Show Notes:

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 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.

We also 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