“I think one of the most important things is that actual citizens will learn about urban planning so that they will be able to influence those decisions and not just accept them as coming from above.”
City life, it’s a wonderful thing. So much to do, so much to see, great transit to get you there. OR it can be the worst thing. A never-ending congestion of cars and people, a cacophony of man made noise, and the smell…that terrible terrible smell. Unlike what we may think, a lot of this is not left up to the eye of the beholder, or what day you decide to visit. Rather, it’s almost completely up to people like today’s guest. Lior is an urban planner for one of the most forward thinking, awesome, bicycle and pedestrian friendly cities in the whole world. He explains just how important urban planning is for making city (and suburb) life livable, wonderful, or downright terrible.
“A lot of apartments are empty now due to renting on airbnb to tourists, and it’s changing the way we need to plan facilities in cities. If a neighborhood is only home to airbnb apartments then schools are going to be empty in that neighborhood.”
“After the car was introduced many city ruined streets. They changed the layouts of neighborhoods to fit a car and it’s not such an easy task to bring the bicycles and pedestrians back.”
Interview Contents
2:45 - The types of urban planning.
6:30 - Lior’s specialty.
9:45 - Differing goals between various planners.
13:30 - Lior’s bicycle friendly city.
16:00 - Can you retrofit a city to be bicycle friendly?
23:00 - The benefits of building a city around pedestrians and cyclists.
29:30 - Lior’s start in urban planning.
33:00 - Tech and urban planning.
35:00 - The coolest city Lior has ever been to.
36:00 - Things we can notice in city planning.
Links
Brought to you by Lior:
- Groningen - a Dutch town of 200,000 residents which is a cycling heaven
- Video - http://www.streetfilms.org/groningen-the-worlds-cycling-city/
- This is how Groningen looks like at rush hours - https://twitter.com/velotropolis/status/634326925155139584
- Guardian article - https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jul/29/how-groningen-invented-a-cycling-template-for-cities-all-over-the-world
- A piece I wrote about what makes it great for urbanists - http://www.newcitiesfoundation.org/blog-why-urbanists-should-start-learning-from-small-cities-the-groningen-case/
- Velotropolis - a new initiative I stated, sharing knowledge about cycling to other cities. I hope cities can learn from Groningen to become also cycling heavens: http://velotropolis.nl/
- My latest planning project - a sports field/playground planned together with the neighbors. Was just opened couple weeks ago. http://www.oogstgroningen.nl/glimpse/urban-gym-playground-oosterkade
- Some popular posts from LVBLCITY:
This Episode Was Made With The Support Of
Brittany & Matt Marcotte
Michelle & Jim Wortner
Janelle Swanson
Jimmy Seymour
