Halloween Costumes for City Planners

Halloween and city planning are two subjects that seem to go together.  Sure walkable urbanism is a great boon for trick-or-treating, but few people get excited about dressing up as Harland Bartholomew on October 31st.  Nevertheless, there are a few creative souls who manage to bring a bit of urban planning whimsy to All Hallow’s Eve. Here are a few ideas and photographs submitted to Planetizen in previous years.

Image credit: Planetizen

Here at PlaceSpeak, we’re particularly fond of this idea:

• Charrette: This costume requires two things: white clothing and lots of markers. Ask your fellow community members to write down their advice and suggestions.

• Bike Lane: Here’s an easy one. Just get some black clothes and some white tape. Make two strong lines from each foot to each shoulder and tape out a simple bike on your torso in between. Fashionable and bikeable.

• Walkable Neighborhood: Simply paint a bunch of footprints all over your clothes to show how easy it is to get around you on foot. Walkscore of you: 100!

• Urban Growth Boundary: This is a good one for making friends. Get yourself a hula hoop and see how many people can fit inside. How many people can your region support?

• Transit Oriented Development: This is the ideal costume if you’re going out with a group. One person dresses up like a bus and everyone else goes as buildings. Just remember to stay close to each other. But if you do get separated, you can still be transit adjacent development.

• Roundabout: Cut out a large cardboard circle to go around your middle.  Adhere fake (or real, depending on availability and your own ambition) flowers and plants to your torso and head.  I guarantee you SOMEBODY who gets and appreciates the costume (most likely a fellow planner-nerd) will have fun running circles around you at some point.

Image credit: Planetizen

Have you seen any great city planning inspired costumes?  Have these examples inspired some ideas of your own?  Let us know in the comments!