URBANmedias

Welcome to the first annual Urbanist Toolkit Bracket Challenge, where the hottest trends in urbanism go head-to-head in a conceptual game that challenges the instincts, tastes, and urban design wisdom of readers.

Here's how it works:

Thirty-two in-form tools of urbanism have been seeded, according to their popularity and utility, into four regional groups: the Ed Koch, the Sidewalk Ballet, the Le Corbusier, and the Dandyhorse. The four #1 seeds -- car share, bike lanes, farmers' markets, and the waterfront promenade -- are paired off against decidedly more obscure options.

 

It's the nature of an elimination tournament: two urban design features enter, one urban design feature emerges victorious. At the moment we have a choice between Bike Lanes and Pedestrian Street.

 

The Pedestrian Street easily trumped the Waterfront Promenade, 69-31, to advance to the finals. On the left side of the bracket, Bike Lanes sent congestion pricing back to the theoretical realm, 60-40, in a match-up that many people found particularly aggravating, for reasons that commenter Quinn Raymond elucidated at the very start of the bracket challenge: "The final question is basically, 'Would you rather stab yourself in the face or the chest?'"

(Confused? Check out the Final Four, the Elite Eight, the Sweet Sixteen, or the initial post for more info on the entries.)

Via Lauren Moss