Chase Hales - Urban Planning Explained
@upexplained.bsky.social
Explaining urban planning, one video at a time.
Reposted by Chase Hales - Urban Planning Explained
To address the housing crisis from the bottom-up, we must understand:
1. We are in a Housing Trap. Housing is an investment. Investment prices must go up. Housing is shelter. When the price of shelter goes up, people experience distress.
1. We are in a Housing Trap. Housing is an investment. Investment prices must go up. Housing is shelter. When the price of shelter goes up, people experience distress.
November 13, 2025 at 11:48 PM
To address the housing crisis from the bottom-up, we must understand:
1. We are in a Housing Trap. Housing is an investment. Investment prices must go up. Housing is shelter. When the price of shelter goes up, people experience distress.
1. We are in a Housing Trap. Housing is an investment. Investment prices must go up. Housing is shelter. When the price of shelter goes up, people experience distress.
Reposted by Chase Hales - Urban Planning Explained
The Growth Ponzi Scheme:
A city builds new infrastructure. That development brings in some quick revenue.
But the long-term cost of maintaining all that infrastructure is far greater than the revenue it generates. So when the bills come due, the city doesn’t have any money.
A city builds new infrastructure. That development brings in some quick revenue.
But the long-term cost of maintaining all that infrastructure is far greater than the revenue it generates. So when the bills come due, the city doesn’t have any money.
November 10, 2025 at 11:48 PM
The Growth Ponzi Scheme:
A city builds new infrastructure. That development brings in some quick revenue.
But the long-term cost of maintaining all that infrastructure is far greater than the revenue it generates. So when the bills come due, the city doesn’t have any money.
A city builds new infrastructure. That development brings in some quick revenue.
But the long-term cost of maintaining all that infrastructure is far greater than the revenue it generates. So when the bills come due, the city doesn’t have any money.
Reposted by Chase Hales - Urban Planning Explained
Parking mandates stifle the creation of homes and businesses. They cost the city money by making destinations farther and farther apart; you end up with more streets and roads per capita, more stormwater runoff to manage, and more liabilities on the city’s books.
November 11, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Parking mandates stifle the creation of homes and businesses. They cost the city money by making destinations farther and farther apart; you end up with more streets and roads per capita, more stormwater runoff to manage, and more liabilities on the city’s books.
Reposted by Chase Hales - Urban Planning Explained
🚨 100 US cities have now fully abolished parking mandates citywide!
Shreveport, Louisiana, pushed the count to the 100th mark! It also became the first city in Louisiana to entirely abolish parking mandates!
parkingreform.org/mandates-map...
Shreveport, Louisiana, pushed the count to the 100th mark! It also became the first city in Louisiana to entirely abolish parking mandates!
parkingreform.org/mandates-map...
Parking Reform Map - Parking Reform Network
An interactive map showing places with parking reforms, such as removing parking minimums.
parkingreform.org
October 31, 2025 at 4:57 PM
🚨 100 US cities have now fully abolished parking mandates citywide!
Shreveport, Louisiana, pushed the count to the 100th mark! It also became the first city in Louisiana to entirely abolish parking mandates!
parkingreform.org/mandates-map...
Shreveport, Louisiana, pushed the count to the 100th mark! It also became the first city in Louisiana to entirely abolish parking mandates!
parkingreform.org/mandates-map...
Reposted by Chase Hales - Urban Planning Explained
A cool natural experiment using cellphone data finds that, when people relocate to more walkable areas, they walk more and are more active. Why does this matter? Because many related studies were affected by self-selection bias, where people who like to walk might choose to live in walkable places
Countrywide natural experiment links built environment to physical activity - Nature
By analysing the smartphone data of 2,112,288 participants, in particular observing and comparing the activity of the same individual in two different environments, we find that increases in the walka...
www.nature.com
September 11, 2025 at 10:12 PM
A cool natural experiment using cellphone data finds that, when people relocate to more walkable areas, they walk more and are more active. Why does this matter? Because many related studies were affected by self-selection bias, where people who like to walk might choose to live in walkable places
Reposted by Chase Hales - Urban Planning Explained
There's definitely been some improvements since then, but even today, more than a quarter of Houston's downtown core is still just parking!
September 18, 2025 at 7:49 PM
There's definitely been some improvements since then, but even today, more than a quarter of Houston's downtown core is still just parking!
Reposted by Chase Hales - Urban Planning Explained
8 kids meeting up at Taco Bell after school. When this Taco Bell was remodeled, it triggered the parking minimums in force at that time, 1 car stall per 50 sf of dining room space. Thus, they had to shrink the dining area and become a drive thru. 5 drive thrus built in 1 mile due to this law
August 30, 2025 at 12:37 AM
8 kids meeting up at Taco Bell after school. When this Taco Bell was remodeled, it triggered the parking minimums in force at that time, 1 car stall per 50 sf of dining room space. Thus, they had to shrink the dining area and become a drive thru. 5 drive thrus built in 1 mile due to this law
Reposted by Chase Hales - Urban Planning Explained
Today, August 28, marks the release of The Shoup Doctrine, a book celebrating the legacy of legendary urban planning professor and economist Donald Shoup, who passed away earlier this year.
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August 27, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Today, August 28, marks the release of The Shoup Doctrine, a book celebrating the legacy of legendary urban planning professor and economist Donald Shoup, who passed away earlier this year.
🧵
🧵
Im always intrigued by the windshield bias of journalists. Many drive to various locales to get stories as part of their job, so they tend to make assumptions that tend to support car drivers. It’s not just the stories they publish but the language they use. Once you see it, you cant unsee it.
A pile of research studies shows that small biz owners have no idea how their customers travel and that they consistently exaggerate the share that drives.
Journalists who don’t acknowledge that reality are failing their readers.
Journalists who don’t acknowledge that reality are failing their readers.
August 29, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Im always intrigued by the windshield bias of journalists. Many drive to various locales to get stories as part of their job, so they tend to make assumptions that tend to support car drivers. It’s not just the stories they publish but the language they use. Once you see it, you cant unsee it.
Reposted by Chase Hales - Urban Planning Explained
subway mosaics get me every time
August 6, 2025 at 3:08 AM
subway mosaics get me every time
Reposted by Chase Hales - Urban Planning Explained
“If the tech industry gets its way, our cities may soon be radically reshaped by autonomous cars. But we are much better off as a society if we create cities safe enough for autonomous kids.”
What a great quote. Here’s to more autonomous kids! Let’s get going Seattle!
What a great quote. Here’s to more autonomous kids! Let’s get going Seattle!
I wrote about the new Shared Streets Law.
Governor Signs Washington’s First-in-the-Nation Shared Streets Law - The Urbanist
# Cities in Washington will have the legal authority to create shared streets, which feature much lower speed limits and put pedestrians first, under Senate Bill 5595. Governor Bob Ferguson signed the...
www.theurbanist.org
July 27, 2025 at 7:31 PM
“If the tech industry gets its way, our cities may soon be radically reshaped by autonomous cars. But we are much better off as a society if we create cities safe enough for autonomous kids.”
What a great quote. Here’s to more autonomous kids! Let’s get going Seattle!
What a great quote. Here’s to more autonomous kids! Let’s get going Seattle!
What a great insight. I think redundancies can be so helpful in pinches, whether it’s long delay, or like a strike in this example
An underappreciated upside of bikeshare & bike lanes: They enhance resilience by helping people travel when other modes go down.
Case in point: Montreal -- perhaps North America's greatest cycling city -- set new records for biking/bikeshare during a recent transit strike.
Case in point: Montreal -- perhaps North America's greatest cycling city -- set new records for biking/bikeshare during a recent transit strike.
Montreal smashes cycling records during public transit strike | CBC News
Montreal’s transit strike has left some commuters stranded, but others took matters into their own hands — and feet — setting new records for the number of cyclists and Bixi users taking to the street...
www.cbc.ca
June 18, 2025 at 3:15 AM
What a great insight. I think redundancies can be so helpful in pinches, whether it’s long delay, or like a strike in this example
Reposted by Chase Hales - Urban Planning Explained
A fountain-bollard on every corner, please.
June 16, 2025 at 4:19 PM
A fountain-bollard on every corner, please.
The real freedom is enabling all modes of transportation, not letting the car dominate the roads. You can still drive in lower Manhattan, you just have to pay little- just like peds and cyclists, who pay by having less safe streets because of how many cars there are
Duffy: "She wants to take people off the road and she's taxing people to do it, raising money for the subway system in New York. But then, to put people in the subway -- the subway is dirty! There's violence. There's criminals. It's not safe ... By the way, I like freedom. Let me drive my car."
April 30, 2025 at 7:12 PM
The real freedom is enabling all modes of transportation, not letting the car dominate the roads. You can still drive in lower Manhattan, you just have to pay little- just like peds and cyclists, who pay by having less safe streets because of how many cars there are
NY is probably the ultimate example of “built out.” How do you build 500k homes without increasing density?
Of note: While he agrees NYC must do more rezonings to boost housing, Cuomo's plan says he'd oppose — at least for now — more up-zonings in "low-density neighborhoods."
The issue has become a political hot potato amid Mayor Adams' "City of Yes" plan.
www.nydailynews.com/2025/04/13/c...
The issue has become a political hot potato amid Mayor Adams' "City of Yes" plan.
www.nydailynews.com/2025/04/13/c...
Cuomo vows to build 500K housing units in NYC over 10 years, but plan’s light on some details
Mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo is rolling out a housing plan that seeks to build 500,000 new apartments in New York City over 10 years, but the blueprint is light on some key specifics and contains…
www.nydailynews.com
April 14, 2025 at 5:53 PM
NY is probably the ultimate example of “built out.” How do you build 500k homes without increasing density?
Reposted by Chase Hales - Urban Planning Explained
Jeopardy! is great, but my real passion… Seattle-area local transit.
The Transit Effect With Ken Jennings - Ep. 1: The History of Transit
YouTube video by Community Transit
m.youtube.com
April 13, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Jeopardy! is great, but my real passion… Seattle-area local transit.
Reposted by Chase Hales - Urban Planning Explained
This video is of an adult entering a marked crosswalk in broad daylight. They are almost impossible to see. It's time for street design that prioritizes the lives of people over the storage of things. Daylighting makes roads safer for all road users, including drivers. 🏅
Can you spot this pedestrian? 👀
When cars are parked right next to the intersection, drivers can't see people crossing the street. This is a dangerous — even deadly — problem.
The good news is we can fix this, with Councilmember Julie Won's Universal Daylighting bill, Intro 1138!
When cars are parked right next to the intersection, drivers can't see people crossing the street. This is a dangerous — even deadly — problem.
The good news is we can fix this, with Councilmember Julie Won's Universal Daylighting bill, Intro 1138!
March 31, 2025 at 4:32 AM
This video is of an adult entering a marked crosswalk in broad daylight. They are almost impossible to see. It's time for street design that prioritizes the lives of people over the storage of things. Daylighting makes roads safer for all road users, including drivers. 🏅
Reposted by Chase Hales - Urban Planning Explained
I have a better idea. Let's give our cities a Ghibli switch so that they are walkable, saturated with color and teeming with life.
The last two are real places!
The last two are real places!
March 31, 2025 at 5:57 AM
I have a better idea. Let's give our cities a Ghibli switch so that they are walkable, saturated with color and teeming with life.
The last two are real places!
The last two are real places!
How many people are killed each year by cars? How many are injured each year by car? Yes MTA could be more financially prudent, but citing violence while riding rail should not be a major reason for withholding funding. It is NOTHING compared to the violence seen by cars
blah blah blah anti-city nonsense, lies that you can easily disprove, and a Secretary of Transportation acting like a spoiled, petulant child.
March 25, 2025 at 9:53 PM
How many people are killed each year by cars? How many are injured each year by car? Yes MTA could be more financially prudent, but citing violence while riding rail should not be a major reason for withholding funding. It is NOTHING compared to the violence seen by cars
Reposted by Chase Hales - Urban Planning Explained
blah blah blah anti-city nonsense, lies that you can easily disprove, and a Secretary of Transportation acting like a spoiled, petulant child.
March 25, 2025 at 7:42 PM
blah blah blah anti-city nonsense, lies that you can easily disprove, and a Secretary of Transportation acting like a spoiled, petulant child.
Reposted by Chase Hales - Urban Planning Explained
A typical European car is parked 92% of the time. It spends 1/5th of its driving time looking for parking. Its 5 seats only move 1.5 people. 86% of its fuel never reaches the wheels, and most of the energy that does, moves the car, not the people.
Sound efficient?
HT @ellenmacarthurfdn.bsky.social
Sound efficient?
HT @ellenmacarthurfdn.bsky.social
March 10, 2025 at 7:36 AM
A typical European car is parked 92% of the time. It spends 1/5th of its driving time looking for parking. Its 5 seats only move 1.5 people. 86% of its fuel never reaches the wheels, and most of the energy that does, moves the car, not the people.
Sound efficient?
HT @ellenmacarthurfdn.bsky.social
Sound efficient?
HT @ellenmacarthurfdn.bsky.social
I agree with some of the other commenters that this was not necessarily the vision for the suburbs that somehow changed over the years, suburbs look like they were intended, which is car-dependent sprawl. But this is certainly the ideal suburb, as in the in-between of rural and urban.
This is what the suburbs were supposed to look like: walkable villages surrounded by green space, connected by a train line that takes you just a few miles to a major city.
March 4, 2025 at 9:43 PM
I agree with some of the other commenters that this was not necessarily the vision for the suburbs that somehow changed over the years, suburbs look like they were intended, which is car-dependent sprawl. But this is certainly the ideal suburb, as in the in-between of rural and urban.
This is for the best. As a kid, I was bewildered people would build in disaster-prone places. When I learned about insurance I was shocked that companies would cover disaster-prone places. But it’s all subsidized by people living in safe places. You want to live somewhere dangerous, you should pay
“‘…There are going to be regions of the country where you can’t get a mortgage,’ he said during his semiannual testimony to Congress, noting that banks and insurance companies have been pulling out of coastal and fire-prone areas they deem too high risk.” finance.yahoo.com/news/powell-...
Powell predicts a time when mortgages will be impossible to get in parts of US
A growing property insurance crisis may make it hard to get a mortgage in parts of the country in the coming decades, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Tuesday in testimony before Congress.
finance.yahoo.com
February 15, 2025 at 9:53 PM
This is for the best. As a kid, I was bewildered people would build in disaster-prone places. When I learned about insurance I was shocked that companies would cover disaster-prone places. But it’s all subsidized by people living in safe places. You want to live somewhere dangerous, you should pay
Reposted by Chase Hales - Urban Planning Explained
NEW: What makes BLUESKY the new “IT” place for Urbanists? It’s pretty significant that the American Planning Association is putting this out there to its huge membership. I was interviewed for it, as was @mitchellsilver.bsky.social & others.
Please share!
@bsky.app www.planning.org/planning/202...
Please share!
@bsky.app www.planning.org/planning/202...
What Makes Bluesky the New ‘It’ Space for Urbanists
Planners are turning to the up-and-coming platform, as well as other social media, to expand their reach and increase community engagement.
www.planning.org
February 13, 2025 at 7:39 PM
NEW: What makes BLUESKY the new “IT” place for Urbanists? It’s pretty significant that the American Planning Association is putting this out there to its huge membership. I was interviewed for it, as was @mitchellsilver.bsky.social & others.
Please share!
@bsky.app www.planning.org/planning/202...
Please share!
@bsky.app www.planning.org/planning/202...
New short all about baselines. Grids on spheres are weird, and can influence road grids. Watch the video to see how!
youtube.com/shorts/pmA6Z...
youtube.com/shorts/pmA6Z...
How does spherical earth change road grids?
YouTube video by Urban Planning Explained
youtube.com
February 10, 2025 at 4:38 AM
New short all about baselines. Grids on spheres are weird, and can influence road grids. Watch the video to see how!
youtube.com/shorts/pmA6Z...
youtube.com/shorts/pmA6Z...