Global advisor on better cities. City planner + urbanist leading @TODUrbanWORKS. Past Vancouver chief planner. Past/founding @CanUrbanism president. Speaker.
Vancouver, British Columbia
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NEW: “Canadian urbanist @BrentToderian teamed up with the city of Paris and, in particular, its mayor, Anne Hidalgo, on a new exhibition that shines a light on cities and global climate action.”
Thanks @momentummag!
momentummag.com/from-paris-t…
What an Exhibition Launch today at Paris City Hall! As I shared with media & guests, It’s been a HUGE honour to be invited by Mayor Anne Hidalgo to co-curate this unique Exhibition powerfully “connecting the dots” between better city-building and urgent climate action!
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Want an example of a broken system? Florida DIDN’T “reject” the proposal to include a right to abortion in the constitution — they voted 58.2% in favor of abortion rights. But it needed 60% to pass, so it failed WITH A MAJORITY.
Can’t imagine what Florida women must be thinking.
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“In Finland, the # of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” scoop.me/housing-first-finla…
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“In Finland, the # of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” scoop.me/housing-first-finla…
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Never forget that when Seoul, Korea removed the Cheonggyecheon expressway in 2003 & replaced it with a restored stream & 1000 acre park in the city’s centre, not only did it transform the city’s public life & economic success, but the traffic got better.
The traffic got BETTER.
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Never forget that when Seoul, Korea removed the Cheonggyecheon expressway in 2003 & replaced it with a restored stream & 1000 acre park in the city’s centre, not only did it transform the city’s public life & economic success, but the traffic got better.
The traffic got BETTER.
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In my opinion, Pete Buttigieg is the most purely talented American politician since President Obama.
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“In Finland, the # of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” scoop.me/housing-first-finla…
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The values of a nation are revealed by how it chooses, designs and builds its infrastructure. Once again, the Dutch show how it’s done. Dutch ecoduct to reduce barriers for wildlife, HT @beursgram
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Air pollution has dropped significantly in #Paris in the last 15 years. Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s leadership has traded car space for green space, safe bike space, kid space.. and traded pollution for people.
Good trade.
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The most important thing about this amazing Paris transformation is how fast it happened — how fast people on bikes “appeared” — once streets were transformed. You can’t write this off as “Paris was always this way,” because it wasn’t.
It took leadership.
Brice Perrin
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“In Finland, the # of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” scoop.me/housing-first-finla…
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Never forget that when Seoul, Korea removed the Cheonggyecheon expressway in 2003 & replaced it with a restored stream & 1000 acre park in the city’s centre, not only did it transform the city’s public life & economic success, but the traffic got better.
The traffic got BETTER.
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“In Finland, the # of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” scoop.me/housing-first-finla…
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This is @GretaThunberg at age 15, alone outside the Swedish Parliament about a year ago, in August 2018, holding the first school climate strike.
Only a year ago.
She’s not alone anymore.
Never underestimate the power of leadership & bravery.
#ClimateStrike #ClimateCrisis
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Whatever artistic or cultural statement organizers of #BurningMan planned to make this year will never be as important as the statement inadvertently made when all those people in the desert tried to drive home.
The most powerful cultural force in North America —car dependency.
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Never forget that when Seoul, Korea removed the Cheonggyecheon expressway in 2003 and replaced it with a restored stream, 1000 acre park and improved transit, not only did it transform the city’s public life & economic success, but the traffic got better.
The traffic got BETTER.
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“In Finland, the # of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” scoop.me/housing-first-finla…
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Remember this picture every single time you hear someone in your city say "we're not Amsterdam." This was #Amsterdam in the 1970's via @fietsprofessor. The cities we admire made better choices regarding cars, and are still making them today. Better choices instead of excuses.
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The most important thing about this amazing Paris transformation is how fast it happened — how fast people on bikes “appeared” — once streets were transformed. You can’t write this off as “Paris was always this way,” because it wasn’t.
It took leadership.
Brice Perrin
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Paris is investing £225m to transform the iconic but car-choked Champs-Élysées boulevard into an “extraordinary garden.” Among other things, 140K on-street parking spaces will be removed. Bold city-building leadership from @Anne_Hidalgo & team. Via @TheB1M
The B1M
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“In Finland, the # of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” scoop.me/housing-first-finla…
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“Elon Musk admitted to his biographer that the reason the Hyperloop was announced—even tho he had no intention of pursuing it—was to try to disrupt the California high-speed rail project to get in the way of that actually succeeding.” — @ParisMarx @Gizmodo gizmodo.com/silicon-valleys-…
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The most important thing about this amazing Paris transformation is how fast it happened — how fast people on bikes “appeared” — once streets were transformed. You can’t write this off as “Paris was always this way,” because it wasn’t. It took leadership.
Brice Perrin
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The most important thing about this amazing Paris transformation is how fast it happened — how fast people on bikes “appeared” — once streets were transformed. You can’t write this off as “Paris was always this way,” because it wasn’t.
It took leadership.
Brice Perrin
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“In Finland, the # of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” scoop.me/housing-first-finla…
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The most important thing about this amazing Paris transformation is how fast it happened — how fast people on bikes “appeared” — once streets were transformed. You can’t write this off as “#Paris was always this way,” because it wasn’t. It took leadership.
Brice Perrin
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Blade Runner was set in 2019, 4 years from now. This isn't an outtake from the movie — it's the real Beijing.
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“In Finland, the # of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” scoop.me/housing-first-finla…
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“In Finland, the # of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” scoop.me/housing-first-finla…
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These Dutch “bicycle buses” are transporting 50+ kids getting the kind of exercise that leads to better learning, who DON’T need to be driven & dropped off by parents adding lots of local car traffic. Nijmegen, NL video via @MartijnLi HT @urbanthoughts11
MartijnJ. te Lintelo
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Never forget that when Seoul, Korea removed the Cheonggyecheon expressway in 2003 & replaced it with a restored stream & 1000 acre park in the city’s centre, not only did it transform the city’s public life & economic success, but the traffic got better.
The traffic got BETTER.
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Never forget that when Seoul, Korea removed the Cheonggyecheon expressway in 2003, & replaced it with a restored stream & 1000 acre park in the city’s centre, not only did it transform the city’s public life & economic success, but the traffic got better.
The traffic got BETTER.
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This Spanish city has been car-free for 19 years. 12k people have moved into the city centre since the ban. The Mayor says vehicles don’t have more right to public space than people — & he’s been re-elected 4 times since banning cars. Pontevedra via @WEF:
World Economic Forum
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If Buttigieg & Vance had a Vice Presidential Debate, I’m picturing a point where, after JD had been lying for a while, Pete would say something like “Well, if our moderator won’t fact-check your lies, I will.” Pete is one of the most smoothly devastating fact-checkers I’ve seen.
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Remember, Paris wasn’t “always this way.”
It wasn’t even this way in late 2019 when I was there last.
Just a few years ago, #Paris was choking in car traffic.
This is new. This is leadership.
Cities are a result of choices.
Video via @Khayat_Fouad
Fouad Khayat
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Every winter, fresh snow reveals how much we’ve over-designed our streets & roads, & how much space we could reclaim for people & public life. We call them #sneckdowns. GIF via @fietsprofessor #sneckdown
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How to mislead with maps.
(Land doesn’t vote — people do.)
nitter.app/BettinaForget/status/1…
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chyea okRemember this picture every single time you hear someone in your city say "we're not Amsterdam." This was #Amsterdam in the 1970's via @fietsprofessor. The cities we admire made better choices regarding cars, and are still making them today. Better choices instead of excuses.
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What if every city had “Bike Buses” for kids going to school & daycare? What if safe, protected bike infrastructure made them easy? From Nijmegen NL, a #BikeBus developed in partnership with an after-school childcare. HT to great folks at @Cycling_Embassy
Dutch Cycling Embassy
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The most important thing about this amazing Paris transformation is how fast it happened — how fast people on bikes “appeared” — once streets were transformed. You can’t write this off as “Paris was always this way,” because it wasn’t.
It took leadership.
Brice Perrin
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WATCH: The most amazing thing about this absolutely AMAZING car commercial, is that it doesn’t seem to realize how effectively it makes the point that cars are a HUGE waste of space in cities. Award-winning 2002 ad for Saturn cars. HT @javiermalagon
javier
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There's bike infrastructure... & then there's Dutch bike infrastructure. World's 1st suspended bike traffic circle:
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Remember, Paris wasn’t “always this way.”
It wasn’t even this way in late 2019 when I was there last.
Just a few years ago, Paris was choking in car traffic.
This is new. This is leadership.
Cities are a result of choices.
Video via @Khayat_Fouad
Fouad Khayat
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THIS IS HUGE. Paris City Hall has announced that starting on Monday, Paris will limit (not ban) car traffic in the city centre, as cities like Ghent have done. They’re creating a limited traffic zone (ZTL) about 2 sq miles in size, to clean the air & create more space for people.
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Need a visual reminder that paint is NOT infrastructure?
HT @77_mgm nitter.app/77_mgm/status/14044966…
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“In Finland, the # of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” scoop.me/housing-first-finla…
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BIG NEWS: Milan has approved a £200 million plan to create a new 750km network of bike paths linking 80% of the city to bike paths, & connect the city to surrounding areas. The goal is to achieve a 20% modal shift to biking by 2035.
Strategy & leadership.
road.cc/content/news/milan-c…
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Never forget that when Seoul, Korea removed the Cheonggyecheon expressway in 2003 & replaced it with a restored stream & 1000 acre park in the city’s centre, not only did it transform the city’s public life & economic success, but the traffic got better.
The traffic got BETTER.
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Remember, when the fresh snow flies in your city, it reveals how much we’ve over-designed our streets for cars making them faster & more dangerous, and how much space we could reclaim for people & public life. We call them #sneckdowns. HT @fietsprofessor
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WOW — France is offering car owners the chance to trade aging vehicles for €2500 euro ($2975) toward the purchase of an electric bike.
“For the first time, it’s recognized that the solution is not to make cars greener, but simply to reduce their number.” reuters.com/article/us-clima…
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Remember this picture every single time you hear someone in your city say "we're not Amsterdam." This was #Amsterdam in the 1970's via @fietsprofessor. The cities we admire made better choices regarding cars, and are still making them today. Better choices instead of excuses.
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Now THAT’S pedestrian infrastructure.
(You THINK you know what this video is, but trust me, you don’t. Watch.)
HT @AGUSMARTE
🇲🇽Agustín Marte Pérez Córdova
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“In Finland, the # of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” scoop.me/housing-first-finla…
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Never forget, a 13-year study found that protected bike-lanes led to a drastic decline in fatalities for all road users.
ALL ROAD USERS.
And painted bike-lanes? No safety improvement at all. For sharrows, it’s safer to NOT have them.
Via @StreetsblogUSA usa.streetsblog.org/2019/05/…
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“In Finland, the # of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.”
scoop.me/housing-first-finla…
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“In Finland, the # of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” scoop.me/housing-first-finla…
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This Spanish city has been car-free for 19 years. 12k people have moved into the city centre since the ban. The Mayor says vehicles don’t have more right to public space than people — & he’s been re-elected 4 times since banning cars. Pontevedra via @WEF:
World Economic Forum
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Tell me this isn’t the best “traffic” you’ve ever seen. A school “bike bus” in Barcelona, happens each Friday & has been growing from an initial 5 kids when it started. Safety in numbers — do you really think you couldn’t do this in your city? Via @lljunca
Lluís Juncà
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The most important thing about this amazing Paris transformation is how fast it happened — how fast people on bikes “appeared” — once streets were transformed. You can’t write this off as “#Paris was always this way,” because it wasn’t. It took leadership.
Brice Perrin
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This is REALLY interesting — imagine if every decision-maker in YOUR city, elected or appointed, was required to experience just a small taste of what it’s like to be a bike-rider on badly designed, unsafe (aka typical) roads?
HT to @SarikaPanda
Sarika Panda Bhatt ( ସାରିକା ପଣ୍ଡା ) She/Her
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Remember, Paris wasn’t “always this way.”
It wasn’t even this way in late 2019 when I was there last.
Just a few years ago, Paris was choking in car traffic.
This is new. This is leadership.
Cities are a result of choices.
Video via @Khayat_Fouad
Fouad Khayat
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Looks dumb, right?
This is how we design cities.
HT @urbanthoughts11
#CarDependency
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“Adding car lanes to deal with traffic congestion is like loosening your belt to cure obesity." — Lewis Mumford, 1955.
If you can remember, and share, only one quote about transportation, make it this one. We’ve know it for 60+ years.
nitter.app/HowsTheDrive/status/96…
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BREAKING: Paris voters just won referendum 55% to TRIPLE parking charges for SUVs!
“We’re doing this to reduce pollution & to make our children safer because these cars are dangerous. Paris is transforming itself to allow people to breathe & live better.”
theguardian.com/world/2024/f…
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Trucks have been getting bigger, more energy & space consuming, more polluting, and much deadlier to everyone around them, including kids. Not because most of us actually need bigger vehicles, but as ego boosts, status symbols & “indicators of male virility.” HT @PickledEntropy
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Berlin is planning a car-free area larger than Manhattan. The citizen-driven plan would create the largest car-free area in a city anywhere in the world.
Leadership can come from many places when it comes to transforming cities. Via @FastCompany fastcompany.com/90711961/ber…
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Never forget that when Seoul, Korea removed the Cheonggyecheon expressway in 2003 and replaced it with a restored stream, 1000 acre park and improved transit, not only did it transform the city’s public life & economic success, but the traffic got better.
The traffic got BETTER.
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I’m getting some criticism and unfollows for tweeting/retweeting about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the country of my grandparents birth. “Stick to city planning,” that sort of thing.
I’m a city planner, but I’m a human being first.
I won’t be stopping any time soon. #NotSorry
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This actually isn’t surprising at all, but it still needs to said over & over — the biggest barrier to more urban biking in cities is the fear of cars. “A study confirms that if we are serious about getting people on bikes, they need a safe place to ride.” treehugger.com/fear-of-cars-…
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A typical European car is parked 92% of the time. It spends 1/5th of its driving time looking for parking. Its 5 seats only move 1.5 people. 86% of its fuel never reaches the wheels, & most of the energy that does, moves the car, not people.
Sound efficient?
HT @circulareconomy
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Remember this picture every single time you hear someone in your city say "we're not Amsterdam." #Amsterdam in the 1970's HT @fietsprofessor
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Remember this picture every single time you hear someone in your city say "we're not Amsterdam."
This was #Amsterdam in the 1970s, via @fietsprofessor.
The cities we admire made better choices regarding cars, and are still making them today.
Better choices instead of excuses.
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As back-to-school gets closer, enjoy these Dutch “bicycle buses” transporting 50+ kids getting the kind of exercise that leads to better learning, because they’re not being driven to school adding LOTS of local car traffic. Nijmegen NL video via @MartijnLi
MartijnJ. te Lintelo
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Never forget that when Seoul, Korea removed the Cheonggyecheon expressway in 2003 and replaced it with a restored stream, 1000 acre park and improved transit, not only did it transform the city’s public life & economic success, but the traffic got better.
The traffic got BETTER.
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Before you think smart & beautiful infrastructure investment is only a Dutch thing — here’s Calgary’s stunning Calatrava-designed Peace Bridge for walkers & bike-riders. Initially controversial for its cost in a conservative city, it’s been a brilliant investment. Other examples?
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Remember, Paris wasn’t “always this way.”
It wasn’t even this way in late 2019 when I was there last.
Just a few years ago, all of #Paris was choking in car traffic.
This is new. This is leadership.
Cities are a result of choices.
Video @Khayat_Fouad
Fouad Khayat
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Remember, Paris wasn’t “always this way.”
It wasn’t even this way in late 2019 when I was there last.
Just a few years ago, all of #Paris was choking in car traffic.
This is new. This is leadership.
Cities are a result of choices.
Video @Khayat_Fouad
Fouad Khayat
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“Someone with a 1-hr car commute needs to earn 40% more to be as happy as someone with a short walk to work. On the other hand, if someone shifts from a long commute to a walk, their happiness increases as much as if they’d fallen in love.” #CityMakingMath fastcompany.com/3062989/50-r…
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The most important thing about this amazing Paris transformation is how fast it happened —how fast people on bikes “appeared” —once streets were transformed. You can’t write this off as “#Paris was always this way,” because it wasn’t.
It took leadership.
Brice Perrin
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Never forget, a 13-year study found that protected bike-lanes led to a drastic decline in fatalities for all road users.
ALL ROAD USERS.
And painted bike-lanes? No safety improvement at all. For sharrows, it’s safer to NOT have them.
Via @StreetsblogUSA
usa.streetsblog.org/2019/05/…
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Tell me this isn’t the best “traffic” you’ve ever seen. A school “bike bus” planned each Friday in Barcelona a few years back, grew from an initial 5 kids when it started. Safety in numbers — do you think you could do this in your city? Via @lljunca
Lluís Juncà
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“Helsinki has not recorded a single traffic fatality in the past 12 months, city and police officials confirmed this week.”
City engineer credits lower speed limits and smart design.
I agree. #Helsinki #VisionZero
yle.fi/a/74-20174831
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This Spanish city centre has been car-free for 20 years. 12k people have moved into the centre since the ban. The Mayor says vehicles don’t have more right to public space than people — & he’s been re-elected 4 times since banning cars. Pontevedra via @WEF
World Economic Forum
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Amsterdam wasn’t always like it is today. In the 50s-60s they surrendered to cars too. But starting in the ‘70s, they chose to change. And they kept choosing to change for decades. They’re STILL choosing to change, as @schlijper’s great pics show.
Your city can choose to change.
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Do we REALLY want to return to THIS after this is all over?
#CoronaVirus #CarDependancy
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