Laurence Aurbach's blog

Most CNU members know that CNU partnered with the US Green Building Council to produce LEED-ND. But did you know the USGBC also created a new category of credits (Location and Transportation) in all of its other rating systems? And that the USGBC set up a new committee (Location and Planning Technical Advisory Group) to administer and revise those credits?

Intersection density makes surprising news in a study by the formidable academic duo of Reid Ewing and Robert Cervero.

Dense and Beautiful Stormwater Management
By Laurence Aurbach
Ped Shed Blog, Friday May 14, 2010
http://pedshed.net/?p=270

To encourage informed participation in the LEED-ND vote, the CNU DC Chapter has released An Introduction to LEED-ND for CNU Members.

The essay "Towards a Functional Classification Replacement" is online in three parts at the Ped Shed blog.

This essay discusses the reasons for neighborhood ratings, which can be grouped into six broadly overlapping categories: communication, recognition, planning, marketing, research and investing.

This essay is the first attempt (to the best of my knowledge) to mount a comprehensive counterargument to intersection spacing standards on the grounds of crash safety. Comments and feedback are requested.

Redwood City's Free-Market Parking Meters
By Laurence Aurbach, 3 Apr 2007
http://pedshed.net/?p=105

At first glance the notion of free-market parking meters seems impossibly arcane. But as Donald Shoup pointed out in a recent NY Times editorial, "cruising for curb parking generates about 30 percent of the traffic in central business districts." Shoup studied Westwood Village, next to the UCLA campus, and found that drivers searching for curb parking created 950,000 excess vehicle miles of travel per year. That's equivalent to 38 trips around the earth, taking place in just one retail district in L.A.