+1 on fewer traffic lights and more all way stops. I sent this to our city staff a while back: The top ten reasons to GO with STOP signs: 1) They are simple. 2) They put a driver’s foot on the brake (even if they don’t stop completely). 3) They are cheap. 4) They keep a driver's attention on the roadway rather than above it (as with signals). 5) They reduce the need for turn lanes (and therefore more space for continuous bike lanes?). 6) They are easily installed/moved/relocated. 7) They meter traffic. 8) They disincentivize cut-through traffic. 9) They still work during a power/data outage. 10) They passively prioritize pedestrians (which makes a whole lot of sense in pedestrian areas :-) Yours sincerely, Not a Traffic Engineer

Urban planning interfaces with several big areas including: equity health mental health social connection traffic safety housing crisis climate preservation of farmlands and wildlands finance politics psychology Probably more.

Wonderful chat, but Jeff's understanding of our nomadic history seems somewhat misunderstood to me. I'm no anthropologist either, but having read James C. Scott's Against The Grain and David Graeber and David Wengrow's The Dawn of Everything, I've the impression that it is well accepted in anthropology that we mostly really did not walk that much at all, even as "nomads". Largely we got along quite well being mostly sedentary or seasonally mobile, doing laissez faire agriculture and hunting... That myth about us coving miles upon miles until we settled down and invented agriculture is a misunderstanding and a myth that was perpetuated by the early states, to whom the myth of the stupid, restless, hard working savage was a crucial part of keeping people as sedentary farmers... So yes, of course we walked more than we do today... but it was mostly trips of an hour or a few away from camp and back again... Anyway, I'd guess you guys know James Scott as the writer of Seeing Like a State... It's quite on topic, when the topic is cities for people, and by people...