriented street walkable.
How bus, rail and tram networks are designed around coverage, frequency and low emissions, and the trade-offs planners face when shaping public transit systems.
Practical public transportation upgrades to existing bus and rail service, from higher frequency and priority lanes to simpler fares.
How cities replace and upgrade aging infrastructure such as roads, pipes and utilities, and coordinate the work to limit disruption and avoid digging twice.
How transit upgrades link to land use and lower-emission travel across a region, and why transit alone cannot deliver sustainable mobility by itself.
Concrete transit improvements and what riders notice: frequency, priority lanes, fare integration, stop design and the everyday experience of riding.
A comparison of walking, cycling, transit, shared vehicles and electric options for low-carbon transport, with each mode's strengths and limits.
A city-wide planning view of cycling: connected networks, safety, health benefits, and the honest limits of biking in some climates and terrains.
The physical side of cycling infrastructure, including protected lanes, bike parking and signals, and how to fold them into a renewal project.
Transit-oriented development places compact housing and jobs around stations. Learn how station areas are designed and the displacement risks near new lines.
How public transport shapes where development happens and who can reach jobs and services, with the uncertainties around funding and ridership.
How renewal depends on and changes roads, rail and transit, and how transport projects themselves have reshaped neighborhoods, for better and worse.
How street redesign, transit and land use change connect to traffic and air quality, and where results fall short or create new problems.
How older bus, rail and tram systems are renewed through service changes, vehicles, stations and funding, and what riders notice during transit revitalization.
How stations and interchanges are rebuilt as destinations, covering connection design, surrounding land use, regional roles and construction disruption.
Why transit needs and solutions differ between dense cores, suburbs and rural regions, with general comparisons of what tends to work in each setting.
What efficiency means for moving people in cities: capacity per street, travel time, cost and reliability, and how different travel modes compare.
How block size, street connectivity and layout shape movement and how places link to each other, with a plain look at grids, cul-de-sacs and hierarchies.
Practical congestion solutions such as road pricing, priority lanes, signal timing and land-use change, and the limits and trade-offs of each approach.
Station and interchange areas as places: wayfinding, safety, retail and connections between modes, and how renewal can make transport hubs work for people.
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