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A new traffic forecasting model may soon give cities the tools they need to project how a proposed development will impact a pedestrian’s ability to get around and rethink their decision if the project discourages people from walking.
Romina Ruiz-Goiriena, USA TODAY
Published 3:36 AM PDT Apr. 14, 2021 Updated 2:36 PM PDT Apr. 14, 2021
President Joe Biden wants cities to put more apartment buildings and multifamily units, such as converted garages, in areas traditionally zoned for single-family housing. As part of his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, cities would allow for smaller lots and for apartment buildings with fewer than six units to be built next to a traditional house.
Current zoning laws that favor single-family homes – known as exclusionary zoning – have disproportionately hurt low-income Americans. Many of them can’t afford to buy a big lot of land, leaving them trapped in crowded neighborhoods earmarked in the past for Black and brown residents, while white families were able to move to single-family areas in the suburbs.
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A key portion of MIT s campus overlaps with Kendall Square, the bustling area in East Cambridge where students, residents, and tech employees scurry around in between classes, meetings, and meals. Where are they all going? Is there a way to make sense of this daily flurry of foot traffic?
In fact, there is: MIT Associate Professor Andres Sevtsuk has made Kendall Square the basis of a newly published model of pedestrian movement that could help planners and developers better grasp the flow of foot traffic in all cities.
Sevtsuk s work emphasizes the functionality of a neighborhood s elements, above and beyond its physical form, making the model one that could be used from Cambridge to Cape Town.