We Built It That Way

Is urban density good or bad??? This is the type of question we'd prefer not to answer.

But if you're okay with a little nuance, hop on in while we take a stroll through what density means, what it does and doesn't do, and why the topic riles so many people up.

We talk about:

• What density measures
• Arguments people make against density
• Arguments people make in favor of density
• A theory on why density tends to be a fixation in North America
• Different ways to reach the same density
• How cars factor in (and cars always factor in!)
• What is overcrowding? And how that relates to "density"
• How talking about urban intensity allows for greater specificity
• And a lot more!

Links:

Want to learn more on this episode’s topic? There has been no shortage of words written on the virus and our cities. Here's just a tiny sample:

• June 1972 article from Psychological Review, titled "On the distinction between density and crowding: Some implications for future research" by Daniel Stokols
• June 22, 2021 article in Policy Options Politiques, "We need to focus on the problem of crowding, not density, in our cities" by Valerie Preston and Brian Ray
• June 1, 2020 TVO Today article, "Density is a planning problem. Crowding is a money problem" by John Michael McGrath
• January 2019 Governing, "Why ‘Density’ Is a Bad Word: It’s often used to describe how people live in urban spaces. But it shouldn't be." by Alex Marshall

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Check us out on Twitter and Instagram @webuiltitpod.

Hosted by AJ Fawver and Jordan Clark. Edited by Jordan Clark.

Music in this episode includes: Sounds of the Supermarket, Blue Dot Sessions, bummies. (on YouTube), a 1986 recording from The Weather Channel, lukrembo (on YouTube), C. Scott, Isaac Horwedel, and Dead Moon ("Too Many People")

In this Extra Credit episode, we have a chat about a frankly glum topic: when cars kill people. We discuss a fantastic piece in the New Yorker about a growing movement to end pedestrian and cycling fatalities in NYC and beyond.

Lots to cover in this show, and we talk about:

• ingrained attitudes about transportation (and whose experience counts the most)
• policy choices that inevitably lead to avoidable death
• individuals and families bearing the burden of collective failures
• learning from other countries: whether safe streets are a "cultural" thing or a policy result
• Vision Zero as a response to traffic deaths
• neighborhood politics
• the concept of "windshield bias"
• a few simple design approaches that make streets safer for all people
• ... and more

Let's dive in!

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Check us out on Twitter and Instagram @webuiltitpod.

Hosted by AJ Fawver and Jordan Clark. Edited by Jordan Clark.

Music in this episode: Sounds of the Supermarket, a 1985 Weather Channel broadcast, Isaac Horwedel, and Cullah ("GroOvy" and "Western Firefight 2").

In this episode, we talk about noise pollution—a much bigger problem than you might realize!

Some of the things we discuss include:

• the most common (and annoying) sources of outdoor noise
• adverse mental, physical, and social health effects from too much noise exposure
• what safe noise levels even are
• ways to reduce noise in cities (hint: it has a lot to do with cars, like basically everything we talk about)
• and a whole lot more

Links:

Want to learn more on this episode’s topic? There has been no shortage of words written on the virus and our cities. Here's just a tiny sample:

• Book: ‘Curbing Traffic’ by Melissa & Chris Bruntlett
• Why City Noise Is a Serious Health Hazard
• Environmental Noise Pollution in the United States: Developing an Effective Public Health Response
• How Animals Perceive the World 
• The sounds of our lives suck! How to make cities better by ending the blight of noise
• Cities Aren't Loud: Cars Are Loud (Video)
• Why sounds and smells are as vital to cities as the sights
• Paris caps speed limit to 30km/h in further boost to 'soft' transport
• The Sensory Assault of 18th Century Cities
• Road Traffic Noise Pollution Is Linked With a Heightened Risk of Central Obesity
• The Science of Quieter Cities
• Traffic Noise Might GiveYou a Heart Attack
• The Science of Quieter Cities
• How Silence Became the Ultimate Luxury Good
• The (Basically) Complete Health Case for Urban Parks, Trees, and Nature
• NOISY CITIES...

Time for another installment in our 'Extra Credit' series, where we take a reading and discuss our takeaways, for your listening pleasure.

In this episode, we discuss a piece in Shelterforce titled 'Are Urban Planners Staying Silent on Climate Gentrification?' – written by Colleen O'Connor-Grant.

The built environment is the embodiment of countless decisions, each of which is a vote for what matters to us (or, to be honest, what matters to those with power and influence). In the case of climate gentrification, zoning rules, economic development practices, affordable housing policies, and other "boring" things create an unequal, ecologically degraded world. Which shapes each of us who live in it.

Let's dive in!

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Check us out on Twitter and Instagram @webuiltitpod.

Hosted by AJ Fawver and Jordan Clark. Edited by Jordan Clark.

Music in this episode: Sounds of the Supermarket, a 1985 Weather Channel broadcast, Isaac Horwedel, Scott Joplin ("Reflection Rag"), and Lead Belly ("Bourgeois Blues").

In this episode we look back on just a few ways this current pandemic had an impact on how we see and use our built environment. (ARE CITIES DEAD?!?!?!)

Links:

Want to learn more on this episode’s topic? There has been no shortage of words written on the virus and our cities. Here's just a tiny sample:

• What the Pandemic's 'Open Streets' Really Revealed
• Coronavirus is not fuel for urbanist fantasies
• How the Coronavirus Will Reshape Architecture
• Driving Went Down. Fatalities Went Up. Here's Why.
• Oakland's Open Streets Programs Are Still a Work in Progress. That's a Good Thing.
• Past pandemics changed the design of cities. Six ways COVID-19 could do the same

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Check us out on Twitter and Instagram @webuiltitpod.

Hosted by AJ Fawver and Jordan Clark. Edited by Jordan Clark.

Music in this episode: Sounds of the Supermarket, ERLAX (YouTube), Stockwave (YouTube), and Scott Joplin ("Reflection Rag").

We're trying something new! This is the first in our 'Extra Credit' series, where we take a reading and discuss our takeaways, for your listening pleasure.

In this episode, we discuss an article that ran in Texas Observer in 2021: What If the State Department of Transportation Tore Down Texas Highways? by Megan Kimble.

We talk about:

• what impact urban highways have on cities (and how they are different from rural highways)
• the "interesting" ways Texas's Department of Transportation publicly talks about transportation
• why people want to tear down some highways (are they just maniacs??)
• pros and cons of urban highways
• and a lot more!

We also mention an article in The Guardian that came out the week we recorded:

• ‘It’s just more and more lanes’: the Texan revolt against giant new highways

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Check us out on Twitter and Instagram @webuiltitpod.

Hosted by AJ Fawver and Jordan Clark. Edited by Jordan Clark.

Music in this episode: Sounds of the Supermarket, Isaac Horwedel, a 1985 Weather Channel broadcast, and Wire ("Lowdown")

We're back, and we're talking about signs. Urban advertisements. Billboards, pole signs, and much more.

We sure do put up with a lot of signs telling us what to do. Why are we so permissive with our eyeballs? Well, in recent decades, there have been movements across the globe to rid cities of public advertising. We discuss this trend and much more. Plus, what implicit values and priorities are built in to the way advertisement is allowed in cities?

Links:

Want to learn more on this episode’s topic? Here’s just a short list of interesting resources:

• The Stealthy Politics of Urban Advertising
• Can cities kick ads? Inside the global movement to ban urban billboards
• Advertising: Why billboards and outdoor ads are booming in a smartphone age
• The Ad Screens on Ride-Hail Cars Collect Data, Too
• Cities Lose Supreme Court Case on Sign Regulation
• Here Are the Tools to Hack into Your City's Public Advertising
• Shedding Light on Digital Signs (PDF)

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Check us out on Twitter and Instagram @webuiltitpod.

Hosted by AJ Fawver and Jordan Clark. Edited by Jordan Clark.

Music in this episode: Sounds of the Supermarket, Blue Dot Sessions ("Sandy Shuffle"), Homer & Jethro ("The Billboard Song"), Isaac Horwedel, and Gary Nintendo ("Riding a giant eagle over the mountains")

It’s Part II of our two-part series on traffic congestion! This time: why adding more lanes doesn’t make congestion go away.

Framing traffic congestion as primarily a “street capacity” problem has led practitioners to seek solutions by adding more lanes and miles of streets and roads. This has the unintended (but predictable) consequence of generating more traffic. This phenomenon is exceedingly well known but continually ignored among the professionals who can do anything about it.

Let’s talk about it.

Links:

Want to learn more on this episode’s topic? Here’s just a short list of interesting resources:

• Traffic Jam? Blame 'Induced Demand.' - Bloomberg
• Transportation For America More highways, more driving, more emissions: Explaining "induced demand" - Transportation For America
• The Fundamental, Global Law of Road Congestion (from City Observatory)
• Reducing Traffic or Inducing It?
• What's Up With That: Building Bigger Roads Actually Makes Traffic Worse | WIRED
• Induced Demand: An Axiom of Biology — Human Transit
• Questioning Congestion Costs | City Observatory
• Induced demand - Wikipedia
• Reducing congestion: Katy didn't | City Observatory
• Reduced demand is just as important as induced demand | CNU
• The Problem with HOV Lanes
• Opinion: Filth, Automobiles, and Our Misguided Obsession With Traffic
• Calculating induced demand at the Rose Quarter | City Observatory
• Generated Traffic and Induced Travel – VPTI (PDF)
• Your Navigation App Is Making Traffic Unmanageable | Institute of Transportation Studies
• SHIFT Calculator
• Book: Walkable City by Jeff Speck (public library)

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This month we ask whether our built environment serves older adults well as they age—and how that has an impact on all of us, regardless of age.

Links:

Want to read more on this episode’s topic? Here’s just a short list of interesting resources:

• Improving with age? How city design is adapting to older populations
• Designing Better Urban Spaces for the Aging
• Designing cities for the aged | E&T Magazine
• To build an inclusive smart city, look through an age-friendly lens
• Cities Alive: Designing for ageing communities
• Co-designing Urban Living Solutions to Improve Older People's Mobility and Well-Being
• Improving housing and neighborhoods for the vulnerable: older people, small households, urban design, and planning
• How Cities Can Design for Aging Baby Boomers
• Creative Ageing Cities: Place Design with Older People in Asian Cities: Foreward
• Planning and an Aging Population
• How can cities become more inclusive for elderly people? | World Economic Forum
• The cities designing playgrounds for the elderly
• Age-Friendly Built Environments: Opportunities for Local Government
• What Do Seniors Need in Parks?
• Planning for Aging-Friendly Communities
• Five Innovative Ways Cities Are Improving Life for Seniors
• Ten questions concerning age-friendly cities and communities and the built environment