My weekly round-up of five great articles for urbanists:

• Threats of Gridlock are Greatly Exaggerated: A look at how traffic studies greatly exaggerate estimated congestion costs and lead to poor reduction strategies (Planetizen)

• Broke Town, U.S.A. Everybody’s suddenly petrified about municipal debt. But the fate of bondholders ought to be the least of our worries. (New York Times Magazine)

• James Howard Kunstler: The old American dream is a nightmare: The peak oil prophet and dystopian talks with us about the end of suburbia and the turmoil in the Middle East. (Grist)

• Cities, mobilized human energy, and housing: In the middle east right now, human energy is motivated toward bringing political change. But what’s been happening back in North America? How has this mobilized human energy been shaping metro area housing? (All About Cities)

• Bad news for cities, good news for urban centers: Some cities continued to bleed population, others gained residents. Regardless, urban centers are thriving. (New Urban Network)