Why do most people want to live in walkable cities and towns? What's the impact on innovation and well-being?

Jeff Speck, city planner, urban designer, TED Talk speaker, and bestselling author of Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time, offers fascinating and fact-filled responses to these questions. Along the way, he tells us the changes needed to make cities the thriving places that most people want.

In this episode you will learn:

what is a walkable city
how walkable cities drive innovation by attracting talent
what makes cities safer than suburbs
how more traffic signals actually make cities less safe
why the most popular solutions to congestion actually increase it
what the cheapest solution is for making a city more walkable
how great urban design trumps weather every time

Jeff also shares a fascinating insight regarding a possible downside of self-driving cars.

Episode Links

@JeffSpeckAICP

The Walkable City TED Talk by Jeff Speck

Externalities

Millenials Seek Walkable Cities

Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam

Single Family Housing

Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett

Induced demand and traffic

Free Good

Donald Shoup

Prospect-refuge Theory and Jay Appleton

Charrettes for Design

Andres Duany

Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk

Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery

Inclusionary zoning