Active Towns
Conversations about Creating a Culture of Activity: Profiling the people, places, programs, and policies that help to promote a culture of activity within our communities.
Episodes
In this episode, I finally connect with Better Block Executive Director Krista Nightengale for an in-depth conversation about the organization and how it helps communities create safer, more livable and lovable spaces and places. This is also the Season 11 Finale. Season 12 will launch in mid-November.
Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
👉 Better Block website
In this episode, I reconnect with Sara Stace in Sydney, Australia, for a conversation on how we can more successfully advocate for better streets for everyone, all ages and abilities, and all mobility modes.
Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
👉 Sara's Decision Tools website
👉 Sara Stace on LinkedIn
👉 Better Streets website
👉 Squeaky Wheel Podcast that I co-host ...
In this episode, I connect with Gemma Simón i Mas, a Postdoctoral Researcher at Blanquerna - Universitat Ramon Llull, for a conversation about the global reach and impact of the Bike Bus Movement and the profound cultural shift happening at the community and neighborhood levels.
Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
👉 City Lab Barcelona article by Gemma
👉 ICTA Video Featu...
In this episode, we touch base with Coach Sam Balto for a Bike Bus World Update.
Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
👉 Bike Bus World website
👉 Bike Bus Playlist
👉 Coach Sam Balto Playlist
👉 Park Hill Bike Bus in Denver
👉 Tim Gill Playlist
🤙 This video features my beloved Brompton folding bicycle. I highly recommend buying your own Brompton from your local de...
In this episode, I am joined once again by Vancouver, BC-based planner Brent Toderian. This time we dive deep into the discussion about what should happen with Granville Street in the aftermath of the city's hosting of the World Cup.
Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
👉 Watch this episode on video
👉 Brent's website
👉 City of Vancouver's Granville Street website
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In this episode, I finally connect with Becky Furuta, a former Pro Cyclist with the Novo Nordisk Cycling Team and the parent of a child with special needs who will never be able to drive a car, for a conversation about her first Velo-city Conference in Rimini, Italy, and why it is so important that we create communities that provide active mobility options for all ages and abilities.
Helpful Links (note that some may include affilia...
In this episode, I reconnect with Allison Burson, the National Greenway Director for the East Coast Greenway Alliance, for an update on the buildout of this all-ages-and-abilities active mobility multi-use pathway that stretches the entire length of the eastern seaboard from the Canadian border in Maine all the way down to Key West, Florida. This episode is rich with visuals. Watch on YouTube or on Patreon.
Helpful Links (note that ...
In this episode, Bruce Appleyard returns with an update on the release of his innovative rewrite and expansion of his father, Don Appleyard's book, Livable Streets, as Livable Streets 2.0. We also talk about the legacy of his father's work and how two tragic car crashes influenced his career path. We conclude with reflections on positive trends for safer, more livable streets around the globe and the new projects he's excited about...
In this episode, I connect with Edinburgh-based musician and everyday bike rider Daniel Abrahams for a conversation about his safer streets advocacy music videos, including his latest, Amsterdam, which asks a simple question: Why Can't We Just Do It Like Amsterdam? Indeed, even Amsterdam wasn't the Amsterdam we know now.
Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
👉 Be sure to subsc...
Greensboro's downtown was dying, then they did this. In this episode, I am honored to connect with Dabney Sanders, the outgoing Project Manager responsible for helping pull together this fantastic four-mile Downtown Greenway in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
👉 Downtown Greenway website
👉 My Indy Cultural Trail Video
👉 My Razorback Gre...
This is a conversation with Bike Streets founder Avi Stopper about how our cities can start building Bike Networks Now, not 30 years from now, using a Network First strategy.
Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
👉 Bike Streets website
👉 My recent Bike Streets ride with Avi
👉 Avi Stopper on the Pod Ep 292 and Ep 184
In this episode, I finally connect with Fionnuala "Finn" Quinn, founder of TrafficGardens.com, for an in-depth discussion about the history and future of traffic gardens as a strategy to help create safer, more inviting communities for all ages and abilities.
Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
👉 Traffic Gardens Main Site
👉 Traffic Gardens Info site
👉 The Kentucky T...
In this episode, I reconnect with Eileen McGinnis, Founder & Executive Director of the Parents' Climate Community, for an in-depth discussion about what prompted her to start this organization, as well as Austin's Kidical Mass, Bike Bus, and all things sustainable active mobility as caregiving.
Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
👉 Parents’ Climate Community websit...
In this episode, I reconnect with my good friend, the former Executive Director of the Adventure Cycling Association, Missoula, Montana-based, Jim Sayer. We catch up on land use and parking reform progress being made in the State, in general, and in the city in particular. We also address some street design changes in the works, before shifting our attention to all things bike touring and adventures by bike. We also nerd out a bit ...
In this episode, we reconnect with Victor Dover, co-author of Street Design: The Secret to Great Cities and Towns, Second Edition, for a deep dive into precisely why streets matter so much in shaping our daily lives, for better and for worse, and how, by learning from the world’s best streets, we can transform our dysfunctional and dangerous cityscapes into more livable environments
Helpful Links (note that some may include af...
LIVESTREAM RECORDING: Beth Osborne, President & CEO of Smart Growth America, joined me for an in-depth discussion about the newly released Dangerous by Design 2026 Report.
If you are a fan of the Active Towns Podcast, please consider supporting the effort as an Active Towns Ambassador in the following ways:
1. Become an Active Towns Member on YouTube for exclusive member-only content and Lives...
In this episode, Clarence Eckerson, Jr., shares some behind-the-scenes insights into the making of his new documentary profiling the amazing 34th Avenue Open Streets installation, now viewed as a permanent linear park, formally named Paseo Park by the city. This version was recorded live and then edited.
Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
👉 Streetfilms website
👉 Sara Li...
In this episode, I connect with Professor Sara FL Kirk, with Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, for an in-depth discussion about her research centered on environments that promote healthy, active living, what prompted her to become a safer streets activist, hint: it's the story as we heard from Tom Flood with the Urban Truth Collective, and some of her favorite initiatives she's been involved with there in Halifax.
Helpfu...
New York City is on the cutting edge of many amazing "Streets Are For People" initiatives, and Open Plans is increasingly front and center in this movement with campaigns such as School Streets, Low Traffic Neighborhoods (LTNs), Public Space Management, Intersection Daylighting, and many more.
In this episode, I connect with Sara Lind, Co-Executive Director of Open Plans, to discuss the projects they are working on and their univer...
In this episode, I connect with Ashton Rohmer, a doctoral candidate in Peace and Conflict Resolution studies, who is examining Car Supremacy and our societal acceptance of vehicular violence through her research on the ideology of car supremacy and on reimagining streets as sites of care and community. She challenges us to imagine more peaceful streets for everyone.
Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help m...
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