Trees play a critical role in mitigating extreme heat, a growing and deadly impact of climate change. Research suggests that increasing tree canopy in the most heat-vulnerable neighborhoods could save up to half of the lives lost to heat-related incidents. However, tree planting in Los Angeles faces challenges such as its extensive roadways, semi-arid climate, and socioeconomic disparities.

In response, UCLA researcher Edith de Guzman co-founded the Los Angeles Urban Forest Equity Collective, bringing together forestry experts, city officials, community organizations, and researchers to address the legacy of underinvestment in certain neighborhoods. The Collective recently published a decision-making framework and toolkit to advance urban forest equity and improve health outcomes through inclusive, practical solutions.

As reported by Mara Elana Burstein, the framework emphasizes equity-centered tree planting, featuring public engagement strategies co-developed with community organizations to ensure resident voices are prioritized. By rethinking traditional approaches, the Collective developed innovative strategies to "green" historically underserved neighborhoods that have lacked the resources to enjoy the environmental benefits seen in wealthier areas. Their work has produced actionable steps for municipal leaders, local organizations, and community members to overcome barriers to equitable tree planting.

As part of their efforts, the Collective introduced hyperlocal implementation strategies for Central Alameda and Sylmar, two Los Angeles neighborhoods with distinct challenges. By collaborating with residents and city officials, the team identified cooling solutions tailored to each area, from dense public housing in Central Alameda to the sprawling single-family homes of Sylmar. These examples showcase how the tools and framework can drive equitable urban greening and create healthier, more resilient communities.

• Los Angeles
• Urban Forestry
• Trees
• Green Space
• Extreme Heat
• Urban Heat Island Effect
• tree planting
• Environmental Justice
• Cooling

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Electric carmaker Rivian is installing charging technology that will allow other makes of electric vehicles to charge at its stations, according to a Smart Cities Dive article by Eric Walz.

The company opened its first ‘next-generation’ charging location in Joshua Tree, California, with plans to expand its network to locations in Texas, Colorado, Illinois, Montana, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New York. The new chargers are compliant with the Department of Transportation’s National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program, which funds public charging infrastructure.

Tesla, which currently has the largest EV charging network in the United States, also announced earlier this year that it will open its charging stations to other vehicles with compatible chargers, signaling the potential for faster growth of a universally accessible charging network. 

• Electric Vehicles
• Electric Cars
• EV Charging
• Charging Stations
• Electric Car Charging Station
• Rivian
• Tesla
• EVs

• Apple Música Uno: Latin music from around the world, focusing on new and current releases, including Música Mexicana and reggaetón, tropical, Latin pop, and more. The station is hosted by Becky G, followed by Evelyn Sicairos and Lechero. Rauw Alejandro and Grupo Frontera have special shows of their own. On-air talent will speak Spanish and English.


• Apple Music Club: Dance and electronic music with a focus on global club culture, hosted by Tim Sweeney and NAINA.


• Apple Music Chill: Mood-focused music for respite, wellbeing, and ease, interspersed with "mindful moments" to remind listeners to find center and remain calm, hosted by Sabi with shows from Brian Eno, Stephan Moccio, and Zane Lowe.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will begin a $10 billion replacement and expansion of its midtown Manhattan bus terminal, the world’s busiest. As Sri Taylor explains in Bloomberg CityLab, the agency secured approval of its environmental review from the Federal Transit Administration, paving the way for construction to begin in 2025.

The new midtown bus terminal will replace the existing over 70-year-old facility, and will include a new 2.1 million square-foot main terminal, a separate storage and staging building, and new ramps leading in and out of the Lincoln Tunnel. The revamp also entails the permanent closure of a portion of 41st Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues, a central main entrance, more street-facing retail, a soaring multi-story indoor atrium and new public open space.

The terminal is expected to fully open in 2032, with a temporary terminal scheduled for completion in 2028.

• New York City
• Public Transit
• Midtown Bus Terminal
• Bus Terminals
• Bus Stations
• Transit Stations
• Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

In science fiction, spaceships moving at or beyond lightspeed enable all manner of universal exploration. But in Earth-bound reality, traveling at the speed of light (299,792,458 meters per second, or 670,616,629 miles per hour, in a vacuum) in a clunky rocket is a physical impossibility. “It’s the speed at which massless things travel,” says Gerd Kortemeyer, an associate professor emeritus of physics at Michigan State University. So, anything with mass cannot reach that speed. And even massless particles are limited by lightspeed. “It’s often called the cosmic speed limit because nothing will go faster than that,” Kortemeyer says. 

Doubly unfortunate for those among us eager to visit galaxies far, far away–even moving at near lightspeed isn’t in the cards. “It’s neither possible nor survivable to travel near the speed of light relative to our good old Earth,” the physicist says. 

Wonky theoretical explanations aside, it would simply take far too much fuel and energy to propel any human-bearing spacecraft up to that speed. By Kortemeyer’s calculations, reaching 99% of lightspeed in a vessel weighing 10 metric tons (significantly lighter and smaller than most spacecraft), while accelerating at a tolerable g-force would use more than 200 times the amount of energy consumed on Earth in a year. And that’s assuming a perfectly efficient fuel, where mass converts to propulsive energy without any heat loss–another physical impossibility according to the second law of thermodynamics.   

The closest we’ve come to lightspeed is accelerating teeny tiny individual atomic particles to 99.99999896% the speed of light in the Large Hadron Collider. 

But let’s ignore all of that and imagine, for a moment, that we could get close to lightspeed. If we had the perfect, efficient fuel source, a ton of it, a vessel crafted to withstand it, and the gumption–what would near-lightspeed travel be like?

Well, perhaps unsurprisingly, things would get weird.

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First, it’s important to understand a few of the quirks of lightspeed. It isn’t just a speed, it’s also “one of the fundamental constants of nature,” explains Kortemeyer. Since the 1600s, celestial observations of planetary movements have hinted at the speed of light. And in 1865, James Clerk Maxwell deduced that light was an electromagnetic wave and calculated its speed, with close agreement to the present-day, known value in his landmark physics paper, “A dynamical theory of the electromagnetic field.”

Then, Einstein turned our understanding of physics inside out. His theory of special relativity, presented in 1905, conceives of space-time as a unified universal fabric, connected via the constant, “c”, which defines the relationship between energy and matter. This value, when he calculated it, just so happened to be equal to the speed of light. This is the famous E=mc^2 equation. 

In the most basic terms, special relativity states that lightspeed doesn’t change, but rather time– the fourth dimension–bends relative to objects’ movements. Therefore, objects in motion experience time differently from objects at rest. At most conceivable speeds on Earth, this isn’t noticeable. But at near light speeds, it would be, in a phenomenon known as time dilation (we’ll come back to this in the next section). 

Plus, because of lightspeed’s unique relationship to time-space, it remains the same no matter the speed of an observer. Imagine, for a moment, that you’re in a car on the highway. If you’re traveling at a constant 30 miles per hour and a car in front of you passes you at 60 miles per hour, then that faster car is moving away from you at 30mph, relative to your speed. However, if you were racing to catch up with a photon, even if you reached 50% the speed of light, that same photon would still be moving away from you at the speed of light. “It’s always the speed of light, independent of how you are moving, which is very different from anything else,” Kortemeyer says. 

Together, these concepts combine to make approaching lightspeed a wild ride.

Colors and brightness would distort and look very different, as illustrated in this 2012 simulation developed by Kortemeyer and collaborators at MIT. The simple game is meant to illustrate the relativistic effects of moving near light speed and is premised around a universe where light moves much more slowly, and constantly slows as you navigate the world. In that universe, though one still wouldn’t be able to reach or exceed lightspeed, you would be able to approach it at a brisk walking pace. 

As you did, you’d experience a visual doppler effect–similar to how an ambulance speeding by with its siren blazing seems to change its tune as it moves. Moving towards an object would make it appear bluer, as its wavelength visually shortens. Moving away from an object would do the opposite, shifting its appearance redder.

Speeding towards something would amplify your perception of its brightness, in a spotlight effect. Kortemeyer compares this phenomenon to running through the rain. Moving fast through a downpour ensures that more drops hit your front, and thus that your shirt is soaked through more quickly. In the simulation game, the proverbial water droplets are photons. Running in a beam of light at near lightspeed means that more light particles would hit your eyes at once. 

If that’s not strange enough, consider what would happen to time. Remember the concept of time dilation? Because space-time warps to accommodate the constant speed of light, a person traveling through space at near lightspeed would age more slowly than all the other humans waiting back on Earth. This idea is exemplified in the twin paradox thought experiment. Time dilation, and a change in time at rest relative to a change in time while in motion at a certain velocity, can be precisely calculated.

If you managed to reach 299,792,450 meters per second (i.e. just under lightspeed), two minutes of travel at that speed through space would be equivalent to about six days of time passing on our planet. 

Often, this concept of warped time is used to explain how hyper-lightspeed travel might work. “I’m a very big fan of Star Trek, so I don’t want to trash talk,” says Kortemeyer. However, the show’s sci-fi idea of “warp speed” to outrun the speed of light is all fiction and no science, he says. “Warping space is a physical reality,” but there’s no way to force or control the warping of space to manipulate speed. “There is no such thing as a warp drive in physics. I wouldn’t know what physics principle would make that possible,” he says.

And to take things back down to Earth even more, reaching 299,782,450 meters per second would be a trial all on its own. When it comes to high speeds, the biggest barrier to contend with isn’t cruising at a constant velocity, but rather the acceleration. Already, we’re moving far faster than you might expect. All of us on Earth are hurtling around the sun at about 67,000 miles per hour. But, because that speed doesn’t change, we don’t feel it. Yet reaching lightspeed relative to Earth would be a different story. “You can’t just take off and reach the speed of light. You would be flattened,” says Kortemeyer. 

The g-force of getting to near-lightspeed would be monumental, unless you sped up very carefully. Humans are adapted to survive at 1 g, the gravitational force on Earth. Most people can withstand 4-6 g in short bursts of a few seconds to minutes. But for longer periods of time or at higher intensity, g-force becomes fatal as our body’s internal fluid dynamics get gunked up.

It would take a person about one year to accelerate to lightspeed, if you wanted to keep the acceleration force under 3 g, per Kortemeyer’s calculations. But we don’t know how long-term exposure to even that level of acceleration force would impact the body, he notes. It’s possible that 12-straight months of acceleration force beyond what we’re built for would test, not just the limits of physics, but our own physical limitations.

This story is part of Popular Science’s Ask Us Anything series, where we answer your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the ordinary to the off-the-wall. Have something you’ve always wanted to know? Ask us.

The post What would happen to the human body moving at near lightspeed? appeared first on Popular Science.

The world is rushing head first towards a new “Electro-Digital Age” marked by high-tech commodities and extractive mining operations. Large, resource-intensive lithium ion batteries powering emerging electric vehicle fleets are already straining global mineral supply chains. Nearly one in five cars sold worldwide last year was electric, a ratio that’s expected to increase rapidly in the coming years. Carmakers and governments alike are rushing to shore up more lithium, cobalt, and other “critical minerals” needed to build those batteries. 

But new research suggests these batteries, once thought to have short-lived, inherently  expendable shelf-lives, may actually last significantly longer than expected. In some cases, properly cared for EVs may even outlive their fossil fuel counterparts. That’s potentially good news: longer-lasting EVs might buy manufacturers much-need time to fabricate components needed to meet increasing global demands. 

The new findings, published today in the journal Nature Energy by researchers from the SLAC-Stanford Battery Center, suggest EV batteries may actually last about a third longer than previous forecasts. That means drivers could potentially keep driving their modern EV without replacing the battery for several additional years. The researchers note the shocking disparity in battery life estimates stems from fundamentally unrealistic testing environments that became an industry standard. When the researchers tested batteries for two years in ways they say are more closely aligned with how drivers actually use EVs day-to-day, the battery life expectancy improved significantly. 

“We’ve not been testing EV batteries the right way,” Stanford associate professor and paper senior author Simona Onori said in a statement. “To our surprise, real driving with frequent acceleration, braking that charges the batteries a bit, stopping to pop into a store, and letting the batteries rest for hours at a time, helps batteries last longer than we had thought based on industry standard lab tests.”

SLAC-Stanford Battery Center states on its website that its ultimate goal is to “accelerate the deployment of battery and energy storage technologies at scale,” in an effort to address climate change. The research paper was primarily funded by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program and the Stanford Chevron Fellowship in Energy.

Related: [ ‘Everything has a cost:’ High-tech products and the new era of mineral mining ]

Researchers tested 92 commercial lithium ion EV batteries over two years across four different types of driving profiles. The industry standard approach uses a “constant rate of [battery] discharge” followed immediately by a recharge. In the real world, this would look like someone driving their vehicle until the battery is almost fully diminished and then plugging it in to charge completely. This process of constant battery expenditure and recharging resembles how most people use a smartphone. 

But that’s not how many drivers actually use their vehicles. EV owners, the researchers note, who drive their vehicle in short bursts to and from work or around town, may go several days or even a week without recharging. The researchers attempted to represent that more realistic, periodic driving method in one of the driving profiles. In the end, the more realistic profile resulted in an increased battery lifetime by up to 38%.

“This work illustrates the importance of testing batteries under realistic conditions of use and challenges the broadly adopted convention of constant current discharge in the laboratory,” the researchers wrote in the paper.

The findings similarly seem to contradict commonly held assumptions about what types of driving quickly degrades batteries. Though many drivers believe rapidly accelerating and braking degrades EV batteries faster than steady driving, the researchers found a correlation in their data suggesting sharp, short accelerations may actually lead to slower battery degradation. Pressing down hard on pedals with a lead foot didn’t seem to speed up battery aging. It may have actually had the opposite effect. 

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“For consumers using their EVs to get to work, pick up their kids, go to the grocery store, but mostly not using them or even charging them, time becomes the predominant cause of aging over cycling,” Stanford school of engineering PhD student and paper coauthor Alexis Geslin said in a statement.

The findings build on a growing body of optimistic research newer EVs may last longer than than previous iterations. A recent analysis of 5,000 EV batteries by telematics company Geotab, recently cited by Wired, found an average battery degradation of around 1.8% per year. That’s compared to 2.3% average battery degradation for older EVs studied in 2019. Those findings suggest battery management systems are improving. Some estimates suggest an EV vehicle purchased today could theoretically last 20 years, which is a longer life expectancy than some cars with internal combustion engines. 

Whether or not car owners actually use the same car for that long remains to be seen. The average age of cars on US roads in particular are older than in previous years though the trend hasn’t fully translated to EVs. It’s possible that will change as EV costs trickle down and more drivers make the switch away from more traditional internal combustion engines. Longer lasting EVs could potentially ease the burden on global supply chains which are currently racing to open new mineral mineral and battery facilities.

The post Surprise: EV batteries might have a longer shelf live than once thought appeared first on Popular Science.

Housing organizations are expanding their role by integrating educational services directly into their developments, creating comprehensive support systems for residents. From early childhood programs to college prep, these initiatives are showing measurable results.

The Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority tackles maternal and early childhood outcomes, while People's Self-Help Housing operates 11 learning centers that doubled grade-level reading rates in one year. Good Shepherd Housing's Career Power program helps young adults navigate higher education, exceeding enrollment targets by 78 percent.

Co-location eliminates transportation barriers and builds trust through existing relationships. Programs like Housing as a Platform, Inc. leverage technology for measurable academic improvements, while addressing whole-family needs. This approach treats housing as a platform for multigenerational success, potentially transforming affordable housing development.

• Housing
• Education
• Collaboration
• Community Development

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Amidst a rash of bus depot closures around the country, one bus depot in Anchorage, Alaska will reopen after a deal to redevelop the site into a hotel fell through, reports Alex DeMarban for Anchorage Daily News.

“The Anchorage Community Development Authority ended the deal with 6th Avenue Center LLC on Nov. 1, halting plans that called for construction of a 12-story hotel on Sixth Avenue between G and H streets, people involved in the project said.” The depot has been closed for the last four years, forcing passengers to wait outdoors.

DeMarban explains that the deal was canceled after the developer failed to meet deadlines to move the project forward. The reopened transit center features new seating and restrooms, as well as customer service, ticketing, and lost baggage services.

• Anchorage
• Bus Travel
• bus depot
• Bus Stations
• Transit Stations

Every holiday season, the Radio City Rockettes dazzle with their eye-high kicks that seemingly defy gravity. During the precision dance company’s roughly 200 shows over eight weeks, a dancer can do up to 650 kicks in a single day. For all this kicking, Rockettes must stay in peak physical condition. While this signature kick is a festive feat of physics in its own right, the math on stage also makes the magic.

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The Rockette’s home at Radio City Music Hall in New York City first opened its doors in 1932. Popular Science detailed its groundbreaking hydraulics system calling it a “marvel of mechanics” in its February 1933 issue. With this storied stage history, it should come as no surprise that a show that has been running for close to a century continues to use some tried-and-true, but admittedly low-tech methods. 

“Our stage is set up like a giant piece of graph paper,” Julie Branam, a former Rockette herself and the current director and choreographer of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, tells Popular Science. “Every two feet, there’s a number and a dash or a solid line. There are also colored lines, so you will see red, green, blue, white, and upstage of each one of those lines is a dotted line. So everywhere you look, is a giant piece of graph paper and that’s how we figure things out.”

Learning how to work with one of the world’s biggest stages–and largest sheet of graph paper–in the world begins before Christmas carols start playing on the radio. Rehearsals typically start in October and the whole show is plotted onto actual paper so that the choreographers and dancers can get an idea of how their dances will look from the audience. For example, the iconic “Parade of Wooden Soldiers” number is seven pages long for roughly five to six minutes of dancing. 

“As we are learning choreography, I can sort of see almost an overhead visual of where my coordinate is,” Danelle Morgan, a current Rockette who also serves as an Assistant Choreographer and Dance Captain, tells Popular Science. “So it becomes a general pattern of where each Rockette is and at what depth on the stage.”

“Parade of the Wooden Soldiers” is one of the original numbers from the show, which has been performed since the Christmas Spectacular first premiered in 1933. It’s a fan favorite, for its military-like steps and the iconic slow fall at the piece’s conclusion. Luckily, math is on their side for such a precision-focused dance.

[Related: This is your brain on Christmas music.]

“Every four counts they’re going to replace the line in front of them and we have 24 counts. And then that spoke will revolve,” explains Branam. “So you can really see where you’re going and know where everybody is and how far they’re traveling.”

Choreographers will also use design softwares like OmniGraffle to create a digital version of these stage puzzles and plot the movements of the 36 dancers on stage. Each dancer follows an individual track, so she knows what order and where to go on the stage. Everyone is also lettered so that they can refer back to the plot points and quickly see where they need to be. Still, it’s all easier said than done on paper. 

“As a dancer, I challenge my body so much, but each Rockette has to challenge their brain so much as well, to understand where and what they’re supposed to be doing and the specificity of it,” says Morgan. “When you step into this position, then it’s a completely different brain game and a different brain challenge. It’s puzzles. It really is just a bunch of puzzles.”

Then there is their signature move–the kick line. Several scenes end with the dancers in a line, hence where their nickname “Ladies of the Line” comes from. To the audience, it looks like everyone is the same height, but that is not the case. 

“The tallest people are in the center, descending in height down to the less tall people,” says Branam. “So it gives the illusion that the Rockettes are all one height, but they are certainly not one height. There are many different heights and many different people that represent the line.”

Since uniformity is key to making the precise patterns that the Rockettes are famous for, the company has what are called swings. In performing, swings are sort of an understudy times 10, who has to learn multiple parts instead of just one. Morgan is currently one of 12 swings in the company and must learn multiple parts of the show. As one of the taller dancers, she covers the taller parts of the line. 

“We know every single Rockette’s individual track, with the help of our charts and the information that we get in rehearsal, so we’re ready to jump in at a moment’s notice,” says Morgan. “If someone has a personal day, an injury, or somebody goes out mid show, we can jump in costume and then give the audience the same show that they deserve every single show. It’s a high adrenaline situation every time.”

The festive costumes might make being Rockette look glamorous, but it takes a lot of grit to be a Rockette. In addition to the precision of their dancing, costume changes as short as 78 seconds, and physical challenges, there is also the mental load of performing in up to four shows a day for eight weeks. 

That comes down to “training your resilience,” putting mind over matter, and importantly, leaning on your fellow Rockettes when you think you just can’t do another kick. The special appearances at major events like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade or Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting or working with younger dancers also help boost company morale. 

“It’s just constantly having that reminder that what we do is something super unique that brings so much joy to so many people,” says Morgan. “I think that helps us get through and keeps us motivated.”

They also bond through games and songs in between shows, a Secret Santa or White Elephant gift exchange with some funny rules, or other non-show related activities. 

“And sometimes you just take a nap between shows,” says Branam.

“Some of the best naps are between shows,” laughs Morgan.

The post How the Rockettes use math to make holiday magic appeared first on Popular Science.

In 2008 and 2018, I wrote some much-read blogs about how to get into planning school. In them, I exposed the nuts and bolts of the process. As deadlines near for this year's northern hemisphere round of applications, I revisit that advice. I look first at the big picture of the case you need to make for the admissions committee and then the logistics.

Admissions committees, generally composed of planning faculty who are experts in the field, look to see if you are prepared for graduate school. Among many factors, four characteristics of your file may be less evident to applicants. These include:

• You know what planning is. Planning is a complicated field that can be hard to understand and explain. However, you need to show the committee that you know something about what you are getting into. Students who don't understand the field, at least broadly, may be less happy and drop out. Their slot, particularly their financial aid, may have been better used by someone else.
• You fit well with what the program can offer. Excellent planning programs come in different flavors. Some are more focused, and others are more flexible. They have various kinds of class formats, different concentrations, and different local contexts. Admissions committees want to ensure you can make the most of their program, have enough background knowledge, and won't be longing for something they don't offer.
• You want to learn. This statement may seem obvious but some people apply to graduate school to get a credential for what they think that they already know. That makes it hard for faculty to see what value we might add. As I wrote in 2018, those who write a statement of purpose "as if they are applying for a job make it difficult for readers to see how they might flourish in graduate school."
• You can help your classmates learn. While faculty expertise is essential, what you bring to the classroom is also key. This need for strong student backgrounds is why many programs favor students with work and activist experience relevant to planning. Such experience will help you have better questions, and your cohort will collectively have much to learn from each other.

To make this assessment, the faculty use the elements I examined in the 2008 and 2018 overviews as well as in a series of related blogs. These include a statement of purpose, a comprehensive resume, letters of reference, and transcripts. In the post-COVID era, many programs have dropped GREs. For some schools, however, these are coming back in part to give one more place for students to shine. Other schools have added more personal statements about what you can contribute to their program.

You can expect there will be some shifting over time due to AI. Programs may start to interview students. The potential for AI-generated applications may be another reason to use GREs. There may be more checking of letter writers or new ways of obtaining references.

One's planning education lasts a lifetime, but graduate school can be an important step. As I wrote in 2018, "Do your research, apply to enough schools to have choices, and see what happens."

• Urban Planning
• Graduate School
• Urban Planners
• Planning Profession

Cal Poly has been awarded a contract to develop California’s new Strategic Plan for Urban Forestry, in collaboration with Cal Fire and driven by Assembly Bill 2251. As reported by Emily Slater, this ambitious initiative aims to increase statewide tree canopy cover by 10% by 2035, addressing climate change, improving air quality, and fostering equity in green space access. The project, led by Cal Poly’s Urban Forest Ecosystems Institute (UFEI) and spearheaded by biological sciences professor Jenn Yost, leverages cutting-edge data and tools like SelecTree to guide urban forestry management. The plan focuses on expanding canopy cover in disadvantaged communities most affected by extreme heat and limited access to shade.

UFEI’s expertise in urban forestry, backed by advanced neural network-powered mapping techniques that have identified 40 million trees statewide, will inform policies and strategies to ensure equitable distribution of urban forest benefits. The strategic plan emphasizes resilience through biodiversity, actionable goals for cities, and stakeholder engagement to maximize community impact. According to UFEI director Matt Ritter, addressing California’s status as the most urbanized state with the lowest per capita canopy cover is critical to reversing environmental disparities and preparing for climate challenges.

This yearlong effort involves coordination with tribal nations, nonprofits, local governments, and tree professionals to create a comprehensive and inclusive plan. By June 2025, the final roadmap will be delivered to the state legislature, offering data-driven strategies to promote canopy growth and enhance urban forest resilience. Through interdisciplinary collaboration, Cal Poly is poised to deliver transformative solutions to improve urban ecosystems and foster thriving, equitable communities across California.

• Urban Forestry
• Trees
• Los Angeles
• Tree Canopy
• Green Space

The USDOT Climate Strategies that Work Playbook is a comprehensive resource to guide cities, regions, industry leaders, philanthropic strategists, and transportation professionals at every level in implementing the most effective strategies for reducing transportation sector greenhouse gas emissions. It provides actionable information for 27 transportation-related emission reduction strategies through well-vetted guides detailing benefits, implementation steps, and resources.

This Playbook helps communities identify the strategies to grow stronger, safer, smarter, and more sustainable. Informed by the U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization, the Playbook emphasizes convenient, efficient, and clean transportation solutions, while also considering equity, safety, and economic growth.

• Emission Reduction Strategies
• Transportation Planning
• TDM
• Smart Growth

The “3+30+300 rule,” a benchmark for greener cities introduced by urban forestry expert Professor Cecil Konijnendijk, sets standards for tree visibility, canopy cover, and park accessibility to enhance health, mitigate climate change, and create heat-resilient urban environments.

As reported by Thami Croeser, a study applying the rule to eight cities—Melbourne, Sydney, New York, Denver, Seattle, Buenos Aires, Amsterdam, and Singapore—revealed significant gaps in urban forestry infrastructure, with Singapore as the only city to pass all three criteria. Challenges include inadequate tree canopy coverage, insufficient access to parks, and issues like sparse planting and small tree sizes that limit shade and cooling benefits, even in cities renowned for their green initiatives.

Urban forests face structural challenges such as compacted soils, impermeable surfaces, and aggressive pruning practices that hinder tree growth and longevity. Sparse planting and restrictive engineering standards exacerbate these issues, making it difficult for cities to meet the benchmarks of the 3+30+300 rule. For example, while many buildings in Melbourne and Sydney have views of three trees, few achieve sufficient neighborhood canopy cover. Cities like Nice, France, face similar contradictions, with visible trees often being too small or too spread out to provide meaningful shade or ecological benefits.

To address these deficiencies, reforms are needed to prioritize trees as critical infrastructure alongside innovative planting solutions like soil vaults and permeable paving. These strategies not only enhance tree growth and longevity but also reduce urban flooding and improve environmental resilience. The study underscores the urgent need for cities worldwide to expand and protect urban forests, particularly as climate change intensifies and urban populations grow, emphasizing that comprehensive green infrastructure is essential for sustainable, livable cities.

• Urban Forestry
• Trees
• Tree Canopy
• Ecology
• Green Space
• Climate Change
• Resilience