How a street is designed
Every street you walk down was designed by someone, usually decades ago, for reasons that may no longer apply. Once you learn to read a street, you start seeing those decisions everywhere.
Next time you're outside, look at the width of the lanes, the size of the sidewalk and where the trees are. Wide lanes invite drivers to go faster. Narrow sidewalks tell pedestrians they're an afterthought. Trees and benches tell people they're welcome to stay.
None of this is accidental. Street design follows standards, and those standards can be changed. The rest of this course shows you how those decisions are made, and where residents can step into the process.
Zoning, explained simply
Zoning is the set of rules that decides what can be built where. It controls whether a plot can hold a house, an apartment building, a shop or a factory, and how tall and how dense it can be.
Most of the debates you hear about housing, traffic and neighborhood character are, underneath, debates about zoning. Understanding the basic categories in your city is the fastest way to follow those debates.
Transit and the shape of a city
Cities grow along their transit lines. Where trains and buses run frequently, homes, shops and offices follow.
That's why transit decisions are some of the most important a city makes. A new line shapes where people live and work for the next fifty years.