The world’s largest public works investment visible from space, the Interstate Highway System and the hundreds of thousands of miles of supporting roadways, are frequently hailed as a marvel and triumph of engineering. President Eisenhower’s 1956 Interstate Highway Act is often praised as a model of successful bipartisanship.Today, the extensive damage wreaked by the creation of the highway system and the ills of car dependency are more widely acknowledged. Congestion and traffic d...

Cities across the globe have been designed with a primary goal of moving people around quickly—and the costs are becoming ever more apparent. The consequences are measured in smoggy air basins, sprawling suburbs, unsafe pedestrian environments, and despite hundreds of billions of dollars in investments, a failure to stem traffic congestion. Every year our current transportation paradigm generates more than 1.25 million fatalities directly through traffic collisions. Worldwide, 3.2 million ...

Jeff Speck has dedicated his career to determining what makes cities thrive. And he has boiled it down to one key factor: walkability.The very idea of a modern metropolis evokes visions of bustling sidewalks, vital mass transit, and a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly urban core. But in the typical American city, the car is still king, and downtown is a place that's easy to drive to but often not worth arriving at.Making walkability happen is relatively easy and cheap; seeing exac...

One of the world's foremost urban designers shares his passion and methods for rejuvenating neglected cities and argues passionately for the importance and possibilities of their renewal.From a youth spent in the boroughs of New York City and other great cities of the world, to his beginnings as an architect in Toronto, Ken Greenberg has long recognized that cities at their best provide much of what we seek in a place to call home. Community, places of culture and business that we ...

In this groundbreaking report from the leading edge of the emerging sustainable economy, bestselling author Chris Turner charts the way to our brightest possible future.From financial collapse to climate chaos to the end of cheap and easy oil, we have reached the end of the line for business as usual. The good news? The tools already exist to reinvent our economy in ways that both eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels and support a lifestyle as prosperous and du...

International BestsellerAll places are not created equal.In this groundbreaking book, Richard Florida shows that where we live is increasingly a crucial factor in our lives, one that fundamentally affects our professional and personal prospects. As well as explaining why place matters now more than ever, Who’s Your City? provides indispensable tools to help you choose the right place for you.It’s a cliché of the information age that...

“The government in the past created one American Dream at the expense of almost all others: the dream of a house, a lawn, a picket fence, two children, and a car. But there is no single American Dream anymore.”For nearly 70 years, the suburbs were as American as apple pie. As the middle class ballooned and single-family homes and cars became more affordable, we flocked to pre-fabricated communities in the suburbs, a place where open air and solitude offered a retre...

How to create the world's new urban futureWith the majority of the world's population shifting to urban centres, urban planning—the practice of land-use and transportation planning to help shape cities structurally, economically, and socially—has become an increasingly vital profession. In Urban Planning For Dummies, readers will get a practical overview of this fascinating field, including studying community demographics, determining the best uses for lan...

The essential handbook for ending suburban sprawl and automobile-based settlement patternsFor a decade, Suburban Nation has given voice to a growing movement in North America to put an end to suburban sprawl and replace the last century's automobile-based settlement patterns with a return to more traditional planning. Founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk are at the forefront of the movement, and even their...

Advance Praise for Dynamic Urban Design“Finally, in one book a complete guide to the theory, practice, and potential of urban design by one of Canada’s preeminent urban designers.”—David R. Witty, former dean, School of Architecture, University of Manitoba, Canada“Michael von Hausen has given us a clear and hopeful path to the creation of a sustainable urbanism, one that will be inspiring and instructive to practitioners, students, and all those who are focused on t...

Everyone is calling for smart growth...but what exactly is it?In The Smart Growth Manual, two leading city planners provide a thorough answer. From the expanse of the metropolis to the detail of the window box, they address the pressing challenges of urban development with easy-to-follow advice and broad array of best practices.With their landmark book Suburban Nation, Andres Duany and Jeff Speck "set forth more clearly than anyone has done in our time the elemen...

Welcome to book 3. In this book I have concentrated on large world issues. Sometimes these topics can be difficult to find ideas for, so I hope this book helps.In the other two books, I mentioned how to plan your essay, how to structure each paragraph and how to edit the completed work.In this book, I have included some introductions and conclusions to help you understand how to produce them. Once again, I have included model essays for you to check your work against at the...