Mobility

In this proceedings document, you'll hear from our Global Exchange staff and fellows on lessons learned from the Urban Design Study Trip to Copenhagen.

Urban Design Forum is pleased to release Streets Ahead: Five Routes to a Thriving City.

21 Visions of 2021 is a built environment agenda which serves as a resource and a call to action for the City's next leadership.

In 2017-18, we invited our Fellows and other experts to consider the question of maintaining New York City’s essential infrastructure: its open spaces, roadways, subway stations, public housing, commercial corridors, and green infrastructure.

By John Raskin John Raskin had a ringside view when legislative efforts to secure transit revenues through East River and Harlem bridge tolls were defeated in Albany in 2009, when John was serving as Chief of Staff to State Senator Daniel Squadron. Since 2011, Raskin has applied his previous experience in community organizing to transit […]

The most daunting challenge facing our city today is not what to build, but what to restore.

By Sam Schwartz Samuel I. Schwartz came to be known as “Gridlock Sam” while serving as NYC Traffic Commissioner. Since then Schwartz has continued to apply himself to the city’s transportation challenges; first at the Department of Transportation (DOT), and later at the eponymous firm he founded in 1995. In the early 1990s, Schwartz outlined […]

Our refusal to invest in maintenance is a symptom of a larger problem. As a culture we have lost faith in the long term.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to maintenance and no design is maintenance-free. New York City’s DOT is pursuing a multipronged approach to find long-term solutions for maintenance in all neighborhoods–not just those with resources.

Arterials such as FDR Drive and the Sheridan Expressway are long overdue for a 21st-century transformation, which calls for equally innovative approaches to infrastructure design and public finance.

Zoning requirements could help facilitate the renewal of subway stations, enriching the daily experience for our straphangers.

By leveraging public-private partnerships and sharing maintenance responsibilities between advertisers and retail lessees, we can deliver modern transit hubs that combine transportation and retail.