Contents – January 2024
CONTENTS – January 2024
Character towns, small and large, are planned, designed, built, managed and maintained by a variety of professionals using the many tools of their trade based on a systems analysis approach. Cities are systems of systems; treat them as such. A few systems-oriented tools that may be helpful with planning and designing towns with character follow in this Edition.
THE “CITIES ARE SYSTEMS” EDITION
PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT IDEAS FOR HOW TO…
- “Systems Thinking, Remember the City is a System of Systems”…wck.
- “Small City Dashboards…Small Cities Can Be Smart Cities”…wck.
- “Critical Thinking, Attributes of Creative Thought”…wck.
- “Classical Learning Systems” explained in The Character of Physical Law by Richard Feynman.
- “Being Analytical, Tools to Get the Details Right”…wck.
- “ ‘Wicked Problems’, Not Your Everyday Conundrums”…wck.
- “Reverse Engineering, A Strategy”….wck.
- “Model Based Design and BIM as City Planning Technological Tools”… wck with Brent Lacy, VHB, and Matt Allen, Foster Conant & Associates.
- “Vision-Driven Strategy, A Circular Continuum”…wck.
- “The Multiple Benefits of Co-Located Civic Venues”…wck.
VIDOES…
- Video [00.45]…“Benoit Mandelbrot: Fractals and the art of roughness”.
- Video [18:04]…”Start with WHY”, A TED talk with Simon Sinek.
- Video [10:51]…”Complexity Theory Overview” from Systems Innovation 2017.
FROM THE PLANNERS’ BOOKSHELF…
- Thinking in Systems, A Primer, Donella H. Meadows, edited by Diane Wright, Chelsea Green Publishing, Vermont, 2008.
- Playing to Win, How Strategy Really Works, A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Mass., 2013.
- Working, Researching, Interviewing, Writing, Robert A. Caro, Alfred A. Knoff, NY, 2019.
- Project Management for the Design Professional: A Handbook for Architects, Engineers, and Interior Designers, David Burstein (Author), Frank Stasiowski (Author), original copyright 1982, Whitney Library of Design, Billboard Publications, New York, new edition November 1, 1991.
- Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters, Steven Pinker, Viking, 2021.
- Land Use Law in Florida, 1st Edition, W. Thomas Hawkins, Routledge, 2021.
- SIMSOC, The Coordinator’s Manual, William A. Gamson With Larry G. Peppers, Simon & Schuster, 2000.
- Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction, Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner, Crown Publishing Group, NY, 2015.
- The Art of the Long View, Planning for the Future in an Uncertain World, Peter Schwartz, Currency Doubleday, 1991.
Critical Thinking, Attributes of Creative Thought
CRITICAL THINKING is a valued skill taught and learned by the professions, such as law, planning, medicine, engineering and architecture. The purpose of thinking critically is to examine a fact, a proposition or an idea from all perspectives to determine its veracity, its weak spots, its strengths, and ultimately, its usefulness. The antithesis of critical thinking is to accept information or ideas at face value and discard them before their true value can be exploited.
The Multiple Benefits of Co-Located Public Venues
CONCEPT.
“Multiple Benefits” is a great concept in normal times; in times of economic stress, it is an exceptional concept. The basic idea is that a single action can produce more than one benefit. One dollar of expense, if thoughtfully expended, can produce more than one dollar’s worth of value, or benefit. Consider:
- “Killing two birds with one stone” [Apologies to birders.]
- Taking one action and getting more than one beneficial outcome.
- Using one unit of input to produce more than one unit of output.
- Monetizing by-products as second-effort products that would otherwise be a cost of production.
Much like mixed-use developments, multi-modal transportation systems, diverse housing stocks and biologically diverse landscapes, multiple benefits thrive in an atmosphere of diversity.
“Project Management for the Design Professional: A Handbook for Architects, Engineers, and Interior Designers” by David Burstein and Frank Stasiowski
Project Management for the Design Professional continues to be the go-to book for professional designers to learn how to manage projects. From marketing and selling the job to contracting, staffing, producing and budgeting, this book sets out a useful program. The book is supported by the Project Services Management Journal [PSMJ] which is an industry standard in supporting design driven project management.
Contents – February 2024
CONTENTS – February 2024
Character towns, small and large, build social cohesion, community connections, civic pride, hometown spirit and institutional trust with a mobility system that strives to enable anyone in the city to travel to any other location at any time of day. People’s ability to travel safely, conveniently and cheaply to jobs, health clinics, schools and family reflects an essential value of the city to serve its residents and businesses. Visitors as small town tourists also benefit. Cities applying the proper mode of travel to the right trip reflects comprehensive thinking
THE “MULTI-MODAL MOBILITY” EDITION
PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT IDEAS FOR CITYWIDE AND DOWNTOWN MOBILITY…
- “Multi-Modal Mobility: Getting Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime, Safely and Cheaply”…wck.
- “Multi-Modal Planning and System Management”…wck.
- “City Sidewalks, A Limited Resource Needs Management”…wck.
- “The Race to Code the Curb”…from BloombergCityLab, 2019.
- “Delivery Robots, Competing with Peds for the Sidewalk”…wck.
- “Tactical, High-Impact Improvements for a Small Town Main Street”…from OPTICOS DESIGN, 2021.
- “There’s a 750 Mile Bike Trail in New York”…from The New York Times, 2021.
- “Neighborhood Mobility Audits”, Polk [County FL] Transportation Planning Organization.
- “Rescuing Derelict Roads, Rails and Rivers for Public Use”…wck.
- “US Partnership on Mobility from Poverty”…from Mobility Partnerships, 2018.
- “AV/EV Big Rigs with Interstate Highway Intercept Centers”…wck.
FROM THE PLANNERS’ BOOKSHELF…
- Transportation for Livable Cities, Vukan R. Vuchic, Center for Urban Policy Research, Rutgers, 1999.
- Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town, 1st Edition, Charles L. Marohn Jr., John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken NJ, 1st edition, 2021.
- Streetfight, Handbook for an Urban Revolution, Janette Sadik-Khan and Seth Solomonow, Penguin Random House, LLC, New York, 2016.
- Cycling for Sustainable Cities, Edited by Ralph Buehler and John Pucher, The MIT Press, 2021.
- Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time, Jeff Speck, Island Press, 2013.
- Urban Street Design Guide from The National Association of City Transportation Officials.
- Sidewalks and Trails, The Florida Department of Transportation.
The Race to Code the Curb
Everyone—from ride-hailing cars to delivery trucks to bikes and scooters—wants a piece of the curb. How can smart cities map and manage this precious resource?
The curb is hot. No longer just a home for parked cars and cigarette butts, this is where the action is in the 21st century city. It’s where electric scooters and bikes congregate, where delivery drivers drop off Amazon boxes, where Uber and Lyft cars scoop riders. Someday, it may be where driverless cars await their human cargo. Accordingly, this increasingly contested space has become a focus of serious attention from some of the world’s leading technology companies.
Multi-Modal Planning and System Management
VISION OF THE TOWN’S MOBILITY SYSTEM.
A basic idea is that every resident, employee and visitor in a town with character can travel safely, conveniently and inexpensively anywhere in town at any time. At its essence, mobility is about moving people and goods, not vehicles. The point is to apply the right transpotation mode to the appropriate trip type to maximize the benefits and efficiencies of each mode.
STRATEGY.
Character towns offer full mobility to all its residents. The town’s transportation strategy is to fully exploit every mode of travel for its designed purpose.
US Partnership on Mobility from Poverty
SUMMARY.
Every family should be able to live in a neighborhood that supports well-being and boosts children’s chances to thrive and succeed. Yet today too many low-income families and families of color live in neighborhoods that lack resources and instead amplify the effects of growing up poor.
We lay out a proposal for a coordinated regional strategy to improve access to opportunity neighborhoods for low-income families and families of color.
THE PROBLEM.
Today, almost 14 million people live in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty, more than twice as many as in 2000. Low-income families and families of color have been blocked from areas rich in amenities and opportunities by housing discrimination and exclusionary zoning. Low-income communities of color have been starved of capital and resources. A growing body of research suggests that growing up in a high-poverty neighborhood amplifies the effects of growing up poor. Both economic segregation and concentrated poverty are on the rise. Can a coordinated, regional strategy for neighborhood investment reverse a legacy of segregation, disinvestment, and exclusion?
There’s a 750 Mile Bike Trail in New York
Last December, the Empire State Trail — a sprawling, 750-mile cyclist and pedestrian route that connects Buffalo to Albany and New York City to the Canadian border, forming what looks like a sideways T — opened to the public. Considering the pandemic bike boom, the timing was perfect.
About 400 miles of greenways, repurposed rail lines and bike paths already existed in New York. So, when the $200 million project was announced in 2017, the state rushed to fill in the gaps between them.
Multi-Modal Mobility: Getting Anyone, Anywhere, Safely and Cheaply
Citywide Mobility.
City streets host a wide variety of uses and activities throughout town; especially downtown where they are totally dependent
on accessibility. Main street civic and private businesses live or die based on the ease of access to their front door. Having a library or museum on main street that is not easily accessible defeats the purpose of its presence.
Access is all about personal mobility and parking. Mobility thrives on multiple travel modes; multiple modes of travel prosper with advanced technology systems for hardware and communications. Parking works when it is easily accessible, safe and closely-connected to desirable destinations. The goal of the system is to enable anyone to safely and cheaply get anywhere on main street at any time.
Delivery Robots, Competing with Pedestrians for the Sidewalk.
The time is now for public right-of-way policy.
Delivery robots are being tested in many urban settings. Planning for robots to share streets and sidewalks is not a “far in the future” possibility but a near term probability. Policies and regulations to organize these new devices in the public right-of-way can avoid the confusion and unsightliness of the motorized scooters and bikes now plaguing our cities. It is time to be forward thinking and proactive.
Sidewalks and Trails
From the Florida Department of Transportation
From CT.org…FDOT has done a great service in describing their ideas and specs for sidewalks. A useful guide plus links to three other resources.
From FDOT…”To meet the needs of all pedestrians, designers must have a clear understanding of the wide range of abilities that occur within the population. Sidewalks, like roadways, should be designed to serve all users. This includes children, older people, parents with strollers, pedestrians who have vision impairments, and people using wheelchairs and other assistive devices. Just as a roadway will not be designed for one type of vehicle, the design of sidewalks should not be limited to only a single type of pedestrian. Every route and pedestrian facility must be readily accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities – which enhances usability and safety for all. The Accessible Sidewalks and Street Crossings informational guide is designed to provide guidance for accessible sidewalks and street crossings.