Free curb parking in a crowded city presents a classic common problem: no one owns it and everyone can use it.
Explore Urban Planning Courses
Discover hundreds of courses, with new courses added weekly.
Our most popular courses
43 Mins
- AICP CM
- CNU-A
- SACPLAN CPD
57 Mins
- AIA CES
- AICP CM
- CNU-A
- SACPLAN CPD
Learn from urban planning courses taught by trusted professionals
Choose from affordable subscription options to access hundreds of online courses
Maintain professional certifications like AICP CM and CNU-A
Take course quizzes and earn certificates of completion
Featured Courses
-
Donald Shoup56 Mins -
Meredith JohnsonThe final course of the Historic Preservation track traces the history of American architectural styles and discusses how to identify styles for historic preservation projects. The course discusses the differences between high style and vernacular architecture and review examples of both.71 Mins -
The film "City Dreamers," directed by Joseph Hillel and released in 2018, tells the story of four women designers who worked to shape North American cities throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century.
81 Mins -
Lynn Richards, Susan HendersonZoning and codes represent the very DNA of communities. They dictate how tall buildings can be, where parking goes, and how much landscaping is required.
59 Mins -
Daniel ParolekThe "Missing Middle" is a range of multi-unit or clustered housing types compatible in scale with single-family homes. Missing Middle housing has the benefit of meeting the growing demand for walkable urban living.
72 Mins
Thousands have used Planetizen Courses
Very dynamic class! Loved the videos and graphs. ("Transportation Planning")
Rachel B.
Loved the content, the presentation, the dynamic speaker! Ending with a call to action, with specific action steps or recommendations, was a fantastic way to make this content applicable. ("Planning for the Autonomous Future")
Megan O.
I can't believe how much I've learned just from these online courses. It's a really great introduction to concepts, with exercises that help you contextualize the learnings.
Lissie R.
As a mother of two young kids, many of the training classes that can receive CM credit from other providers is more than I can afford. Thank you for offering high quality planning classes at a reasonable cost.
Renee L.
Planetizen Courses provides an accessible overview of practical skills that will make each of us more effective and creative planners. Thank you!
Jenni E.
Browse All Courses
Introduction to Resilience Planning
Instructor: Chris Holtkamp
This course introduces key concepts of resilience planning and explains how to incorporate resilience planning in communities.
Right of Way: How Racial and Class Disparities Created a Silent Epidemic of Pedestrian Deaths
This course presents a panel discussion hosted by the Security and Sustainability Forum and Island Press in September 2020.
Parking Benefit Districts
Instructor: Donald Shoup
Cities that manage their curb parking as valuable real estate can stop subsidizing congestion, pollution, and carbon emissions. Parking Benefit Districts may be the simplest, cheapest, and fastest way to improve cities, protect the environment, and promote economic and social justice.
The High Cost Of Minimum Parking Requirements
Instructor: Donald Shoup
In The High Cost of Free Parking, course instructor Donald Shoup argued that minimum parking requirements subsidize cars, increase traffic congestion, pollute the air, encourage sprawl, increase housing costs, degrade urban design, prevent walkability, damage the economy, and penalize people who cannot afford a car.
Historic Preservation: How-to Guide
Instructor: Meredith Johnson
This course discusses how planners contribute to the preservation of historic resources.
The Government’s Role in Historic Preservation
Instructor: Meredith Johnson
This course takes an in-depth look at the role of federal, state, and local governments in historic preservation. The course examines regulations, funding, and tax relief.
Introduction to Historic Preservation
Instructor: Meredith Johnson
This course will introduce planners to the basics of historic preservation including the beginning of the historic preservation movement, the legal precedent for preservation, and the theories that determine how preservation occurs. This course will use case studies to further illustrate the topics discussed.
Donald Shoup Explains Parking Reform
Instructor: Donald Shoup
Donald Shoup, distinguished research professor in the Department of Urban Planning at UCLA, is shown in this video making a typically funny and engaging presentation at CNU 27 Louisville in 2019. In the presentation, Shoup lays out the key aspects of the parking reforms from his seminal book, The High Cost of Free Parking (2005) and the follow up, Parking and the City (2018).
Designing the Megaregion
Instructor: Jonathan Barnett
Current megaregion development is destabilizing the natural environment, causing gridlock on highways and congestion at airports, and making cities and suburbs separate and unequal. This course discusses how we can change these trends and invest in megaregions to improve planning and development outcomes developing and older areas.
The Future of Cities After COVID-19
Instructor: James Brasuell
This virtual panel discussion focuses on the potential for the COVID-19 pandemic to influence the development, demographic, and environmental trends of the future. Speakers: Allison Arieff, William Fulton, Scott Frazier, and Mariela Alfonzo. Moderator: James Brasuell.
The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces
What makes good public spaces work, and why are some public spaces underused? Over the course of this film, William Whyte details insights into seven basic factors of successful public spaces: suitable space, interaction with the street, the sun, food, water, trees, and, finally, a term Whyte calls triangulation, or the ability of a public space to bring people together.
Incremental Code Reform: Enabling Better Places
Instructor: Lynn Richards
The Congress for the New Urbanism’s Project for Code Reform streamlines the zoning code reform process by providing local governments with place-specific incremental zoning code changes that address the most problematic barriers first, build political will, and ultimately create more walkable, prosperous, and equitable places.
The YIMBY Movement: Opportunities and Challenges for Planners
Instructor: Mark Vallianatos
Yes In My Back Yard, most commonly referred to as YIMBY, is a grassroots social movement advocating for an increase in housing development at the regional, city, and neighborhood levels. This course examines YIMBY organizational structures and the roots, goals, setbacks, successes, and tactics of the movement.
Transportation Planning: Travel Behavior Principles and Modelling Approaches
Instructor: Richard Willson
This course provides an overview and critique of the four-step model used in transportation planning. By the end of this course, viewers will be able to conceptualize how transportation models can address contemporary problems in transportation planning, such as transit-oriented development.
Transportation Planning: Land Use and Transportation Systems
Instructor: Richard Willson
This course includes a brief history of how land use and transportation have co-evolved over the last 150 years and reviews the roles of transportation systems and technology in influencing land value and locational decision.
Transportation Planning: Effects on the Environment, Health, and Social Justice
Instructor: Richard Willson
This course discusses the local and global impacts of transportation systems and the mitigation of those impacts. The course also identifies prospects for change, as achieved by technology, transportation management, and pricing.
The Ethics of Disruptive Transportation Technologies
Instructor: Carol D. Barrett
This course discusses the process for making ethical decisions as part of planning for disruptive technologies.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
Instructor: Emily Talen
Urban planners and urban designers are interested in building places that embody beauty and hope. In this course, Emily Talen, PhD, FAICP, presents free urban design software tools that can help urban planners and urban designers visualize changes in the built environment to support the overarching goal of creating better places.
Transit Service Design 101
Instructor: Emily Yasukochi
In this course, we will review the principles of transit service design, how resources are allocated and accounted for, and using the Remix software platform, we will design and evaluate a new transit route.
Start Learning with Planetizen Courses
Choose from affordable subscription options to access hundreds of online courses today.
Subscribe