A 1958 Cadillac by Shelby L. Bell licensed under Creative Commons.

Women led the country’s anti-car protests in the 1950s and 60s. US roads have become more dangerous for pedestrians, but safer for drivers. A plan to make schools more equitable in one county in Maryland brings out the racists.

The hidden history of US anti-car protests: The common narrative of the United States as the ultimate car-loving nation has erased critical anti-automobile demonstrations in the mid-twentieth century, which were mostly spearheaded by women. Many of these demonstrations took place in small cities, suburbs, and towns, typically triggered by the death or injury of a child. But as families grew smaller and suburban sprawl rapidly expanded, such demonstrations declined in frequency and scale by the 1970s. (Peter Norton | CityLab)

Pedestrian deaths are on the rise: For drivers, roads in the US are safer than ever—fatalities have decreased 7% since 2008. However, pedestrian fatalities have risen 41%. Similar figures are appearing worldwide, where regardless of national prosperity, almost every country is seeing deadlier conditions for people walking. Globally, almost 700 pedestrians die each day; about four times that number are seriously injured. (Peter C. Baker | The Guardian)

A redistricting proposal brings out the racists: Howard County in Maryland, one of the wealthiest in the country, is trying to desegregate its schools. But a redistricting proposal by Howard County schools superintendent Michael Martirano is being met with outright racist resistance from some residents. Letters submitted to the county echoed harmful stereotypes about black families and old “pull yourself up from your bootstraps” mentalities. (Edwin Rios | Mother Jones)

Wood buildings are making a comback: Cross-laminated timber (CLT), first introduced in the 1990s, has enabled architects and engineers to design tall, beautiful, and fire-safe wooden buildings. Now, private industry is ready to ramp its production of CLT. A plant recently opened in Washington State, and last week, the first-ever New England plant was announced in Maine. (Frank Lowenstein, Brian Donahue, David Foster | New York Times)

What does climate change feel like? Alaskans are experiencing all kinds of alarming signs of climate change, such as vanished sea ice, wildfire smoke, dead salmon, other animals showing up where they shouldn’t (or not appearing where they should), and more. (Maddie Stone | Grist )

The future of the paving slab: Dutch design collective Envisions has developed a paving strategy involving cutting, washing, and stamping stones. The city of Eindhoven previously imposed a rule that all paving should be red, and Envisions creatively responded to this constraint with a wide range of designs. Eindhoven’s city center currently uses about 100 different stones for paving so to create unique designs that still feel uniform. (Amy Frearson | Dezeen)

Utopias may help with city planning: In his book “City on a Hill,” Alex Krieger explores the idea that utopian visions shaped American cities out of a need to experiment with organizing society according to economic, political, or social visions. Krieger argues that new utopias now need to be imagined to galvanize American city planning once more. (Nicolas Valencia | ArchDaily)

Quote of the Week

“The thing that gets under my skin, personally,” he said, “is that this response from FHWA is not really grounded in any data. There are hundreds around the country, if not thousands around the world, and I don’t know of any study that has been able to show that they are actually causing any problems.”

Mike Lydon of the Streetplans Collaborative in The New York Times discussing the Federal Highway Administration’s distaste of colored and specially designed crosswalks.

On this week’s podcast we’re joined by Lily Bernheimer of Space Works Consulting who talks about her work as an environmental psychologist.