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Transportation and Development
Politics on the Web

Early in the twentieth century, modernist planners believed that cities should be divided into single-function zones, each designed by an expert in its function: housing developments would be designed by "housers," industrial parks by industrial engineers, and Office Parks, Civic Centers, and Shopping Centers by other experts -- and expert transportation planners would design freeways to move people among these zones.

Now, we have learned that the modernist city does not work. The single-function developments generate intolerable traffic, and the freeways generate sprawl.

This web site lists groups that are helping to build more livable cities by working for:

• Traditional Neighborhood Design/New Urbanism: Rather than shopping centers, office parks, industrial parks, and housing developments, we need old-fashioned neighborhoods, where people can walk. This page lists groups working for Traditional Neighborhood Design, also known as "The New Urbanism."

• Limiting Automobile Use: Excessive automobile use destroys neighborhoods and cities and promotes sprawl. This page lists groups working to limit automobile use and promote alternative transportation.

• Stopping Suburban Sprawl: Suburbanization drains the vitality of older neighborhoods and creates endless urbanized regions that are dependent on the private automobile. This page lists groups working to stop sprawl.

• Stopping Superstores and Chains: Large scale superstores and chain stores displace independent shopkeepers who are a mainstay of communities, and they pave over open space and drain the vitality of older shopping districts. This page lists groups working to stop superstores and chains.

• Ecocities: These groups look at transportation and urban design as a whole. Most focus strongly on preserving the natural environment, and some tend to be utopian.

• Pedestrian Advocacy: These groups are working to promote the most important -- and most commonly forgotten -- form of transportation: walking.

• Too good to leave out: These urban planning/transportation resources do not fit into our categories, but they were too good to leave out.