Planning for e-commerce

E-commerce (short for electronic commerce) describes the buying or selling of products and associated services over the internet or through mobile applications. The most visible vendors are Amazon, Walmart and Wayfair furniture, however, there are millions of smaller entities thanks to the ease of online marketplace platforms. Offerings include durable goods (such as furniture), small goods, groceries and prepared food deliveries. The growth in e-commerce is now reshaping cities, suburbs and outlying industrial districts, as well as traffic patterns for moving goods from ports to warehouses to a shopper's doorstep.

ITE Curbside Management Practitioners Guide

This 2018 Guide (50 pages) from the Institute for Transportation Engineers (ITE) provides an overview of planning consideration for curbside management. Curb space is where movement meets access, however, is not always optimized for its highest and best use. Traditional uses, such as on-street parking and loading, are experiencing increased competition for space from technology-enabled uses such as Transportation Network Companies such as Uber and Lyft, as well as increased deliveries with e-commerce.

Street Supplies Library

Provided by the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordination Agncy (NOACA), Street Supplies is a library of supplies for temporary street installations for bicycle, pedestrian and transit improvements. The library includes a range of materials such as paint, bike racks and planters.

Smart Cities Explorer

The Smart City Explorer is a digital, interactive "textbook" showing various smart city technologies for campuses, greenfield, and brownfield sites. The site was developed by the Smart Cities Council Australia New Zealand and the Place Design Group in 2018. The Explorer is a companion to the Code for Smart Cities guide.

Right Size Parking

Cities and real estate developers are rethinking the amount of parking supplied for buildings, campuses and districts as new methodologies and technologies allow managers to better match supply and demand. According to numerous reports, most zoning codes require parking oversupply, occupying land better used for more productive use.

Transit Transfer Design Guides

Transit stations and stops serve as transfer points to other transit lines or modes. Designing these transfer points to facilitate safe, predictable, efficient and legible transfers helps boost the transit. Note design also includes access to the station or stop, not just a transfer zone.

Protected Bike Lanes

Protected bike lanes are bikeways that are physically separated from vehicular traffic. using curbs, plantings, bollards or other physical separation.

Streamlined Permitting for PopUp Installations

Streamlined application process for short-term, low costimprovements in public rights-of-way. These installations may be demonstrations to test future, permanent solutions.

All Transportation is Local: Guide for Policy Makers

This handbook outlines practical steps that local elected officials can take right away to improve their transportation systems and make their cities better places to live, work, and visit

Quick Build Programs

Junior Accessory Dwelling Units (JADUs)

Junior accessory dwelling units create separate, small in-law suites within an existing single-family house. Permitting requirements are typically lighter than for attached/detached ADUs (e.g., fewer restrictions on sprinklers, parking) and include allowance for a small kitchen.

Green Alleys

Alleys offer opportunities for green infrastructure by replacing impervious pavement with pervious materials and landscaping. Cities can also swap older lighting with energy efficient fixtures.

Laneway Revitalization

Laneways are narrow passageways for either vehicle or pedestrian travel. Around the world, cities and towns are revitalizing laneways as usable space for green infrastructure, the arts, cafes & social activity.

Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge

Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge held playful community programming on a vacant lot to tackle thorny issues such as gentrification, environmental restoration and housing through participatory design.

Road and Lane Diets

A road diet reduces the number or size of street travel lanes to support multiple modes of transportation, other public utility uses, economic development and/or other amenities. Other terms include lane diets (where lane width is reduced), roadway reallocation or roadway reconfiguration.

Popup Sidewalk Dining Guidelines

Popup sidewalk dining allows temporary restaurant space on sidewalks, in on-street parking spaces or in the street.

Outdoor Dining & Sidewalk Cafes

Outdoor cafes and dining extends restaurant seating and enlivens the sidewalk environment. Cities enact rules and policies to balance restaurant activity with the public's' interest in public spaces.

Channels and Runnels

Channels and runnels are concrete or stone lined pathways used to carry rainwater runoff along the surface or subsurface to other stormwater features and systems. Runnels are smaller, shallow systems while larger, deeper channels carry larger flows.

Pre-Disaster Mitigation Programs

Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) programs provide consulting and funds to select recipients for hazard mitigation planning and hazard mitigation projects, including construction, prior to a disaster event.

Adopt-a-Vacant-Lot Toolkits

Cities can enlist citizens, companies and non-profit groups to adopt, manage or put vacant lots to community uses such as gardens, stormwater management and playgrounds.

Popup Work Spaces

Popup workspaces provide temporary, outdoor workspaces with amenities (electricity, Wi-Fi, and seating) as gathering spaces centered on work.

Energy Districts

Stormwater Inlet Retrofit

Stormwater inlets collect runoff from streets, typically along curbsides, and direct water to underground pipes for discharge to a river or stream. Cities are retrofilling inlets with filtering design & devices to treat runoff before it enters waterways.

Height/Density Transitions

City plans can include height step-downs towards mid-and-lower density neighborhoods to lower visual & operational impacts.