Moving from Pilots to Permanence w/ Mike Lydon of Street Plans (video available)

In this episode, I reconnect with Mike Lydon for an 18-month update from our last episode in the early days of the pandemic. We discuss some of the amazing street transformations underway around the globe, including in NYC with projects such as the Little Prince Plaza.

And here's our landing page for this episode - for access to the videos and photos

Pop-up protected bike lanes, separated cycle tracks, open streets, and even plazas are some of the pilot projects that we have seen over the past ten years but even more so in the past 18 months as cities around the world strive to redefine public space to be more accommodating for people versus the easy movement of motor vehicles.

Mike Lydon is co-founder of Street Plans and co-author of the book on Tactical Urbanism and he has been at the forefront of not only moving these concepts forward but hands-on in their implementation.

We also discuss some of the encouraging trends he's seeing around the world and he shares some observations from his recent trip to France, including a first hand look at the cycling revolution taking place right now on the streets of Paris. Clearly the enthusiasm is there, at this moment in time and the City is trying to build out a comprehensive cycle network similar to those seen in The Netherlands. Some of the videos we've seen in fact remind us of typical Dutch cycling scenes.

And we talk about some of the exciting work his firm is doing here in the states, including plazas in NYC, an active transportation plan for New Haven, and a corridor project in Culver City, CA in the LA area.

Opening video sequence used with permission from Streetfilms.

Congress for the New Urbanism

Our episode with Victor Dover was mentioned

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Credits:

All video and audio production by John Simmerman

Music:

Various mixes also by John Simmerman

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Background:

Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.

I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.

Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."

My Active Towns suite of channels feature my original video and audio content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.

Thanks for tuning in; I hope you have found this content helpful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2021

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