Strong Towns

“There is a lot to worry about in this world, but Strong Towns provides a philosophy and approach to channel that concern into a productive way of life at the individual and community level. Rather than simplifying issues into “fixable” problems, Strong Towns embraces the complexity and contradictions that make a place resilient and delightfully human.” - Gracen, Ottawa, ON

80 minutes, some paint, and some cones, and you, too, can turn a dangerous stroad into a safer street. In Portland, Oregon, after white paint and cones were applied to a dangerous street, those passing by, and the Strong Towns PDX members, noticed driver behavior changed in reaction to the design. Instead of driving quickly through the intersection, drivers slowed and began to notice the pedestrians standing on the edge of the sidewalk waiting to cross. 

It’s the 1990s, and you’re examining the past—and future—of your midsize, post-industrial American city. Like many of your peers, you have a downtown in decline. Also like many of your peers, there’s an urban highway cleaving your city, a remnant of an era of planning decisions that usurped productive land and hastened the city’s depopulation and disinvestment. Facing a slew of transportation and economic development challenges in 1990, the city of Rochester, New York, decided to reclaim its urban expressway. You can do the same for your place.

Rural areas pose a challenge for parking reform advocates: It’s difficult to reduce the amount of valuable space consumed by parking when a lot of people regularly come to town in their cars and need a place to park. Here are a few possible responses from this year’s Local-Motive session on parking: 🚲 Make sure that other modes of transportation, such as biking, are convenient and safe, so people can reach town using those instead of driving. 🅿️ Consolidate available parking into a single lot on the edge of town, so people can still park while the rest of the town’s land is used in more productive ways that improve walkability. 🏘️ Work with form-based elements to give the town an appealing character and encourage people to move into town. As the town thickens up and fewer people need to drive in, you can gradually replace parking with more productive uses. To learn more, check out the full session on the Strong Towns Academy: https://buff.ly/4dG4chB

Did you know that cities can win awards for their budgets and have great credit scores—even while being in dire financial straits? Read more in this piece, republished from Strong Towns member Michel Durand-Wood's blog Dear Winnipeg: https://buff.ly/4gDkBpA

Tony Jordan of the Parking Reform Network notes that parking mandates rob small businesses of the opportunity to fail or succeed of their own accord. To that point, he believes small business owners disproportionately shoulder the costs and consequences of minimum parking requirements.

What cities can do to prevent traffic crashes: 1️⃣ Make safety a core responsibility. 2️⃣ Establish a Crash Response Team. 3️⃣ Establish a Crash Analysis Studio. 4️⃣ Use temporary traffic control devices for quick safety responses. 5️⃣ Update local street standards to prioritize safety instead of traffic speed. 6️⃣ Conduct bike and walk audits for all projects.

Save the date: The 2025 Strong Towns National Gathering will take place in Providence, RI, June 9-11! More announcements about speakers and the full agenda coming soon. Tickets will be released in late February 2025.

This holiday, give the gift of safer streets—places where your kids can bike to school, your friends can walk to the grocery store, and you don't have to get in a car to check off every item on your to-do list. Support the advocates who are painting crosswalks, putting cones at dangerous intersections, and showing up at city hall to ensure all of these changes become permanent. Support the Strong Towns movement and our Safe and Productive Streets campaign. buff.ly/415La1c

In August, New Jersey first responder Stephen Dunn, known on social media as The Biking Fireman, addressed his Instagram followers from the entrance to Lenape Park. The park houses a segment of the East Coast Greenway, the country’s longest biking and walking route. Where Steve stood, that route is bisected by the four-lane Kenilworth Boulevard. Behind him was a mangled bicycle, several police officers, and an uncertainty as to whether everyone involved in the evident crash was still alive. Steve was visibly enraged. “How do we accept this? It’s ridiculous,” he said in his post. “It’s a highway running through our community and this...this is what happens.”