"Managing growth, reducing traffic, creating sustainable development, and making smart transportation investments; these are all challenges we face today. New Urbanism is a development strategy that addresses these issues and more by creating communities that are livable, walkable, & sustainable, while raising the quality of life." -NewUrbanism.org
Article / Paper / Report
Traditional Neighborhoods: Street Design and Connectivity
This image-intensive document emphasizes design principles
like compact mixed uses, high-density and diverse housing, infill development vs. suburban expansion, pedestrian- and bicycle-oriented street systems, interconnected multimodal street system, walkable destinations (centers), trip-linking opportunities, and synergy through mix of uses.
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Congress for New Urbanism (CNU)
Article / Paper / Report
Ped Sheds
Walkable catchments, sometimes referred to as "ped sheds," can be mapped to
show the actual area within a five-minute walking distance from a neighborhood or town
center or within ten minutes from any major transportation stop such as a rail
station. Measuring the walkable catchment is simply a technique for evaluating
how easy it is to move through an urban
area and access neighborhood centers or
transit facilities. The resulting maps are
visual, highly accurate estimates of an
areaﾒs walkability.
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Congress for New Urbanism (CNU)
Article / Paper / Report
CNU Transportation Tech Sheet: Traffic Calming
Traffic calming is quickly becoming the common term for addressing a wide range
of citizen concerns that traffic engineers have grappled with for years. It includes
a large number of tools used to achieve several specific objectives, including slowing
traffic speeds, reducing cut-through traffic and traffic-related noise, improving the
aesthetics of the street, and increasing safety for pedestrians,
bicyclists, and vehicles.
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Congress for New Urbanism (CNU)
Article / Paper / Report
Transforming Main Street Retail
The success of Main Street fundamentally depends on its ability to be a good pedestrian street.
The most important requirements include making pedestrians feel comfortable to shop, providing
interesting things for them to see, and generating pedestrian activity. The goal is to have people
buy more, enjoy themselves, and return with their friends. Main Street is the living room of the
community, the focus of pride and identity.
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Congress for New Urbanism (CNU)
Article / Paper / Report
Modal Alternatives for Transit-Oriented Communities
This paper compiles, in concise form, descriptions of the
transportation modes and families in use today, particularly those classified as public transportation.
Moreover, an emphasis is placed on the fit between forms of public transportation and forms
of urban development. For simplicity, three types of development are cited herein: (1) the neighborhood,
an urbanized area containing a concentration of residences and supporting activities; (2)
the district, an urbanized area specialized around one predominant activity; and (3) the corridor, an
area between the boundaries of neighborhoods and districts.
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Congress for New Urbanism (CNU)
Article / Paper / Report
Charter of the New Urbanism
New Urbanism advocates "the restructuring of public policy and development
practices to support the following principles: neighborhoods should
be diverse in use and population; communities should be designed for
the pedestrian and transit as well as the car; cities and towns should
be shaped by physically defined and universally accessible public spaces
and community institutions; urban places should be framed by
architecture and landscape design that celebrate local history, climate,
ecology, and building practice." -Charter of the New Urbanism
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Congress for New Urbanism (CNU)
Article / Paper / Report
Design Guidance for Great Streets: Addressing Context Sensitivity for Major Urban Streets
This paper presents the progress of a joint project of the Institute of Transportation Engineers
and the Congress for the New Urbanism. Together, the two organizations are working to prepare
guidance for context sensitive design of major urban streets, drawing on principles and
techniques from the new urbanist and smart growth movements. New urbanism is a movement
in planning, design and development that is re-establishing compact, walkable and
environmentally sustainable neighborhoods, cities and towns. Smart growth is an approach to
development and conservation that advocates, among other objectives, strengthening and
directing development toward existing communities and fostering distinctive and attractive
places. Streets that are both beautiful and functional -- great streets -- will advance the
objectives of both movements as well as the practice of context sensitive design.
In addition to addressing design criteria in the project's deliverables, CNU and ITE will be
working in three areas crucial to implementation of our principles at scales from the region to the
building: network design; understanding of context and community character; and revisions to
the functional class system. Work on these topics by a multidisciplinary group of CNU and ITE
member-practitioners is in its earliest stages. This paper introduces the project in its "project
history and overview" section and then presents findings of initial work on a literature review
being conducted as a project start-up task. The emphasis of the literature review is evaluation of
conventional and innovative street design resources to assess their contributions to the project's
aims.
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Institute of Transportation Engineers
Congress for New Urbanism (CNU)
