I met Neal Peirce at the American Planning Association conference in 2009. He was a speaker at the conference, and according to my notes he commented that we need another 1 million person city to be built every five days for the next 45 years to accommodate forecast global population growth. Immediately after that panel discussion I introduced myself, and what I don’t need notes to remember is that he knew who I was. I had been writing and blogging as Joe Urban for half a decade at that point and apparently he had read something of mine because we…

Take a look at this map and tell me what is missing? If you guessed freeways, you are correct. This is a section of south Minneapolis on the City of Minneapolis Bicycle Map. You can find the online version and printable PDFs here. In this case, freeways are difficult to see – I really had to look to find them – it’s like they aren’t there. They appear more like an abondoned railroad would on a standard street map – there is nothing there but space. You only notice freeways because the urban grid doesn’t cross at every street. Otherwise…