Free curb parking in a crowded city presents a classic common problem: no one owns it and everyone can use it.
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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")
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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.
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Planetizen Courses provides an accessible overview of practical skills that will make each of us more effective and creative planners. Thank you!
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Browse All Courses
Planning for Universal Design
Instructor: Lance Freeman
At the end of this course, you will be familiar with the tenets of Universal Design and how it differs from Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance. You'll also be able to identify tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
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.
Incorporating the Sustainable Development Goals into the Planning Process
Instructor: Chris Holtkamp
This course focuses on the many ways planners can infuse sustainability into local planning activities and policies using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a guiding framework.
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.
Introduction to Smart Cities
Instructor: Amir Hajrasouliha
This course explores the characteristics and the challenges of smart cities, as well as the potential opportunities for a smart cities approach within the urban design and urban planning fields. This course also discusses the drivers and the essential technologies in a smart city.
Measuring Neighborhood Segregation and Diversity
Instructor: Emily Talen
This course reviews the various ways to measure both segregation and diversity at the neighborhood scale.
Defining Neighborhoods
Instructor: Emily Talen
This course reviews the varying definitions of neighborhoods and examines methods for defining a physical basis and tangible meaning to neighborhoods based on the location of neighborhood centers, boundaries, and spatial extents.
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.
Transportation Planning: The Role of Transportation Systems in Social and Economic Life
Instructor: Richard Willson
By the end of this course, you will have a strong understanding of the way in which transportation systems interact with society and the economy.
Urban Design for Planners 4: Mix and Proximity
Instructor: Emily Talen
Course instructor Emily Talen, PhD, FAICP provides step-by-step instruction on how to use data sets to visualize and map the configuration of mix and density along main commercial corridors and neighborhoods.
Urban Design for Planners 3: Neighborhoods and Centers
Instructor: Emily Talen
This course demonstrates how to delineate neighborhoods and neighborhood centers in a given area and also illustrates a sample of neighborhood enhancing design improvements.
Urban Design for Planners 2: Getting Started with QGIS and SketchUp
Instructor: Emily Talen
Course instructor Emily Talen guides viewers through the process of transferring a shapefile of building outlines into SketchUp and processes of basic manipulation necessary to create a 3D model. Learn how to load data into QGIS, set the coordinate reference system, and change the graphic display of data layers.
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.
Coding for Planners: Up and Running with Python
Instructor: Geoff Boeing
Python is one of the world’s most popular programming languages, particularly among beginners, thanks to its clear and straightforward syntax. It is also one of the most widely used languages for data science.
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