Brent Toderian

@brenttoderian.bsky.social

176

Posts

City planner + urbanist leading TODERIAN UrbanWORKS. Global advisor on cities, city planning, transportation etc. Past chief planner for Vancouver, Canada. Past/founding president of the Council For Canadian Urbanism. International speaker & writer.

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NEW: Ford’s CEO tells the truth, that the automaker needs a “radical change.” “We are just in love with these monster vehicles. We have to start to get back in love with smaller vehicles. It’s super important for our society and for EV adoption.” Right. electrek.co/2024/07/01/f...

Ford CEO calls out America's love for 'monster vehicles' with smaller $30,000 EV comingelectrek.co As the leader of the over 120-year-old automaker, Ford CEO Jim Farley has an essential job of steering it into...

Denver gave people experiencing homelessness $1k/month. A year later, nearly half had housing. They also had fewer ER visits, nights spent in a hospital, and jail stays. The report estimates that this reduction in public service use SAVED the city $589k. www.businessinsider.com/denver-basic...

Denver gave people experiencing homelessness $1,000 a month. A year later, nearly half of participants had housing.www.businessinsider.com Participants in Denver's basic income program received up to $1,000 a month. They became more housing secure and landed full-time jobs.

BREAKING: The City of Vancouver Council just voted unanimously to abolish parking minimums city-wide for all land uses. Many cities across the region and province have been considering or working on similar moves. This will jump-start those discussions. Who’s next? vancouversun.com/news/local-n...

Vancouver staff recommend getting rid of minimum parking rules for all buildingsvancouversun.com Vancouver staff are recommending council eliminate minimum parking space requirements across the city

NEW: “Whatever your issue is —climate change, affordability, placemaking, heritage preservation —better solutions are probably being prevented at some level by existing parking requirements.” My comments on Vancouver’s plan to remove parking minimums city-wide. vancouversun.com/news/local-n...

Vancouver staff recommend getting rid of minimum parking rules for all buildingsvancouversun.com Vancouver staff are recommending council eliminate minimum parking space requirements across the city

If you widen that highway you won’t reduce emissions or congestion. What you WILL do is spend a lot of public money to induce even more cars emitting even more GHGs & pollution in the same or worse congestion with people still telling you to widen the highway. Period.

BIG NEWS: Montreal has become the largest North American city to eliminate mandatory parking space minimums for residential & commercial projects. The city’s new 2050 Urban Planning and Mobility Plan revealed the move, which apparently is in effect now. cultmtl.com/2024/06/mont...

Montreal becomes largest North American city to eliminate mandatory minimum parking spotscultmtl.com Montreal is the latest city to eliminate mandatory parking minimums, and the largest North American city to have done so.

“Nearly 2000 children under 5 are dying every day from air pollution, which has become the 2nd biggest health risk factor for young children around the world. More than 8 million deaths of children and adults were caused by air pollution in 2021.” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Almost 2,000 children die every day from air pollution, report findswww.theguardian.com Global study reveals dirty air is second only to malnutrition as cause of death among under-fives

“Currently about 2/3rds of all Dutch children walk or bike to school, with 75% of secondary school kids cycling to school. By enabling safe and active travel, #Dutch cities prevent an estimated one million car journeys to school each morning.” — @modacitylife.bsky.social in #CurbingTraffic

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Brent Toderian

Just a reminder that while some cities are still debating whether to transform a few blocks of 1 or 2 streets into places for people, this year Montreal is transforming 11 such streets across 7 neighbourhoods, equalling 9+kms, from car spaces to people places. www.mtl.org/en/experienc...

Walk Montréal's car-free streets all summer long!www.mtl.org Get to stepping in Montréal this summer, enjoying the sights and sounds along the pedestrian-only streets.

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Brent Toderian

“To use a technical term, it blew my mind,” said Vancouver’s former chief planner Brent Toderian…”They weren’t lazy about it—they didn’t just throw up barriers and ban cars. It might be the best bargain I’ve ever heard,” Toderian said. #Montreal www.theenergymix.com/montreal-add...

Montreal Adds Nine More Car-Free Streets after ‘Mind Blowing’ Successwww.theenergymix.com Four years after Montreal decided to make a 2.5-kilometre stretch of a busy downtown artery car-free every summer, the transformation continues to receive rave reviews from users and local businesses.

“15-minute cities are beneficial for everyone, especially women. We know that women are more likely to walk and use public transit. Their trips are shorter, have more stops, and are more frequent since they are more likely to make caregiving trips…” www.womeninurbanism.ca/words/15-min...

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Brent Toderian

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Brent Toderian

I have owned two pickup trucks in my life. TAX THE TRUCKS! Yearly registration of vehicles should take into account gross weight.

A 5 yr Belgian study showed the BIG impact of increasing vehicle weight on road deaths & injuries. When a person on a bike or walking is hit by a pick-up, the risk of serious injury increases by 90% compared to a car. The risk of death goes up by 200%. www.vias.be/fr/newsroom/...

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Brent Toderian

READ: Barcelona has a plan to create a city-wide network of quieter streets that are easier and safer to travel on foot or by bike. Instead of bumper-to-bumper cars, streets will be lined with trees, play parks, bike-lanes, benches and green people places. www.politico.eu/article/barc...

Barcelona bets on green to boost city’s mental healthwww.politico.eu Plans to expand low-traffic, green zones are targeted at reclaiming streets for residents — and lifting their spirits in the process.

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Brent Toderian

I go to Montreal every other year for a music event, and in my last couple visits, I got to see first hand the now walkable street that the venue is on, and it is LOVELY. Strong feel of local community.

Walk Montréal's car-free streets all summer long!www.mtl.org Get to stepping in Montréal this summer, enjoying the sights and sounds along the pedestrian-only streets.

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Brent Toderian

Urban design can and must be reformed to address actual crises. ⬇️

I’m advising 4-5 cities right now to change the local urban design culture, conversation and definitions of success so that it’s shaped by our most urgent public crises. Urban design SHOULD be a powerful part of solutions, but it urgently needs to rethink and reprioritize itself to actually be that.

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Brent Toderian

Best city in North America and it’s not close

Walk Montréal's car-free streets all summer long!www.mtl.org Get to stepping in Montréal this summer, enjoying the sights and sounds along the pedestrian-only streets.

This is AMAZING — a map in the Paris town hall of the schools, and the corresponding “#SchoolStreets” that have transformed car spaces to kid places next to schools as part of the larger #Paris project of making the city more walkable and enjoyable for everyone. Via @EmmanuelSPV

This Vienna street isn’t “closed” because cars have been removed. It has successfully been “opened” to everything else, to a diverse and invigorated civic life, because cars have been replaced by a multitude of wonderful things. Language matters. HT @dmoser.bsky.social for pic #OpenStreets #Vienna

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Brent Toderian

Meanwhile the Governor of California, who styles himself a “Climate Governor,” just proposed slashing the state’s paltry active transportation program.

The Dutch invest €595 million annually on urban biking, resulting in €19 BILLION saved in public health care costs alone. That’s how smart govts do the math on investing in better mobility. Let’s be clear — it wastes public money to NOT do it. #CityMakingMath HT @modacitylife.bsky.social

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Brent Toderian

Reply to

Katie Tightpussy

The fun part: it would be safer not to have those. bsky.app/profile/bren...

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. usa.streetsblog.org/2019/05/29/p...

Separated Bike Lanes Means Safer Streets, Study Says — Streetsblog USAusa.streetsblog.org Cities that build protected lanes for cyclists end up with safer roads for people on bikes and people in cars and on foot, a new study of 12 large metropolises revealed Wednesday.

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.

Are you STILL being told there just isn’t enough space on your streets to make them enjoyable for walking, biking, transit or simple civic life? The REAL “capacity” of streets is fundamentally about our PRIORITIES. Are streets for cars, or for everyone? HT cartoon @IanLockwoodPE

“They cut speed limits, changed street design, removed space for cars…Now it appears that work is paying off. #Oslo and #Helsinki are reaping the rewards of committed action on making their roads safer, reducing pedestrian fatalities to zero last year.” www.theguardian.com/world/2020/m...

How Helsinki and Oslo cut pedestrian deaths to zerowww.theguardian.com After years of committed action, neither city recorded a single pedestrian fatality in 2019