Resources: Publications, Reports, & Documents

Since 2005, the Congress for the New Urbanism’s Highways-to-Boulevards initiative has argued that replacing urban freeways with surface streets, boulevards and avenues is the most cost-effective, sustainable option for cities with aging grade separated roads. Since the West Side Highway was removed in 1977, CNU has tracked nearly 115 freeway candidates, more than 25 active removal campaigns, and ten successful removal efforts. The increase in removal candidates and active campaigns has repositioned urban freeway removal not as an experiment, but as a growing trend for communities seeking solutions for aging infrastructure reaching the end of its design life. In “Rethinking Highways in American Cities: New Opportunities for Leadership”, Peter J. Park considers the obstacles that face urban freeway removal efforts. He documents the historical evolution of freeway construction and its devastating effects on urban neighborhoods. Park then considers the financial and political dynamics that made building or (rebuilding) highways in cities a de facto standard. Park also illustrates the opportunities to re-connect urban neighborhood transportation networks through technical improvements to the standard transportation planning process and a call for visionary leadership.

Reports findings on the current status of the Route 5 and Fuhrmann Avenue projects along Buffalo’s waterfront. Evaluates the alternatives for the street system and makes recommendations regarding appropriate design for Route 5 and Fuhrmann Avenue and the actions required for implementation.

Leslie writes ..... Have you ever visited a town that you just knew was special? Maybe you weren't even aware of why you felt that way - you just knew you never wanted to leave. These special places always had a welcoming feel about them with their tree-lined streets, children playing on the sidewalk and neighbors sharing gossip on the front porch. I bet it even had a lovely little downtown where shoppers could spend all day wandering around looking through the brightly decorated windows of the shops there. You didn't need a car to get around, your feet worked just fine, and after all, what would be the sense of driving when eveything was so close and convenient? While it seems that in this day and age towns like this can only be found on television, there are still places in this world where they exist.

Five years ago, I began to research and find out more about the sense of place that makes some towns in Michigan so wonderful, and why others remain in a state of deep failing and fatigue. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and so keeping this in mind, I've written this book to show you how we can turn our sometimes forbidding and hostile urban landscapes into the types of welcoming places in which we all wish we could live.

Report on demand for walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods in relation to policies that promote sprawl.

The New Face of America’s Public Housing competition is funded by the Innovation in American Government Award and administered by the Congress for the New Urbanism. In 2000, the HOPE VI program of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) won the Innovation in American Government Award in a field of 1,700 entries. The award is issued by the Ford Foundation, Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and the Council for Excellence in Government. HUD is applying its prize to this award program, to pass on the credit to those projects that are creatively transforming public housing and the lives of its residents. Recipients can serve as role models for communities across the country.

Download a booklet describing the awardees (PDF, 20 pp., 18 MB)

Exploring ways to slow traffic speeds, reduce cut-through traffic and traffic-related noise, improve asthetics of the street, and increase safety for pedestrians, bicyclists and vehicles.

This paper explores the influence of specific urban design factors on parking demand in three traditional and three contemporary New England commercial centers. The authors found that the character and structure of the centers in terms of building density, street and sidewalk design, and the management and organization of parking as well as the population densities and street structure of the surrounding neighborhoods result in very different transportation outcomes. For example, Nearly 25% of the users at the traditional downtowns travel by means other than the automobile compared to only 9% at the contemporary sites. These differences resulted in traditional centers that were much more vibrant than their contemporary counterparts; in fact, the traditional centers had 250 more pedestrians on their streets at any one time and a total of 1,300 more people w ith 400 fewer automobiles parked on site. To view the academic paper submission, click here