What is Urbanism?

Urbanism is the study of how inhabitants of urban areas, such as towns and cities, interact with the built environment. Unfortunately, the built environment is often focused on roads, parking structures, and places for cars versus the inhabitants of the vehicles, often resulting in urban sprawl. Urban sprawl is the expansion of poorly planned, low-density, auto-dependent development, which spreads out over large amounts of land, putting long distances between homes, stores, and work - creating high segregation between residential and commercial uses with harmful impacts on the people living in these areas.

The purpose of a city is to organize the economic and social life of a community. New Urbanism is an urban design movement that promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighborhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types - focused on community members - not single-occupancy vehicles. Passionate about this topic? Join one of CDFW’s committees at designfortworth.org/get-involved-committees.

What is Active Transportation?

Active transportation is any self-propelled, human-powered mode of transportation, such as walking or bicycling, and is beneficial for maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Many Americans view walking and bicycling within their communities as unsafe due to heavy traffic and a scarcity of sidewalks, crosswalks, open spaces/trails, and bicycle facilities. Improving these elements could encourage active transportation such as children biking to school or employees walking to work. Safe and convenient opportunities for physically-active active travel also expand access to transportation networks for people without cars, while also spurring investment in infrastructure to increase the comfort of the on-road experience and improve the appeal of active modes for all people.

If you are interested in learning more about active transportation and the development of safe spaces created to encourage active transportation, save the date for our upcoming Urban Design Talk: “Trails and Open Spaces” on June 23. Registration link coming soon.

Sources:

https://www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces/transportation/promote_strategy.htm#:~:text=Active%20transportation%20is%20any%20self,conditions%20in%20the%20United%20States.

What is Community Design?

Community design is a movement focused on creating and managing people’s lived environments through an inclusive and equitable lens. It promotes change to the built environment from the neighborhood to the regional scale. It aims to meet community needs through community participatory decision-making at all levels. Community design helps establish active partnerships with community residents and institutions to advocate and develop strategies for improving quality of life. A commitment to diversity and listening to the different voices in a community are core values of community design.

Community Design Fort Worth (CDFW) believes this type of engagement can elevate the level of design in our community, improve the lives of its citizens and create a community that succeeds in providing something for everyone.

To learn firsthand how CDFW is gathering community voices to better serve the Fort Worth Community, register for our first Urban Design Talk: “What’s GOOD in Your Neighborhood?” on Thursday, May 20, at designfortworth.org/urban-design-talks.