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Planning

New Books

New Mobilities

New transportation technologies can expand our world. During the last century, motorized modes increased our mobility by an order of magnitude, providing large benefits, but also imposing huge costs on individuals and communities. Faster and more expensive modes were favored over those that are more affordable, efficient, and healthy. As new transportation innovations become available, from e-scooters to autonomous cars, how do we make decisions that benefit our communities?   In New Mobilities: Smart Planning for Emerging Transportation Technologies, transportation expert Todd Litman examines 12 emerging transportation modes and services that are likely to significantly affect our lives: bike- and carsharing, micro-mobilities, ridehailing and micro-transit, public transit innovations, telework, autonomous and electric vehicles, air taxis, mobility prioritization, and logistics management. These innovations allow people to scoot, ride, and fly like never before, but can also impose significant costs on users and communities. Planners need detailed information on their potential benefits and impacts to make informed choices.   Litman critically evaluates these new technologies and services and provides practical guidance for optimizing them. He systematically examines how each New Mobility is likely to affect travel activity (how and how much people travel); consumer costs and affordability; roadway infrastructure design and costs; parking demand; land use development patterns; public safety and health; energy and pollution emissions; and economic opportunity and fairness.   Public policies around New Mobilities can either help create heaven, a well-planned transportation system that uses new technologies intelligently, or hell, a poorly planned transportation system that is overwhelmed by conflicting and costly, unhealthy, and inequitable modes. His expert analysis will help planners, local policymakers, and concerned citizens to make informed choices about the New Mobility revolution.

Palaces for the People

"A comprehensive, entertaining, and compelling argument for how rebuilding social infrastructure can help heal divisions in our society and move us forward."--Jon Stewart NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR * "Engaging."--Mayor Pete Buttigieg, The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) We are living in a time of deep divisions. Americans are sorting themselves along racial, religious, and cultural lines, leading to a level of polarization that the country hasn't seen since the Civil War. Pundits and politicians are calling for us to come together and find common purpose. But how, exactly, can this be done? In Palaces for the People, Eric Klinenberg suggests a way forward. He believes that the future of democratic societies rests not simply on shared values but on shared spaces: the libraries, childcare centers, churches, and parks where crucial connections are formed. Interweaving his own research with examples from around the globe, Klinenberg shows how "social infrastructure" is helping to solve some of our most pressing societal challenges. Richly reported and ultimately uplifting, Palaces for the People offers a blueprint for bridging our seemingly unbridgeable divides. LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION "Just brilliant!"--Roman Mars, 99% Invisible "The aim of this sweeping work is to popularize the notion of 'social infrastructure'--the 'physical places and organizations that shape the way people interact'. . . . Here, drawing on research in urban planning, behavioral economics, and environmental psychology, as well as on his own fieldwork from around the world, [Eric Klinenberg] posits that a community's resilience correlates strongly with the robustness of its social infrastructure. The numerous case studies add up to a plea for more investment in the spaces and institutions (parks, libraries, childcare centers) that foster mutual support in civic life."--The New Yorker "Palaces for the People--the title is taken from the Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie's description of the hundreds of libraries he funded--is essentially a calm, lucid exposition of a centuries-old idea, which is really a furious call to action."--New Statesman "Clear-eyed . . . fascinating."--Psychology Today

On common ground : international perspectives on the community land trust

CLTs are locally controlled, nonprofit organizations that reward permanently affordable housing (and other assets) for people of modest means. This book explores the global growth of CLTs in 26 original essays by authors from 12 countries."On Common Ground is an essential read for those interested in addressing the affordable housing crisis. . . . The book examines the growth of the community land trust (CLT) model and how it has adapted in urban and rural environments, offering readers a thoughtful and empathetic overview of how to start and scale a CLT to ensure that affordable housing incorporates its residents. The book leaves readers with a sense of hope for the future." --Robert Burns, Senior Vice President, CitiBank and Board President, Grounded Solutions Network

Basic Quantitative Research Methods for Urban Planners

In most planning practice and research, planners work with quantitative data. By summarizing, analyzing, and presenting data, planners create stories and narratives that explain various planning issues. Particularly, in the era of big data and data mining, there is a stronger demand in planning practice and research to increase capacity for data-driven storytelling. Basic Quantitative Research Methods for Urban Plannersprovides readers with comprehensive knowledge and hands-on techniques for a variety of quantitative research studies, from descriptive statistics to commonly used inferential statistics. It covers statistical methods from chi-square through logistic regression and also quasi-experimental studies. At the same time, the book provides fundamental knowledge about research in general, such as planning data sources and uses, conceptual frameworks, and technical writing. The book presents relatively complex material in the simplest and clearest way possible, and through the use of real world planning examples, makes the theoretical and abstract content of each chapter as tangible as possible. It will be invaluable to students and novice researchers from planning programs, intermediate researchers who want to branch out methodologically, practicing planners who need to conduct basic analyses with planning data, and anyone who consumes the research of others and needs to judge its validity and reliability.

Public places urban spaces: The Dimensions of Urban Design

"Public Places Urban Spaces provides a comprehensive overview of the principles, theory, and practices of urban design for those new to the subject and for those requiring a clear and systematic guide. In this new edition the book has been extensively revised and re-structured. Carmona advances the idea of urban design as a continuous process of shaping places, fashioned in turn by shifting global, local, and power contexts. At the heart of the book are eight key dimensions of urban design theory and practice-temporal, perceptual, morphological, visual, social, functional-and two new process dimensions-design governance and place production. This extensively updated and revised third edition is more international in its scope and coverage, incorporating new thinking on technological impact, climate change adaptation, strategies for urban decline, cultural and social diversity, place value, heathy cities, and more, all illustrated with nearly 1000 carefully chosen images. Public Places Urban Spaces is a classic urban design text, and everyone in the field should own a copy"--

Being a Planner in Society

This timely book addresses what it is to be a planner in a changing world: a world in need of transformation in the way planning is done in order to tackle social problems and ecological crises. Nicholas Low argues for the need to revalue public planning, sensitive to the social context in which it takes place. Aiming to define the social and political basis of planning, the book highlights how our neo-liberal world has lost touch with the importance of a well-resourced, impartial, professional and permanent public service to democracy. It does so by exploring the role of planning in long-term social and economic change, different understandings of social power and class and how human-nature relationships might influence ecological governance. Planning scholars, particularly those focusing on urban and environmental planning, will find this book an inspiring and accessible read, integrating a wide range of social theories with social and ecological justice.

The Routledge Handbook of Planning Theory

The Routledge Handbook of Planning Theorypresents key contemporary themes in planning theory through the views of some of the most innovative thinkers in planning. They introduce and explore their own specialized areas of planning theory, to conceptualize their contemporary positions and to speculate how these positions are likely to evolve and change as new challenges emerge. In a changing and often unpredictable globalized world, planning theory is core to understanding how planning and its practices both function and evolve. As illustrated in this book, planning and its many roles have changed profoundly over the recent decades; so have the theories, both critical and explanatory, about its practices, values and knowledges. In the context of these changes, and to contribute to the development of planning research, this handbook identifies and introduces the cutting edge, and the new emerging trajectories, of contemporary planning theory. The aim is to provide the reader with key insights into not just contemporary planning thought, but potential future directions of both planning theory and planning as a whole. This book is written for an international readership, and includes planning theories that address, or have emerged from, both the global North and parts of the world beyond. porary planning theory. The aim is to provide the reader with key insights into not just contemporary planning thought, but potential future directions of both planning theory and planning as a whole. This book is written for an international readership, and includes planning theories that address, or have emerged from, both the global North and parts of the world beyond.

Dublin from 1970 To 1990

Dublin's footprint grew steadily during the 1970s with housing transforming the landscape of the west of the city, especially in Tallaght, Clondalkin, and Blanchardstown. It was a time of change with the dominance of the city centre increasingly challenged by suburban shopping centres as Dubliners embraced the freedom offered by the motor car. Cars demanded more and bigger roads but it was realized that Dublin had to control rather than accommodate these demands. The suburban trend in housing, shopping, and jobs made the problem of decline and decay in the city centre even more acute. There was much talk about what needed to be done but little happened until the latter years of the 1980s. When change came it was dramatic and both the social geography of the city centre and its appearance were transformed in less than five years. The urban environment was given greater attention, largely because the issues could no longer be avoided. The Liffey stink was finally tamed after a century or more of complaints and Dubliners had to say farewell to open coal fires. Some things never changed! The problem of how to manage the city remained as intractable as ever despite significant changes in local government structures and the public housing need remained acute.