Some communities have begun to demand more attractive and functional roadside development. This report shows how to use corridor-specific plans to create a sense of order and place in an increasingly cluttered landscape. These plans integrate well-known regulatory techniques to improve the function, safety, and appearance of corridors. The report includes strategies to improve unsightly and unsafe commercial roadway corridors and techniques to identify and protect scenic corridors. Includes sample corridor development standards from three communities.

Corridor redevelopment is not a new topic. Various planning and design approaches--such as complete streets, living streets, and livable streets--aim to redevelop commercial corridors to meet more of their users' needs, including their need for walking and biking rather than just traveling by car. A marked difference between a healthy corridors approach and other approaches is that the former looks beyond just the street and considers how the street supports the daily needs of all who live, work, and travel along it. Building Healthy Corridors: Transforming Urban and Suburban Arterials into Thriving Places takes a comprehensive view and considers how the corridor contributes to the overall health of the surrounding community, including community members' opportunities to be physically active. It also considers safety, housing affordability, transportation options, environmental sustainability, and social cohesion as well as modifications that would link residents to the corridor and improve connections to jobs and adjacent parts of the community.

The US population is estimated to grow by more than 110 million people by 2050, and much of this growth will take place where cities and their suburbs are expanding to meet the suburbs of neighboring cities, creating continuous urban megaregions. There are now at least a dozen megaregions in the US. If current trends continue unchanged, new construction in these megaregions will put more and more stress on the natural systems that are necessary for our existence, will make highway gridlock and airline delays much worse, and will continue to attract investment away from older areas. However, the megaregion in 2050 is still a prediction. Future economic and population growth could go only to environmentally safe locations. while helping repair landscapes damaged by earlier development. Improved transportation systems could reduce highway and airport congestion. Some new investment could be drawn to by-passed parts of older cities, which are becoming more separate and unequal. In Designing the Megaregion, planning and urban design expert Jonathan Barnett describes how to redesign megaregional growth using mostly private investment, without having to wait for massive government funding or new governmental structures. Barnett explains practical initiatives to make new development fit into its environmental setting, especially important as the climate changes; reorganize transportation systems to pull together all the components of these large urban regions; and redirect the market forces which are making megaregions very unequal places. There is an urgent need to begin designing megaregions, and Barnett shows that the ways to make major improvements are already available.

From the publishers of Architectural Graphic Standards, this book, created under the auspices of The American Planning Association, is the most comprehensive reference book on urban planning, design, and development available today. Contributions from more than two hundred renowned professionals provide rules of thumb and best practices for mitigating such environmental impacts as noise, traffic, aesthetics, preservation of green space and wildlife, water quality, and more. You get in-depth information on the tools and techniques used to achieve planning and design outcomes, including economic analysis, mapping, visualization, legal foundations, and real estate developments. Thousands of illustrations, examples of custom work by today?s leading planners, and insider information make this work the new standard in the field. Order your copy today.

The NACTO Urban Street Design Guide shows how streets of every size can be reimagined and reoriented to prioritize safe driving and transit, biking, walking, and public activity. Unlike older, more conservative engineering manuals, this design guide emphasizes the core principle that urban streets are public places and have a larger role to play in communities than solely being conduits for traffic. The well-illustrated guide offers blueprints of street design from multiple perspectives, from the bird’s eye view to granular details. Case studies from around the country clearly show how to implement best practices, as well as provide guidance for customizing design applications to a city’s unique needs. Urban Street Design Guide outlines five goals and tenets of world-class street design: • Streets are public spaces. Streets play a much larger role in the public life of cities and communities than just thoroughfares for traffic. • Great streets are great for business. Well-designed streets generate higher revenues for businesses and higher values for homeowners. • Design for safety. Traffic engineers can and should design streets where people walking, parking, shopping, bicycling, working, and driving can cross paths safely. • Streets can be changed. Transportation engineers can work flexibly within the building envelope of a street. Many city streets were created in a different era and need to be reconfigured to meet new needs. • Act now! Implement projects quickly using temporary materials to help inform public decision making. Elaborating on these fundamental principles, the guide offers substantive direction for cities seeking to improve street design to create more inclusive, multi-modal urban environments. It is an exceptional resource for redesigning streets to serve the needs of 21st century cities, whose residents and visitors demand a variety of transportation options, safer streets, and vibrant community life.

The loss and fragmentation of natural habitats is one of the major issues in wildlife management and conservation. Habitat "corridors" are sometimes proposed as an important element within a conservation strategy. Examples are given of corridors both as pathways and as habitats in their own right. Includes detailed reviews of principles relevant to the design and management of corridors, their place in regional approaches to conservation planning, and recommendations for research and management.