According to the World Health Organization, the environment where we live determines almost 24% of our health status. No wonder adults living in and children growing up in urban settings are increasingly exposed to high levels of air and noise pollution, tend to have less contact with nature, have poorer nutrition and even lack physical activity.
Luckily, good urban planning can not only prevent these risks caused by urbanization but even improve our quality of life. Smart urban planning can make busy public areas natural and peaceful spaces capable of reducing stress, promoting sustainability and a sense of well-being.
There’s this corner of Reddit known as Urban Planning that is dedicated to collecting and sharing the best and worst examples of urban planning. From entire city infrastructures to small details like stands for bikers to grab onto while waiting for the light, there are many things that influence how we move around and feel in cities that you probably haven’t noticed before.
Below, we wrapped up some of the most interesting examples.
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The Dutch Prime Minister On His Way Home After A Day Of Work - Front Page, 50k Upvotes
Interesting Concept
I went to college in a place that was primarily a mining town. The stuff aimed at the college kids (Taco Bell) closed down when the bars did. The stores and public services aimed at the miners and their families (grocery store, public library, etc) were open 24 hours a day because so were the mines. There were 16 year old kids working on their GEDs at 2am after getting off work and mom's picking up a replacement pair of steel toed boots in the middle of the night to get back to work after the old pair saved her toes . When I graduated and moved to the big city, I was genuinely surprised to discover Famous Footwear and the local library would close at 8pm. A larger percent of people worked weird shifts in my small college town but volume wise there are a lot more people in a city of 1 million who don't work 9-5. 24 hour Walmarts made many of those businessed moot but I still wonder why you can only improve yourself at a library when the sun is up.
Hr Does Have Some Good Wants
These two absolutely don't exclude one another, the need each other. Self driving cars can couple where possible and be not just used by one person for "the last few miles" into sleeper towns for inatance or when privacy is preferable. While larger public transport vehicles are there for the high volume routes (routes between sleeper town and cities and cities and cities) and low capacity routes (inner city)
In a previous in-depth interview, we spoke with Lisa Yaszek about urbanization and the challenges it poses to our lives. Yaszek is a Regents Professor of Science Fiction Studies at Georgia Tech, where she researches and teaches science fiction as a global language crossing centuries, continents, and cultures.
The professor explained that the traditional advantage of urban life is that cities are engines of technoscientific development and cultural exchange. “That is true now more than ever, as we see new megacities of 10 million or more people springing up around the world,” she added.
The Big Dig Before And After
It Really Be Like That
Arlington Texas has the Dallas Cowboys Stadium which cost 1.15 Billion USD. 325 Million came from the taxpayers. Yet we're the largest city in the US without public transit.
Berlin Is Planning A Car-Free Area Larger Than Manhattan
In fact, a whopping 4.2 billion inhabitants which make up 55% of the world's population today live in cities. Experts are convinced that this trend will continue.
But since the development of large industrial cities in the 1800s, the downsides of urban living have become increasingly evident. “Cities organized around factories and power plants tend to be environmental disasters, with clouds of pollution sometimes literally blotting out the sun and preventing the growth of anything green on the ground,” Yaszek told us.
Interesting
How One Change Can Make A Big Difference
The Elevated Freeway Got Torn Down. Seoul
There are more downsides to urban living. It turns out that industrial and post-industrial cities tend to attract disproportionate numbers of both highly skilled workers (often in finance or business) and unskilled laborers (often in factories or domestic work). “As such, they make evident the very real and increasing gap between the rich and the poor,” the professor noted.
A Stand For Bikers To Hold On To While Waiting For The Traffic Lights In Sweden.
Street In Utrecht, The Netherlands: 1969 - 2017
Less noise pollution, less air pollution, better air quality, lower temperatures due to tree shade, and just a much nicer place to live in.
Tweet About The Lack Of On-Street Parking In Japan
Moreover, cities are often surrounded by suburbs with single-family homes. In theory, they offer a better balance between nature and technology. But in practice, the situation is very different. Yaszek explained that suburbs have their own problems: “Their emphasis on visual uniformity is often part of a larger tendency toward cultural segregation, and the need to drive everywhere—including in and out of the city—only adds to our current environmental problems.”
Me Irl
I'm not keen on pedestrian crossing on the entries/exits to the roundabout. On a busy roundabout you are watching several other cars and then out of the corner of your eye you spot a pedestrian wanting to cross the road. At least this one has good visibility, but locally we have one that doesn't and it would be better with the crossings further away from the roundabout.
In civilized countries, cars slow down when going to a roundabout, so this is the logical place to have pedestrian crossings, don't you think, instead to put them at a location where cars have a higher speed?
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We call them circles in New Jersey, not roundabouts, but they are actually fairly common here. America is big y’all.
there are tens of thousands of traffic circles in the States. People who post stuff like this are lazy morons who get all their info from social media.
No they’re much not a menace. They’re fantastic at reducing the amount and severity of crashes.
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This photo looks like it's in the NL, not the US. Also, there are already roundabouts/traffic circles in the US. The city I was born in has had them since way before I was born.
Washington DC is FULL of traffic circles. Part of the city plan designed by L'Enfant 200+ years ago. DuPont circle, Thomas circle, Scott circle, Logan circle.... Dozens of them
Lots of people don't have a clue how this works though NonUK_Roun...8_Cars.gif 
Are roundabouts not supposed to be American? There are four around my house. I cant get anywhere without going through one
Spend a bit of time driving in France and you are going to freaking hate roundabouts.
I hate crossroads with a traffic light way more :D
Load More Replies... Excellent, space for motorised vehicles, bikes and pedestrians. Cyclists and pedestrians are protected from cars.
We have plenty of these. I'm from Washington DC and the city is full of roundabouts.
We have loads of roundabouts in New England (though we call them "rotaries"). It's the best way to keep the flow of traffic moving where busy streets cross.
Has nobody actually noticed the cars on the right are heading towards each other??!
Haha! No they're not-i zoomed in. Looked like they were guna crash
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That’s not good infrastructure… I live by a road that has two of them within a mile of each other. Even before the second one was put in, the first didn’t work, now both don’t work and it sucks
My wife is legally blind and had to cross a roundabout to get to the train station. It was a nightmare for her. Cars in MA (US) do not stop for pedestrians as they exit the roundabouts.
Roundabouts are great, assuming everyone uses them correctly and traffic volumes don't get too high. Otherwise they quickly become a nightmare.
Our little US town started putting in roundabouts a few years ago. It's confused the old folks and others so much, LOL. We have some that are 2-lane coming in and the right lane has to go right but some don't see the sign so horns honk and fender benders happen. Other RaB are at a weird angle (who knows why) and you approach each one differently.(so not consistent which causes confusion) It's like the planners got the idea from GB but only stayed for the introduction meeting and not the engineering meeting.
GB are left hand site drivers, but traffic from the right has priority. That makes roundabouts much easier to drive.
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The US(my country) is finally waking up to the advantage of round abouts vs. traffic lights for aiding efficient flow of traffic. Unfortunately most of our cities are too congested with buildings close to streets for round abouts to be installed. Many of my countrymen/women are so resistant to change I hear mostly complaining whenever a new one is placed.
A few remarks. a.) Intelligent traffic lights consume more traffic than a roundabout can. b.) in the major Dutch cities the traffic lights ´count´ people not vehicles. Even if every car has 2 people in it; in the same amount of time more people by bicycle can pass than by cars. c.) in the UK a round about isn´t more than a concrete post in the middle of a street crossing.
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We called these circles in my state and there used to be many. They have all been removed and replaced with intersections with lights for reasons that I can not even begin to guess at. The flow just isn't there anymore
Traffic circles are not good infrastructure. Too many accidents. And in the US, we certainly don't have pedestrians crossing the streets at the circles.
The number of accidents may be higher, but the severity of the accidents is lower producing far fewer deaths and injuries.
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Americans would just see a blue screen of death at this and need to reboot.
We have roundabouts here. Also, this photo looks like it's in the NL, not the US.
Load More Replies...Trinity College Dublin Replaces Manicured Lawn With Wildflower Meadow To Increase Biodiversity
After: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/trinity-college-s-wildflower-meadow-what-it-was-trying-to-achieve-1.4675965
Holiday Gridlock...
As soon as you build sidewalks! And bike lanes! With a fence or something so we don't get hit by cars
Today, the harm that historic urban development practices have caused to the physical world around us is more evident than ever. However, the professor believes that we can’t simply undo it. Yet, she remains positive: “I do believe we can go forward in new ways,” Yaszek added. According to her, we can always learn from our mistakes and rehabilitate the spaces we’ve already created, rather than simply abandoning or bulldozing them.
Pedestrianizing Broadway
My City Has Been Removing Some Street Parking And Making These "Parklets". It's A Much Better Use Of Space.
Before making this transformation, you have to build a good public transportation system. You are making the public walk miles from their parking lot to these areas. These little parklets are cute and everything but build a solid public transportation system first.
What An Atrocity To Live In
Yaszek argues that we can do this “by either inventing new or recovering old technoscientific practices that better respect the coincidence between nature and culture, and by practicing a different kind of urban design that springs from the lived reality of city-dwellers, rather than the abstract theorizing of planners and developers who often live in spaces far removed from the cities they design."
1 Car Parking Space = 10 Bike Spaces, Spotted In Stuttgart, Home Of The Car
Closing Central Madrid To Cars Resulted In 9.5% Boost To Retail Spending, Finds Bank Analysis | Forbes
What Would Happen If Americans Were In Charge Of Rebuilding Notre Dame
Nobody: Southwest Us Developers:
This is common everywhere and its called coving. The modern version was pioneered in Minneapolis, MN, USA and spread. The original idea was to decrease the cost of building roads and utilities (1st generation saved ~20% in costs). Its evolved to cram the maximum number of homes into the smallest amount of space and make homeowner feel like they both have more land than the actually have and feel more secure (no one can see in your windows from another house). 4/5th generation models save close to 60% of construction costs. There is an entire branch of data science and specialized software designed to make these new neighborhoods. Badly made ones are obvious before you hit the first intersection. When buying a new home, use that street crossing as an indicator. If it feels wonky, there's a good chance the developer cut other corners so your basement will leak in a couple years and you'll hear the neighbors having sex.
In Paris, The Financial District Is Isolated From The Old City Center, Allowing It To Keep Its Appearance
After millennia of people using underground Paris as quarries vast parts of the city would make a new skyscraper collapse into a sinkhole before the tenth story was finished. Not that I mind Paris keeping its charming face, but "allowed" is far too generous a term. (one example: https://parisianfields.com/2015/09/13/a-city-built-on-air/). i believe Rome, for one, has a similar problem.
Space Required To Transport 48 People (A Car Is A Car Is A Car)
Ugh, I hate this false equivalence. It's not a question of one or the other, since we absolutely need BOTH mass transit AND electric, autonomous cars, because there is no way you can build mass transit to absolutely everywhere, but an autonomous car can serve multiple people - instead of sitting idle in the garage, it can work as an autonomous taxi - this way it brings in money for the owner and more importantly it means some people might choose to be car-less if they can just call one through an app and not have to worry about driving, parking or maintaining it...
Toronto Wants To Kill The "Smart City" Forever: After The Failure Of Google's Techno-Utopian Sidewalk Labs Project, Urban Planners Are Focusing On Green Space, Livability And Affordable Housing
Move People Not Cars!
I guess cars in 1950 and on can only go in straight lines but in 1920 they could go curvy. Current bicycles are ridden by drunks apparently.
Sad.
What are these parking spots for? You park, and you go... where? Genuine question
This United Airlines Tourism Pitch For America Is Horrifically Unappealing. (In Sydney, Australia)
Neighborhood Walkability
I Don't Know How That Feels To Live In Downtown Cleveland, But It Definitely Looks Like A Giant Parking Lot.
Downtown Cleveland is now a vibrant residential area and many of the parking lots in this old picture are now gone. There is now significant greenspace and many new hotels and apartments. There are several high capacity (and some free) public transit lines, both light rail and green-fuel buses that serve the area. But you do you BP.
Note: this post originally had 59 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
A lot of people reading this article don't seem to get the point - proper urban planning isn't about banning cars, it's about making them unnecessary for most people. If cities were developed in a way that you could easily walk to your neighbourhood grocery store, and you didn't have to bus to school, and you had a lot of options for work within a walkable or bikable distance, and mass transit took priority over single user cars, then cars would stop being a necessity. But strict zoning policies that are in place in most urban and sub-urban areas in North America, along with huge resistance to funding public sector things like mass transit, have made this virtually impossible. Your grocery store is probably several kilometers away, and you probably spend over an hour of your day driving to and from work.
You guys should check out the youtube channel Not Just Bikes, it's very educational and makes a really good point for human first civic planning!
My city has closed several main streets and made them pedestrian walk ways. And closed a lot more roads and converted them to bike lanes, but it's not very well planned, it's hard to get anywhere because the closed streets are right in the middle of car roads, you'll suddenly get stuck and having to drive several blocks to get around. And no, not everyone can bike
Have you tried walking those areas? It sounds like it's easier to get around if you're a pedestrian.
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When I was growing up, it was hard to get through southside and downtown Seattle because of all the cars and buses. But buses that were gas powered were not allowed in the downtown area...only the buses that were able to hook to the electrical lines that ran through the streets. Now you hardly see those lines anymore. Why? Because now most of the buses have moved to underground tunnels. The result are less crowded streets and safer for pedestrian crossings. Washington also actively encourages park and rides and carpooling to limit the number of cars in the city. As a result, we didn't have the smog and filthy streets that plagued some other major cities. Light rail now makes it easier to get to downtown from the airport and down the main road that leads out of Seattle to the south where most of the industrial district is. Cheaper than paying for parking in the city.
Park and Ride is a brilliant idea. I've never encountered them here in Australia (which doesn't mean they don't exist, just that I've never seen one) but we found them at many cities in the UK. Fantastic for if you have a a bulky car/RV, or if you live in suburbia - do the hard bit by car and then a bus straight to the middle of town. Should be a more widely used concept.
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Awesome ableist content, well done. Btw, banning cars will do a fraction of the work regulating emissions from our largest corporates will do, but you keep going after the little people first if you’re too scared to lose your Amazon access.
Banning cars while doing nothing else wouldn't accomplish anything, I agree. But reducing the need for vehicles by planning walkable neighbourhoods that put pedestrians first (including those with disabilities) would not only reduce the amount of single occupant car emissions, but would also reduce the need to manufacture cars in the first place. That would go a long way toward reducing GHG emissions while improving quality of life for everyone. Strict zoning bylaws and massive amounts of concrete do nothing for anyone, including the differently abled.
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Not sure if this was an article about urban planning or american bashing, probably both
I mean...if you're bashing poor urban planning, may as well go to the source. Canada is just as bad
Load More Replies... A lot of people reading this article don't seem to get the point - proper urban planning isn't about banning cars, it's about making them unnecessary for most people. If cities were developed in a way that you could easily walk to your neighbourhood grocery store, and you didn't have to bus to school, and you had a lot of options for work within a walkable or bikable distance, and mass transit took priority over single user cars, then cars would stop being a necessity. But strict zoning policies that are in place in most urban and sub-urban areas in North America, along with huge resistance to funding public sector things like mass transit, have made this virtually impossible. Your grocery store is probably several kilometers away, and you probably spend over an hour of your day driving to and from work.
You guys should check out the youtube channel Not Just Bikes, it's very educational and makes a really good point for human first civic planning!
My city has closed several main streets and made them pedestrian walk ways. And closed a lot more roads and converted them to bike lanes, but it's not very well planned, it's hard to get anywhere because the closed streets are right in the middle of car roads, you'll suddenly get stuck and having to drive several blocks to get around. And no, not everyone can bike
Have you tried walking those areas? It sounds like it's easier to get around if you're a pedestrian.
Load More Replies... When I was growing up, it was hard to get through southside and downtown Seattle because of all the cars and buses. But buses that were gas powered were not allowed in the downtown area...only the buses that were able to hook to the electrical lines that ran through the streets. Now you hardly see those lines anymore. Why? Because now most of the buses have moved to underground tunnels. The result are less crowded streets and safer for pedestrian crossings. Washington also actively encourages park and rides and carpooling to limit the number of cars in the city. As a result, we didn't have the smog and filthy streets that plagued some other major cities. Light rail now makes it easier to get to downtown from the airport and down the main road that leads out of Seattle to the south where most of the industrial district is. Cheaper than paying for parking in the city.
Park and Ride is a brilliant idea. I've never encountered them here in Australia (which doesn't mean they don't exist, just that I've never seen one) but we found them at many cities in the UK. Fantastic for if you have a a bulky car/RV, or if you live in suburbia - do the hard bit by car and then a bus straight to the middle of town. Should be a more widely used concept.
Load More Replies... Awesome ableist content, well done. Btw, banning cars will do a fraction of the work regulating emissions from our largest corporates will do, but you keep going after the little people first if you’re too scared to lose your Amazon access.
Banning cars while doing nothing else wouldn't accomplish anything, I agree. But reducing the need for vehicles by planning walkable neighbourhoods that put pedestrians first (including those with disabilities) would not only reduce the amount of single occupant car emissions, but would also reduce the need to manufacture cars in the first place. That would go a long way toward reducing GHG emissions while improving quality of life for everyone. Strict zoning bylaws and massive amounts of concrete do nothing for anyone, including the differently abled.
Load More Replies... Not sure if this was an article about urban planning or american bashing, probably both
I mean...if you're bashing poor urban planning, may as well go to the source. Canada is just as bad
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