Urban Planet is a daily roundup of  blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues. In 1979, New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority unveiled a redesign of its iconic subway system map. The redesign was an attempt to bring clarity to the tangle of colours and lines that crisscross the five boroughs. But as Matt Flegenheimer at the New ...

Urban Planet is a daily roundup of  blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues. Sarah Goodyear at The Atlantic Cities comments on our changing understanding of responsibility for traffic accidents involving vehicles and pedestrians. Headlines from the 1930s suggest that the driver, by nature of their heavier vehicle and the purpose of a street, was nearly always ...

Urban Planet is a daily roundup of  blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues. Welcome to the Anthropocene - the era where human activity is the greatest single force shaping the surface of the earth. This video from Gizmodo charts the many ways we are changing the planet and the incredible connectivity we have achieved as a result. (LA Curbed) Image from LA ...

Weird Wednesdays on Urban Planet takes a look at obscure, absurd, and curious things about cities around the world. Parking garages usually don't make it very high on a city's list of urban beautification projects — most end up looking pretty similar to each other. Kansas City, MO is one of the citys who have broken the mould. The parking garage of city's downtown public library branch has a 25-foot tall "bookshelf" facade made from signboard mylar that features the spines of a number of local stories as well as many famous works.

Urban Planet is a daily roundup of  blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues. Welcome to Sunset Triangle - LA's first pedestrian plaza. The street-to-plaza conversion opened in March, modeled after the successful installations in NYC. The street is demarcated with green polkadots and planters, and first reports suggest that LA residents are enjoying their new open space. ...

Urban Planet is a daily roundup of  blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues. New York City's 10,000 street vendors face myriad rules and regulations. Add to that many first languages other than English and it becomes easy to see how cart owners could face steep penalties for simple infractions. To address this issue and empower the city's ...

Urban Planet is a daily roundup of  blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues. It's well known that Detroit has experienced a large population decline leaving large swaths of land abandoned. The oft cited number is 40 square miles. But as Kate Davidson at Changing Gears reports, nobody is quite sure where that number came from. New ...

Urban Planet is a daily roundup of  blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues. Hydro pylons can be a bit of an eyesore. In response, Russian creative collective Design Depot has proposed a set of creative approaches to beautify this challenging piece of infrastructure. Spacing asks: is there potential to use these modified pylons in the urban environment? ...