How the science of urban planning can make our cities healthier, safer, and more livableThe design of every aspect of the urban landscape-from streets and sidewalks to green spaces, mass transit, and housing-fundamentally influences the health and safety of the communities who live there. It can affect people's stress levels and determine wheth "A great, bracing read for us cultural theorists: the authors really interrogate what evidence means in a complex ecosystem such as a city, as well as what you do with it. The case studies in the rest of the book show off examples of evidence-led interventions, all with apparently proven social benefits: they include large-scale tree planting for health in Philadelphia, light rail ridership fighting obesity in Charlotte and the use of signs in LA parks to make people exercise. The message is a simple one: with the right evidence base, you can make meaningful changes. Like London's cholera in 1854, you can cure a city of its social ills."---Richard J. Williams, Times Higher Education