We rise above temptation, and offer without comment the following passage from Martin Laplante, Evidence-Based Urban Planning, Planetizen, November 1, 2010:
“If you do a web search for the term ‘evidence-based medicine’, you will find 1.5 million hits. ‘Evidence-based religion’ gives 10,000 hits, surprising for a field where faith is so important. ‘Evidence-based urban planning’ gives only 4 hits.
“. . . Why, in a field where so many of the objectives are quantifiable, is there so little focus on evidence rather than opinion? It’s not that planning is lacking in quantification. Densities, square feet of floor space, number of parking spots, distance between certain uses, all of these get specified to three decimal points, but what seems to be lacking is evidence that changing these features of cities will achieve a measurable objective, while later evaluation to confirm whether they have achieved these objectives is typically not required.”
For Laplante’s entire article, go to http://www.planetizen.com/node/46699