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Article share – Planning for Love, Part 3: Enhancing human connection through walkability
Here is the third article that argues for walkability in order to generate human connections. To quote from the article:
“The goal isn’t to design cities for dating specifically, it’s to create places where human connection can flourish. The places we often think of as the most romantic weren’t planned with dating as their primary objective. Instead, their priority was creating vibrant public life, walkability and shared spaces. “
Planning for Love, Part 3: Enhancing human connection through walkability
Source: Planning for Love, Part 3: Enhancing human connection through walkability
Article share – Planning for Love, Part 2: What happens to dating in a car-centric world?
I shared the first part of a series relating the built environment with love (or dating). The second part is also very interesting as it focuses on the impacts of car-centricity. To quote from the article:
“Everyone across both groups said they’d ideally like to meet their partner in person, organically, putting spontaneous public interactions and friends at the top of the list while dating apps and social media fell to the bottom.
In practice, however, drivers were getting far fewer spontaneous public encounters than they wanted, turning to social media for dating far more than they’d like.
For non-drivers, their actual dating life and dating ideals were much more in sync: public encounters and social media use both happened at nearly the rate they preferred. One exception was meeting through friends and family, which happened less often than they would’ve liked.”
Planning for Love, Part 2: What happens to dating in a car-centric world?
Source: Planning for Love, Part 2: What happens to dating in a car-centric world?
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Article share – Planning for Love, Part 1: The link between urban form and dating
There’s this interesting series on the relationship between urban form and dating. To quote from Part 1:
“Even though dating is considered a lesser concern than other social issues, it’s one of the many ways humans seek love and connection. Love, in whatever form it takes, remains one of the most fundamental parts of being human.
So, if the design of cities shapes just about every form of social life, it seems worth finding out whether cities shape this one too.”
Here is the article:
A brief exploration of dating through history highlights how the spaces in which we live and move shape our social lives and relationships.
Source: Planning for Love, Part 1: The link between urban form and dating
Article share: Why Complete Streets Design Benefits Everyone
Here is another quick share of an article; this time on Complete Streets. I guess many are aware of the AI-generated street transformations that are now being shared across many social media platforms. These show street transformations of many sections and intersections.
Source: Why Complete Streets Design Benefits Everyone
Again, it is important to have context sensitive solutions. This extends to street transformations. Some may look cool (AI tools have enabled non-architects, non-engineers, etc. to produce nice renderings) but should be tempered for the street or highway functions as well as the actual volume of people and vehicles running along these.
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Article share – My provocative proposal: Want a roadway safety movement? Ditch the engineers.
Here’s a quick share of an article on who should be involved in road safety:
Source: My provocative proposal: Want a roadway safety movement? Ditch the engineers.
AI for Planners Explained: Urban Digital Twins
We begin February 2026 with an article share. The following article (click the link) is about one artificial intelligence (AI) application relevant to the transportation field:
Source: AI for Planners Explained: Urban Digital Twins
To quote from the article:
“UDTs are already being used for development review, infrastructure planning, climate resilience, and operations. They are not speculative technologies. They are becoming part of how cities represent themselves and make decisions.
If planners treat UDTs as purely technical platforms, they risk losing influence over how problems are framed and solutions evaluated. If planners engage early, they can ensure that these systems reflect planning values like equity, transparency, participation, and long-term thinking.
AI will continue to evolve and UDTs offer a preview of how that evolution may shape planning practice. This does not mean by replacing planners, but by changing how planning knowledge is created, tested, and shared.
The question is not whether cities will build UDTs. Many already are. The real question is whether planners will help decide what those twins are for, and how they improve the quality of life.”
-[Note: UDT is urban digital twin]
Good Transit is Fun
Here’s a nice read on how transit or public transportation should be fun. People won’t really use public transportation unless they find utility or value in using it.
Source: Good Transit is Fun
I won’t be quoting from the article this time. I’ll let you read it yourself and digest the content.
Happy Sunday!
Article share: On AI as a tool for urban planning
Here is a quick share of an article on AI and its application to urban planning. I haven’t written about artificial intelligence here except maybe mentioning it along the lines of intelligent transport systems (ITS). There were what were termed as Expert Systems but AI now (including its potentials) is much more than the expert systems developed in the past.
Sanchez, T. (June 20, 2025) “In Urban Planning, AI Prompting Could be the New Design Thinking,” Planetizen, https://www.planetizen.com/blogs/135418-urban-planning-ai-prompting-could-be-new-design-thinking [Last accessed: 7/17/2025]
To quote from the article:
“Working across disciplines is essential. Collaborating with architects, landscape architects, engineers, artists, and technologists brings in diverse perspectives that can help spark new ideas. AI integrates knowledge and techniques from each of these fields. Contributing to a culture where planners feel free to experiment, where trying something new is encouraged rather than being frowned upon, is key to real innovation. Whether engaging with colleagues or prompting an AI model, creativity thrives in conversation and collaboration…
Cities should be shaped by creative thinking, and today’s challenges demand more of it than ever. Planners are in a unique position to combine deep local knowledge with new technologies, such as AI, to imagine, design, plan, and implement. AI should be seen not as a shortcut, but it has incredible potential as a partner or assistant with encyclopedic knowledge that helps planners stretch their creativity even further. As Wright advises, planners should challenge themselves with constraints to spark creativity: For instance, “What would you do if you had to write an entire zoning ordinance with 10 rules or less to make a sustainable built environment?” Such exercises encourage us to set clearer goals and find better solutions.
By combining traditional tools with emerging technologies, planners can design places that are not only functional but also vibrant, equitable, and resilient.”
What do you think about AI and its applications to urban planning including transportation and traffic?
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How the Built Environment Affects Your Mood
Here’s a nice read as we do our storm watch, and probably explains why when we reminisce about college or university as “the best years of our lives”.
Source: How the Built Environment Affects Your Mood
To quote from the article:
“It is not for nothing that older adults often regard college as “the best years of your life” because in some cases it truly is. College years serve as a gateway drug to all the amenities and benefits of urban-core living — until you graduate that is. Then you have to return to your parents’ suburban home (as many Americans do) and suddenly all the amenities you had disappear. Your newfound college friends might make up for the lack of a diverse built environment. Nope, they all have moved back to their sprawling neighborhoods too, probably dozens of miles if not hundreds of miles away from your town. You might get a new car to celebrate your graduation and your new 9 to 5 corporate job. Work will keep you busy! But you know what else? Driving. No more waking up 10 minutes before class and arriving just on time. You might now have to wake up a few hours early to drive to your job through rush hour morning traffic, and do it all again in the afternoon.
You might also gain weight — not because you are eating more, but because you are walking less. Various studies demonstrate the link between car usage and obesity, showing “greater levels of obesity in communities where the private automobile is the dominant means of transportation.” And let’s not forget that obesity leads to other health issues such as diabetes and hypertension, among others. Mental health conditions such as depression are more prevalent in adults with obesity. Hence once college ends, graduates stop socializing, stop enjoying public amenities every day, start driving everywhere, stop walking and hence gain a little more weight in the process. Then it is no surprise that young graduates feel unfulfilled, and sometimes even depressed after college — for them, it feels they were robbed of an integral part of their new lives.
Our surroundings impact our mental and physical health. Living in neighborhoods with negative qualities can increase the risk of mental health conditions such as depression. At the same time, the pandemic made us appreciate diversity in our lives and what happens when we are deprived of it. Walkable cities are not “just a preference”; they develop happiness by fostering community trust, promoting physical activity, and offering nearby amenities. As learned, these spaces encourage healthy behaviors, reduce car dependency, and create opportunities for social interaction — all things that are crucial for our well-being.”
Based on this, no wonder I love to stay at the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman. I’m sure my colleagues in UP Los Banos feel similarly.
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Caught (up) in traffic 