Next American City talks with urban designer and bicycle planner Mike Lydon about cycling, ciclovias, and open streets.
Lydon is the Founding Principal of The Street Plans Collaborative, an urban planning, advocacy and design firm, and is also a blooger on Planetizen Interchange.
"City / Culture: You've compiled a timeline that shows when different North American cities adapted open streets initiatives. The timeline shows 35 cities and one state (Kentucky) having added events since 2008, as compared to seven cities from 1970-2007. What changed?
Mike Lydon: There are lots of converging issues. One, the repopulating of cities, and the desire of people interested in living in cities to make them more livable. There's a whole public health side of things – getting more active and healthy walking and biking opportunities plays into that. You see community activists reclaiming the streets from automobiles, making them more multi-purpose, so they can meet more needs.
When a city starts setting a new precedent for an exciting and very significant solution to a problem, a lot of cities tend to follow. We call those early cities, "pattern cities." Bogotá is a pattern city in South America, and other cities follow suit, and that wisdom filtered up to North America. Now you see many more overt efforts and intents to integrate bicycling and walking into initiatives throughout North American cities."
FULL STORY: City / Culture: A Bike + Planning Conversation with Mike Lydon

Rethinking Redlining
For decades we have blamed 100-year-old maps for the patterns of spatial racial inequity that persist in American cities today. An esteemed researcher says: we’ve got it all wrong.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

California High-Speed Rail's Plan to Right Itself
The railroad's new CEO thinks he can get the project back on track. The stars will need to align this summer.

Savannah Reduces Speed Limits on Almost 100 City Streets
The historic Georgia city is lowering speed limits in an effort to reduce road fatalities.

A Park Reborn: Resilience and Renewal in Fire-Stricken Altadena
Rebuilt in just two months after the devastating Eaton Fire, Loma Alta Park now stands as a symbol of community resilience and renewal, even as some residents hope recovery efforts will continue to support housing stability and long-term equity.

Spain Moves to Ban 66,000 Airbnbs
The national government is requiring the short-term rental operator to remove thousands of illegal listings from its site as part of an effort to stem a growing housing crisis.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Clovis
City of Moorpark
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions