Brent Toderian
@BrentToderian
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City planner + urbanist leading @TODUrbanWORKS . Global cities advisor. Past Vancouver chief planner. Past/founding @CanUrbanism president. Speaker.
Vancouver, British Columbia
Joined February 2012
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Pinned Tweet
I’ve recently begun a new role advising the City of Reykjavik, Iceland. Stay tuned for some really interesting/exciting announcements. One of the best parts about what I get to do is the amazing diversity of cities I get to work with. Very excited to get to know the city better!
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There’s infrastructure, and then there’s Dutch infrastructure.
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Never forget, electric cars are here to save the car industry, not the planet.
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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.”
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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.”
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Remember, there’s infrastructure, and then there’s Dutch infrastructure.
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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 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.”
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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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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.
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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.”
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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.”
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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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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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“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.”
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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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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.
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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
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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.”
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
http://t.co/8Gxu3kOUtS
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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.”
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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.”
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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
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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
:
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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
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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.)
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Very clever — the German ad says "protect wildlife before it's too late."
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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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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
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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.
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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
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There's bike infrastructure... & then there's Dutch bike infrastructure. World's 1st suspended bike traffic circle:
http://t.co/qFBzQgX4FJ
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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
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“We really need to do something about e-scooters in cities…”
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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.”
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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.
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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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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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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.”
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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.”
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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
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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.”
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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
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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.”
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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
:
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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WATCH: The most amazing thing about this remarkable car commercial, is that it didn’t seem to realize, or didn’t care, how effectively it made the point that cars are a HUGE waste of space in cities. Award-winning 2002 ad for Saturn cars. HT
@javiermalagon
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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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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.”
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There’s infrastructure, and then there’s Dutch infrastructure.
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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
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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.”
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
45
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6K
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
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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
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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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Never forget, a 13-year study of a dozen cities found that protected bike-lanes led to a drastic decline in fatalities for ALL ROAD USERS. And painted bike-lanes? No safety improvement at all. As for sharrows, it’s safer to NOT have them. V/
@StreetsblogUSA
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Never forget, the electric car is here to save the car industry, not the planet.
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Me: We need fewer cars, less driving & better cities.
Strawman: We could never completely ban cars.
Anecdoter: How will I get my kid to hockey or get to work from my car-dependent suburb?
Tech booster: cars will be electric in blank years anyway…
Me again: Listen carefully…
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One of the most simple and powerful city-building projects your city could do would be to transform its street intersections to prioritize people and life over cars and speed. We know how. It just takes will. Graphic via the always clever
@LiorSteinberg
.
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Still don’t appreciate the transformation of Paris? Watch how many people go by, in how many ways. The cars are barely moving, but let’s be clear — they weren’t moving before either. But now people are. Rue de Rivoli & Rue de la Coutellerie HT
@EmmanuelSPV
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"Economic growth accompanied by worsening social outcomes is not success, it is failure." — New Zealand Prime Minister
@JacindaArdern
, quite possibly the best national leader in the world. Via
@the_female_lead
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Elon Musk is right. This image DOESN’T reflect the true cost & pain of the 1.35 million people killed each year, 3.7K a day, in vehicle crashes, with 20-50 million/yr seriously injured. It’s the no.1 killer of young people, BEFORE pollution &
#climatechange
are even factored in.
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THREAD: I’m going to try this thread to clearly state my perspective on electric vehicles, car dependency and better cities, to those who frequently ask me, including media, elected leaders and many others. Here goes. Please share if you think it helps. 🧵
#EVS
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