People on the West Falls Church Metro Station walkway by Daniel Kelly licensed under Creative Commons.

How transportation choice affects happiness. A tale of two skylines in North Carolina. 75 years of development made the effects of Hurricane Ian worse.

How transportation choice affects happiness: Yingling Fan at the University of Minnesota wanted to know whether happiness can be one of the emotions you feel on your trip to work. Using a smartphone app to survey 400 people, they found that biking and walking best promote happiness, followed by short trips on public transit. Fan’s research found longer car trips are stressful and associated with more feelings of sadness. (Andrew Hazzard | MPR News)

A tale of two skylines in North Carolina: After four decades, the results of two paths for two North Carolina downtowns have become clear. Charlotte and its tall skyline were influenced by an architect mayor and bank owner. Raleigh, the state capital, stayed low and grew more organically and targeted eight centers outside of downtown in a plan spearheaded by former planning director Mitchell Silver. Whether Raleigh will follow Charlotte’s skyline height remains to be seen. (J Michael Welton | The Assembly)

75 years of development made the effects of Hurricane Ian worse: Hurricane Ian shaped up to be a devastating storm, wiping out houses and infrastructure all along Florida’s coast. Making that problem worse was the specific way that southwest Florida was developed through wetland reclamation and engineering. Over decades, the area was transformed by people and machines, making the region more likely to flood with stronger storms. (Zeke Baker | Washington Post)

Importance of pink in Latin American architecture: Pink is an important color in Latin America — and especially in Mexico with Rosa Mexicano seen in crafts, textiles, and even taxis. Because most buildings are built with stucco, they were given color to make them more lively and elicit emotion. Local materials play a huge part in how places create their own identity and as things become more mass-produced, a place’s character can fade. (Sandy Sanchez | Architectural Digest)

A city’s footprint: How big is a city’s footprint? How much regional planning is necessary to create sustainable systems that keep people fed, the power on, water flowing, and emissions down? Specifically, planning efforts like Northern Manhattan Climate Action Plan (NMCA) needs to be integrated into larger plans because creating a bioregional governance system could be the answer to all of these questions and more. (Lena Greenberg | Earth Island Journal)

Quote of the Week

“Maybe there’s a tiny bit more delay for a few drivers during peak time, but when you stack that up against the more than 10,000 people who ride the bus routes on this corridor, we’re perfectly happy to accept a little bit more delay for private cars if it means that 10,000 people have a few more minutes back in the day.”

Boston’s chief of streets Jascha Franklin-Hodge discussing in Governing the changes the city kept after the Orange Line shut down.

This week on the podcast, Broward MPO Executive Director Greg Stuart talks about Broward County, its connections to the rest of South Florida, the historic MAPS transportation plan, sea-level rise and the effects of the pandemic.