The Urbanist Agenda

Women Changing Cities is the latest book from authors Melissa & Chris Bruntlett. It's an interesting collection of stores from many cities around the world highlight the groundbreaking work of female mayors, planners, advocates, and policymakers in reshaping urban spaces for the better. Women Changing Cities (the book): https://www.modacitylife.com/women-changing-cities Modacity: https://www.m...

Over the past few years there have been a lot of lies and conspiracy theories that are making it harder to build great urban places. One group has had enough, and they've formed the Urban Truth Collective to fight back. The Urban Truth Collective: www.urbantruthcollective.com  BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/urbantruth.bsky.social Brent: https://bsky.app/profile/brenttoderian.bsky.social To...

Meredith Glaser is the CEO of the Urban Cycling Institute and a professor of cycling and urban transportation. She has found that the best way for policymakers to truly understand Dutch cycling is to experience it for themselves. Urban Cycling Institute: https://urbancyclinginstitute.org/ Meredith Glaser: https://nl.linkedin.com/in/maglaser Support this podcast and listen to every episode early by...

Day Pass is the new Nebula Original series, hosted by Jason of Not Just Bikes. In each episode, Jason explores a new city ... while also riding as much public transit as possible. In this podcast, I talk to Graham Haerther at Nebula, the producer of Day Pass, as well as the cameraman for the first three episodes, about what it was like to make this show a reality. Watch Day Pass on Nebula: https:/...

Rob Ford was the infamous crack-smoking mayor of Toronto, but he was always crazy, so how did he get elected in the first place? Bobby Broccoli is current working on a 4-part video series on Rob Ford, and he shares what he learned through his research. Meet Mayor Ford: https://youtu.be/nACJOKV_YYA Bobby Broccoli: https://www.youtube.com/@BobbyBroccoli Not Just Bikes: https://www.youtube.com/@NotJu...

Brent Toderian is the former chief planner of Vancouver, Canada. He has worked with dozens of cities around the world to achieve real change, and he has some advice for advocates who want to do the same. Brent Toderian on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/brenttoderian.bsky.social Not Just Bikes: https://nebula.tv/notjustbikes See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy...

Czechia just got a new political party called "Motorists for Themselves". But behind the "car-friendly" façade, they're just another far-right political party, funded by fossil fuel interests. Also in this episode: TRAINS! Motorists for Themselves (Motoristé sobě) Party Website: https://motoristesobe.cz/ Adam Something: https://youtube.com/@adamsomething Not Just Bikes: https://nebula.tv/notjustbi...

The EU is heavily promoting rail as an alternative to flying and driving, but while the "big" high-speed train projects get a lot of attention, it's often maddeningly difficult to take a regional train across an EU border. Jon Worth has travelled on almost every single rail line in the EU and he has an incredible wealth of knowledge about how cross-border rail could work so much better. The Cross...

"If it weren't for ebikes, I'd be driving a car" says American Fietser. American Fietser: BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/americanfietser.bsky.social YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AmericanFietser Not Just Bikes: https://youtube.com/notjustbikes See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

RMTransit has been making YouTube videos about cities and public transit for over 5 years. Now with over 750 videos on his YouTube channel, it's time to call it quits. Reece's Mastodon: https://masto.canadiancivil.com/@reece Reece's Transit Blog: https://reecemartin.ca/author/reecemartintransit/ Cinq Personnes: https://cinqpersonnes.substack.com/ Next Toronto: https://nexttoronto.substack.com/ Not...

Pickup trucks don't belong in European cities, so let's send them to help out in Ukraine! Stef from Build the Lanes tells us about why he's driving pickup trucks from the EU to Ukraine. Berr Battalion - https://www.help99.co/patches/nafo-berr-battalion Berr Battalion Announcement Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7tZdrGU_2c Help99 - https://www.help99.co/ 69th Sniffing Brigade (YouTube...

Sam from the YouTube channel "We're in Hell" normally makes video essays about sociology, but he recently went down the urban planning rabbit hole after Doug Ford threatened to take away his bike lanes. Learn what he learned in his research about the sociology of car-brained planning. Why is North American Transit so Bad? https://youtu.be/K7ag0bqGNu4 The World's Dumbest Bike Lane Law Just Passed i...

In 2001, Portland built the first of their new streetcar system, which was a success, especially in attracting new development to the transit corridor. This kicked off a bunch of new transit projects in other US cities, eager to bring their own new development projects, and taking advantage of transit funding from the Obama administration. But somewhere along the way they forgot that there's more...

Los Angeles is (in)famous for its car-dependent sprawl, but there are pockets of good urbanism, and there are people working hard to build more of them. I talked with Ellory Smith from Streets For All Los Angeles about her outlook on where LA is going, as well as our new YouTube channel, I Love the City! Streets For All: https://www.streetsforall.org/ I Love the City: https://youtube.com/@ilovethe...

Canada's housing crisis is one of the worst in the world. But why? In this episode I talk to Mike Moffatt, Canadian economist and housing expert about what's going on in the Canadian housing market, as well as the common factors that are creating a housing crisis in almost every major city in the developed world. The Missing Middle Podcast https://www.youtube.com/@MissingMiddlePodcast https://podc...

Trams are great. They create and enable some of the best urbanism around. And yet the streetcars in Toronto are slow and unreliable and painful to take. What is Toronto doing wrong, and what could other "streetcar" cities learn from their mistakes? Financial capital of Canada pauses so streetcar driver can move tracks with big stick: https://www.thebeaverton.com/2016/06/financial-capital-of-canada...

What should you do when your city won't fix things, even after years of advocacy? The answer might be guerrilla urbanism, aka tactical urbanism. I talk to Bike Curious about the people who are tired of waiting, and just get things done by themselves. Is it legal? Well ... it's sometimes better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission. Tactical urbanism - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical...

New York City was about to roll out congestion charging. The cameras were up, the staff were hired, the metro projects were financed, and thousands of people were lined up to make public transit better ... and then the governor cancelled it on vibes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congestion_pricing_in_New_York_City https://thewaroncars.org/2024/06/07/kathy-hochuls-congestion-pricing-flip-flop-fias...

Level boarding is simple enough: the floor of the train should be level with the platform. But it's not very common, is it? Why? And what can we do about it? Because once you learn the details of level boarding, you'll realise just how important it is. The Campaign for Level Boarding: https://www.levelboarding.org.uk/ Passengers suffer serious injuries boarding Elizabeth line trains at west London...

When a bike lane was installed on Valencia Street in San Francisco, one business owner hated it so much he went on a hunger strike. Bike lanes are almost universally positive for business, so why do some business owners hate them so much? Jon from Bike Curious joins me to discuss. San Francisco restaurant owner goes on 30-day hunger strike over new bike lane: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/na...

As housing and transportation prices are skyrocketing around the developed world, Japan has remained (relatively) affordable. I talk to Greg from the YouTube channel Life Where I'm From about how Japan is different - from transportation to housing policy - and about what we can learn from Japanese cities.\ Relevant videos by Life Where I'm From: How an Average Family in Tokyo Can Buy a New Home: h...

For most of us, autonomous vehicles are this nebulous concept that might appear some time in our future, but there are other people living with this reality today - whether they like it or not. In this episode, I talk to Jon from the Twitch channel Bike Curious about what it's like to live in San Francisco, where autonomous vehicles are around you every single day and there's nothing you can do ab...

Yup. Cars are REALLY expensive, and they're getting more expensive. And yet, most car owners seem completely oblivious to it. Canadians estimated to pay over $1,300 a month to own a car, report finds Car ownership cost me a LOT of money. I'm done. (YouTube) Directly support the production of this podcast, and listen to every episode early (and without ads!) by subscribing to Nebula: https://nebula...

Europe is known for its train networks, and the EU has been promoting trains as the preferred mode of travel. But the train networks are not functioning well, and it's not a coincidence that many EU countries are spending twice as much on roads than they do on rails. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/19/european-governments-railways-road-building-report-motorways-funding-rail https://www....

It occurred to us the other day that we have lived 10 years without owning a car. This didn't happen intentionally, we just moved to a walkable neighbourhood and living car-free just made the most sense. In this episode, I talk with Mrs. NJB about what it's been like to live without a car, how it made more sense for us even with two kids, and about why we'll likely never own one. Directly support...