Brent Toderian

@BrentToderian • 143,296 subscribers

Global advisor on better cities. City planner + urbanist leading @TODUrbanWORKS. Past Vancouver chief planner. Past/founding @CanUrbanism president. Speaker.

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Brent Toderian

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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 Fouad Khayat

The more people that choose to walk, bike and take public transit to get around cities, the better cities work for EVERYONE, including DRIVERS. Anyone still claiming this is a “war on the car” doesn’t understand how cities work. HT Urban Cycling Institute 🚲  graphic.

More bikes than cars. That means more people moving in less space with less public cost, less pollution, more retail spending, longer &amp; healthier lives, greater happiness etc. In more &amp; more central cities the Simpsons is proving prophetic. HT Adam Tranter

Too often, we call streets “closed” when cars are removed, instead of OPEN to people and all the things that streets can be. Does taking away cars make this street seem open or closed to you? 5th in NYC, 2021 video via my friend Ethan Kent #OpenStreets #NYC

Want a livable, lovable downtown? Spot some of the key ingredients that support one, especially for families, in this downtown Vancouver snapshot I recorded a few years ago. Downtowns don’t just need housing “units.” They need to be great neighbourhoods.

Sadly, the now-famous summer activation of the former highway for cars running along the Seine River in Paris, transforming it into a vibrant and popular people-place, doesn’t start for another two weeks. So this is all that’s going on. Yes, I’m being sarcastic. #ParisPlage

Fête de la Musique in Paris, aka Music Day, is today. There’s literally music everywhere. The whole city is public life. Including on the edge of the Seine, in a space that used to be a highway for cars. #MusicDay #ParisPlage

Just in case you’ve been told that buses can’t operate in cities without a whole lot of turning space, a tight reminder to keep handy from Montmartre in Paris.

Videos

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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.

Remember this? Fox News tried coming after Denmark's social safety net. This Danish politician's legendary fact check shows us all how it’s done. Via @nowthisnews

I suspect this will have an astronomically bigger impact on how people positively perceive cities and “density done well” than anything a city planner like me will ever say. Thanks Taylor Swift. #DensityDoneWell #TaylorSwift

When it comes to achieving better cities for people, a BIG challenge is how little space we have for public life, given the space we’ve surrendered to cars. Barcelona’s “superblocks” show what we can fit if we took some space back. Video by Melissa & Chris Bruntlett

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 — &amp; he’s been re-elected 4 times since banning cars. Pontevedra via @WEF

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 javier

IMPORTANT: As #Davos is back in the news, you should DEFINITELY watch &amp; share this! “It feels like I’m at a firefighters conference &amp; no one is allowed to speak about water.” “You’re counting the wrong things!” With Rutger Bregman @Winnie_byanyima. #wef23

I like this kind of simple innovation for enjoying our city. A Dutch start-up makes table tops that fit perfectly on Amsterdam's historic bollards. There are 38k bollards in the city. That’s a lot of opportunity to be more social &amp; civic. Via Adam Tranter

The recent Paris transformation of key streets to add bike infrastructure is intensely pragmatic — more mobility choice and more trips using a lot less space, lower public cost, lower emissions, less pollution, better public health, etc! Via Emmanuel

WATCH 24 SECONDS illustrating possibly the fastest, cheapest, BEST way to make cities work better. Want people to reconsider personal vehicles for public transit? Let ‘em ride in DEDICATED BRT bus lanes past cars stuck in traffic. HT Jerome Alexander Horne IndyGo

Seriously, watch this short video. To see how to effectively make the case for protected bike-lanes, and particularly how they’re good for business. Or just as a great example of how to speak to any city council. Watch it, then share it. HT Providence Streets Coalition 👟🚲🚌🛴♿🚗🌲

The recent Paris transformation of key streets to add bike infrastructure is intensely pragmatic — more mobility choice and more trips using a lot less space, lower public cost, lower emissions, less pollution, better public health, etc! Via Emmanuel

One of the most powerful things a city can do to improve its quality of life and all-around success is to reconnect with its water. That includes cleaning up the water itself. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo celebrates a BIG pre-Olympics achievement with a swim.

WATCH: Barcelona was never an obvious candidate to be a bike-friendly city. They knew traffic jams &amp; air pollution couldn’t be solved just by managing cars &amp; trucks. It took the pandemic for them to really transform things. ANY city could do the same now.

They say there isn’t room for safe, protected bike-lanes. They say there isn’t room for shade-creating, air cleaning street trees. Montreal shows that when you change your space priorities, you get better streets for EVERYONE. HT Dave Edwards 🇨🇦 for video:

WATCH: New video celebrating another successful season of Montreal’s Mont-Royal Ave transforming their street into a best-practice place for people. Cities who understand streets can be more than space for cars are winning. Via Avenue du Mont-Royal Montréal

This is still brilliant. “It means you spend a lot of money now for a very short-term benefit." “I guess for $300 billion we were hoping for something a little more dramatic.” #JevonsParadox isn’t a death metal band. It’s #inducedTraffic. Via abctv

WATCH: Exact same space. Completely different place. Street transformation via illustration tech by Oto Ozols. If only street transformations were this easy, but they aren’t nearly as hard as we make them.

One of the best integrated public art pieces I’ve seen — watch my viral TikTok video showcasing this fantastic example of place-making and way-finding via light art in a new Central #Oslo full-block project. The light draws you in &amp; takes you in a tour.

An annual U.S. Thanksgiving reminder that you’re not “stuck in traffic,” you ARE traffic. Happy #Thanksgiving.

More bikes than cars. That means more people moving in less space with less public cost, less pollution, more retail spending, longer & healthier lives, greater happiness etc. In more & more central cities the Simpsons is proving prophetic. HT Adam Tranter

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

IMPORTANT: As #Davos is back in the news, you should DEFINITELY watch & share this! “It feels like I’m at a firefighters conference & no one is allowed to speak about water.” “You’re counting the wrong things!” With Rutger Bregman @Winnie_byanyima. #wef23

I like this kind of simple innovation for enjoying our city. A Dutch start-up makes table tops that fit perfectly on Amsterdam's historic bollards. There are 38k bollards in the city. That’s a lot of opportunity to be more social & civic. Via Adam Tranter

WATCH: Barcelona was never an obvious candidate to be a bike-friendly city. They knew traffic jams & air pollution couldn’t be solved just by managing cars & trucks. It took the pandemic for them to really transform things. ANY city could do the same now.

One of the best integrated public art pieces I’ve seen — watch my viral TikTok video showcasing this fantastic example of place-making and way-finding via light art in a new Central #Oslo full-block project. The light draws you in & takes you in a tour.