I like to mash up city data.  Sometimes it can be extremely revealing.  Sometimes it is worthless, but even then, it helps clarify what factors are or are not interdependent and interrelated when it comes to cities.  These efforts are necessary for dispelling incorrect conventional wisdom of cities.  Such as parking.  As I’ll get to. […]

Greetings!  I’ve missed you!  I have a moment and considering I just read this, there is something to say.  So here I am. What I read was an article in the Wall Street Journal about the five cities that are successful through innovation.  The real head scratcher though is Houston.  Not that Houston isn’t innovative, […]

First, the US Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx tweeted this: Anthony Foxx ‏@SecretaryFoxx Mar 29 Transportation is a community function. If it doesn’t work for the entire community, the system doesn’t work. http://wapo.st/1pWSnMi  Then the mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti (who is top notch) retweeted, adding: Mayor of Los Angeles ‏@MayorOfLA 16h16 hours ago […]

I know. I know.  Parking seems so mundane.  But, what if I told you that how parking is handled from both a coding and design standpoint is one of the most critical determinants in the quality and thus value of a place?  Well, guess what?  We’ll be talking about parking next Thursday evening at the […]

There's a fascinating and dangerous (and accidental) experiment going on at the intersection of McKinney Avenue and Olive Street. I was alerted to the issue by C. Troy Mathis on Twitter. Within five minutes of arriving on the scene, I witnessed a wreck. Apparently, power was cut on the block, and the traffic signals at this intersection, as well as at Olive and Woodall Rodgers, failed.  The Olive/Woodall signal is operating as it is supposed to, as blinking reds in both one-way directions. However, the Olive/McKinney intersection signal is frozen. On Olive, which is one-way northbound, it is a solid red. McKinney, which is two-way, is solid yellow in both directions. Troy mentioned that he called the cops only to hear that somebody would respond within 24 hours.

Have you ever watched something archived from the past and thought to yourself, “man, I can’t believe people thought that way back then.  That was a looooong time ago.”  Well, this piece of agitprop video provided by Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation was made only five years ago.  And if the name of that group […]

I’m seeing a lot of hand-wringing, kvetching, and task force creating around the issue of affordability in Dallas.  I, however, have yet to see anybody beyond Councilman Griggs and Brandon Formby at the DMN, hitting on some of the critical local issues.  In my spare time this week, I’ll be working on some data sets […]

The above chart comes from the annual Biking & Walking Benchmarking Report.  Measuring biking and walking isn’t mere do-gooderism. It’s economics.  Biking and walking are the most energy and in-turn cost efficient way to move around (provided the short trip is even possible) for both the public sector (infrastructure) and private (transportation).  The short trip […]

Last night I had the pleasure of speaking at Life in Deep Ellum as they hosted a local Q Commons event.  The theme was connectivity and community.  As something I know a little bit about I was happy to have a go at the Pecha Kucha meets TED talk format. Given that I had 9 minutes flat and my penchants for wordiness, I had to develop a new strategy to deliver the message.  Rather than data, research, analysis, and theory I had to go in a different direction:  emotion.  Not only did I need to emote and evoke emotion, but it hit me that I could explore a topic that I haven't had much of a chance to expound upon ever since a tweet-storm stream of conscience some 4-5 years ago about the emotional design of cities.

This morning I dragged Matt Tranchin (say hi Matt!) to a breakfast panel organized by Urban Land Institute (ULI) of North Texas and the American Society of Highway Engineers (ASHE).  Mayor Maher Maso of Frisco gave the opening talk after which was followed by a panel including Texas Transportation Commissioner Victor Vandergriff, TxDOT Dallas district […]

I stumbled across this last night whilst looking for a documentary on Amazon.  Apparently, PBS has been producing a television series on walking in cities.  They’re now up to season 2.  Who knew?!  It may occasionally veer into lecturing on the health benefits of walking like someone lecturing you on how to recycle, but there […]

Chances are at some point I have written about LA doing the most interesting things in the realm of urban planning and all that entails.  I don’t have any links available, but I know I have because I FEEL it.  From bus signalization pre-emption, to massive investment in new subway lines, to the restoration of […]