Building Community
Creating Places
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Special Features
- Great Public Spaces
- Image Collection
- Making Places
Bulletin - Discussion Forums
- Places in the News
- PPS Project Updates
PPS Favorites
- Pride of Place
Governing Magazine, April 2005 - Rethinking the Urban Speedway
Governing Magazine, October 2005 - The 20 Best North American Districts, Downtowns, and Neighborhoods
- The World's Best and Worst Parks
- Top 12 Public Squares in the U.S. and Canada
- Best and Worst Public Spaces in the Galaxy
- Placemaker Profile: Enrique Penalosa
- City Commentary:
Barcelona
Online Transportation Resources
Here is our growing collection of online resources for transportation. If you know of a great site that should be added to this list, email us and we'll add it.- Great Streets
Learn about the world’s greatest streets.
- Project for Public Spaces Image Database
A searchable collection of thousands of categorized images of great public spaces.
- Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center Image Database
A searchable collection of over 2,500 categorized images.
- Transportation Demand Management Online Encyclopedia
An extremely comprehensive source of information about innovative management solutions to transportation problems.
- Roads Gone Wild
Traffic engineer Hans Monderman takes out street signs, crosswalks, and even sidewalks – to make streets safer.
- Complete Streets
Complete streets are designed and operated to enable safe access for all users. Pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and bus riders of all ages and abilities are able to safely move along and across a complete street.
- Traffic: Why It's Getting Worse, What Government Can Do
Although traffic congestion is inevitable, there are ways to slow the rate at which it intensifies. Several tactics could do that effectively, but nothing can eliminate peak-hour traffic congestion from large metropolitan regions here and around the world.
- Traffic Calming in West Palm Beach: An article and PowerPoint show
In the 1990s, West Palm Beach adopted one of the most comprehensive traffic calming measures in the country. It led to unprecedented economic development downtown. Click here for the PowerPoint.
- Institute of Transportation Engineers Traffic Calming Library
Contains a searchable database of reports, articles and other documents related to traffic calming.
- Streets for People
A guide to winning safer and quieter streets, written by Transportation Alternatives.
- Street Reclaiming Through Activity
David Engwicht’s tools and tips to help communities reclaim their streets from the automobile.
- A community guide to traffic calming
Case studies of traffic calming from around the country.
- Land Use Impacts on Transport: How Land Use Factors Affect Travel Behavior
This paper examines how various land use factors such as density, regional accessibility, mix and roadway connectivity affect travel behavior, including per capita vehicle travel, mode split and nonmotorized travel.
- Evaluating Criticism of Smart Growth
This analysis indicates that many claims by critics of Smart Growth reflect an incomplete understanding of Smart Growth, and inaccurate analysis.
- Relationship Between Urban Sprawl and Physical Activity, Obesity and Morbidity
This report shows that people living in counties marked by sprawling development are likely to walk less and weigh more than people who live in less sprawling counties.
- Higher Density Development: Myth and Fact
Density helps to create vibrant, economically strong communities where citizens can enjoy a high quality of life in a fiscally and environmentally responsible manner.
- The High Cost of Free Parking
In this book, Donald Shoup shows that free parking distorts transportation choices, warps urban form, and degrades the environment. He proposes new ways for cities to regulate parking. Download accompanying PowerPoint.
- A Plan for Tomorrow: Creating Stronger, Healthier Cities Today
A PowerPoint presentation put together by the Urban Land Institute, the Sierra Club and the National Multi-Housing Council on dense and livable downtowns.
- Rail Transit in America: A Comprehensive Evaluation of Benefits
This study finds that cities with large, well established rail systems have significantly higher per capita transit ridership, lower average per capita vehicle ownership and annual mileage, less traffic congestion, lower traffic death rates, lower consumer expenditures on transportation, and higher transit service cost recovery than otherwise comparable cities with less or no rail transit service.
- Evaluating Rail Transit Criticism
This report evaluates criticism of rail transit systems and responds to the critics.
- Hidden in Plain Sight
A report that shows that demand for compact housing near transit is likely to more than double by 2025.
- Transit-Oriented Development and Joint Development in the United States: A Literature Review
Provides definitions of transit-oriented development (TOD) and transit joint development (TJD), describes the institutional issues related to TOD and TJD, and provides examples of the impacts and benefits of TOD and TJD.
- Transit-Oriented Development: Developing a Strategy to Measure Success
The digest identifies and evaluates various indicators of the impacts of transit-oriented development, provides the results of a survey of transit-oriented development indicators, and identifies ten indicators that can be used to systematically monitor and measure impacts.
- Mean Streets 2004: How far have we come?
This report reflects on the trends in pedestrian safety over the past decade.
