New Urbanism

New urbanism is a postmodern American urban design and planning movement that began in the 1980s as a challenge to modern urban form and automobile-centered suburban development. The new urbanism movement seeks to redefine the American dream through the creation of walkable neighborhoods modeled after traditional American small towns. Placing the pedestrian at the core of neighborhood design, the movement proclaims a rebirth of sociability, civility, and improvement in public health through walkabil-ity and physical activity long thwarted by the design of conventional suburbia.

The roots of new urbanism converged in 1993 in the Congress for the New Urbanism and can be traced to two distinct urban design perspectives: traditional-neighborhood development (TND) and transit-oriented development (TOD). Both perspectives criticize conventional land use zoning for segregating urban ...