Active Towns

In this episode, I connect with Jonathan Fertig, who is no stranger to the world of tactical urbanism, as he is compelled to do something to make the situation safer for everyone. We chat about what got him started in advocacy, his move to Denver, and how his life and activity levels have shifted now that he and his wife Helen are in the outdoor playground that is Colorado. This episode is also available as a video podcast

Flowers in pots, a flower in a traffic cone, red cups, 6-foot tall cardboard comic character cutouts... just some of the safer street activism materials Jonathan Fertig has employed and deployed during his years of advocacy work in Boston and Denver.

Additional Links:

Episode Landing Page on Active Towns website (bonus photos)

Jonathan's Twitter handle

POP-UP COMICS PUSH FOR BETTER BIKE LANES - story Boston Globe article Treehugger article Cycling Weekly article

Tactical Urbanism book published by Island Press

Mike Lydon of Street Plans and his Active Towns Podcast Episode

Bikeyface

9News Complete Streets Story

Denver Bicycle Lobby

Denver Streets Partnership our Active Towns Podcast Episode with Jill Locantore

Bicycle Colorado

Red Cup Story

Denver Streetsblog Interview of Jonathan

Kidical Mass Denver and Arleigh Greenwald

STROAD definition 

Four Easy Steps to Support My Efforts:

1. Become an Active Towns Ambassador by "Buying Me a Coffee" or by pledging as little as $1 per month on Patreon

2. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a "thumbs up," leave a review on Apple Podcasts, and share it with a friend.

3. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred listening platform and the Active Towns YouTube Channel

4. Pick up some Active Towns #StreetsAreForPeople Merch at my store

Credits:

All video and audio production by John Simmerman

Music:

Funky Brown Business, Groovy Ska Fun Time, and Caribbean Funk by Jason Donnelly via Storyblocks.com

Resources used during the production of this episode:

- My awesome recording platform is Ecamm

- Adobe Creative Cloud Suite

For more information about my Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit my links below:

- Website

- Twitter

- Newsletter

- Podcast landing pages

- Facebook

- Instagram

Background:

Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.

I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.

Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."

My Active Towns suite of channels feature my original video and audio content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.

Thanks for tuning in; I hope you have found this content helpful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2020

Advocates for Healthy Communities, Inc. is a nonprofit 501c3 organization (EIN 45-3802508) dedicated to helping communities create a Culture of Activity. To donate, click here.

In this episode, I connect with Veteran podcaster Andy Boenau from Richmond, VA, for a discussion about the power of storytelling and persuasion when it comes to transforming our built environments.  

Andy Boenau has a formal background as a transportation engineer, but his career has gradually evolved over the years and now he focuses much of his energy on how storytelling, marketing principles, and persuasion can help us transform our communities into more walkable, bike-able, and people-oriented places.

He is the podcast host of the Urbanism Speakeasy and How We Get Around

Follow Andy on Twitter

Additional Helpful Links:

The Active Towns landing page for this episode - check out the cool photos Andy sent through

CNU - Congress for the New Urbanism

Tactical Urbanism epsiode

Four Easy Steps to Support My Efforts:

1. Become an Active Towns Ambassador by "Buying Me a Coffee" or by pledging as little as $1 per month on Patreon

2. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a "thumbs up," leave a review on Apple Podcasts, and share it with a friend.

3. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred listening platform and the Active Towns YouTube Channel

4. Pick up some Active Towns #StreetsAreForPeople Merch at my store

Credits:

All video and audio production by John Simmerman

Music:

Virginia Skyline by Jastin Batts, Acoustic Loop 12 by Joel Thomas Hunger, and Walk in the Park by Neil Cross via Storyblocks.com

Resources used during the production of this episode:

- My awesome recording platform is Ecamm

- Adobe Creative Cloud Suite

For more information about my Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit my links below:

- Website

- Twitter

- Newsletter

- Podcast landing pages

- Facebook

- Instagram

Background:

Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.

I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.

Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."

My Active Towns suite of channels feature my original video and audio content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.

Thanks for tuning in; I hope you have found this content helpful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2020

Advocates for Healthy Communities, Inc. is a nonprofit 501c3 organization (EIN 45-3802508) dedicated to helping communities create a Culture of Activity. To donate, click here.

In this episode, I welcome Mr. Michael McGinn into our virtual studios for a wide-ranging conversation about creating cities for people. 

Michael McGinn served as the 52nd mayor of Seattle, WA and was recently selected as the new Executive Director of America Walks, a 20-year old national nonprofit organization that has been leading the way in advancing safe, equitable, accessible, and enjoyable places to walk and move by giving people and communities the resources to effectively advocate for change.

Additional Helpful Links:

Episode Landing Page on the Active Towns website

Brompton Bicycles

David Byrne, Bicycle Diaries

Strong Towns

Right of Way Webinar

Angie Schmitt's Active Towns Podcast Episode

Charles Brown's Active Towns Podcast Episode

Alissa Walker's Active Towns Podcast Episode

Kea Wilson's Active Towns Podcast Episode

Four Easy Steps to Support My Efforts:

1. Become an Active Towns Ambassador by "Buying Me a Coffee" or by pledging as little as $1 per month on Patreon

2. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a "thumbs up," leave a review on Apple Podcasts, and share it with a friend.

3. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred listening platform and the Active Towns YouTube Channel

4. Pick up some Active Towns #StreetsAreForPeople Merch at my store

Credits:

All video and audio production by John Simmerman

Music:

Serious Deep House by Fredrik Storm, Uplifting Technology Electronic by Velimir Andreev, and Happy Arps by Christina Nemo via Storyblocks.com

Resources used during the production of this episode:

- My awesome recording platform is Ecamm

- Adobe Creative Cloud Suite

For more information about my Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit my links below:

- Website

- Twitter

- Newsletter

- Podcast landing pages

- Facebook

- Instagram

Background:

Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.

I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.

Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."

My Active Towns suite of channels feature my original video and audio content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.

Thanks for tuning in; I hope you have found this content helpful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2020

Advocates for Healthy Communities, Inc. is a nonprofit 501c3 organization (EIN 45-3802508) dedicated to helping communities create a Culture of Activity. To donate, click here.

In this episode, I connect with Matt Pinder and Justin Jones for a detailed discussion about the ubiquitous Dutch Fietsstraats or Bicycle Priority Streets and how North American cities can best implement these innovative facilities.

Matt Pinder, a Senior Designer with Alta Planning + Design, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and Justin Jones, Manager of Bicycle Friendly Communities with the Share the Road Cycling Coalition, in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada decided to dive into the details of the Bicycle Priority Street and its North American analogs with a series of articles posted on Matt's blog Beyond the Automobile

When it comes to "All Ages & Abilities" cycle network facilities the protected bike lane or separated cycle-track typically gets most of the attention, however a little known fact about the Dutch approach is that the majority of their streets feature some form of shared space, including the ever-present "Fietsstraat" or bicycle priority street.

Additional Helpful Links:

The episode landing page for some fun photos and other extras.

The Active Towns Podcast Episode featuring Charles Brown

Oakland, CA - Slow Streets Program

Four Easy Steps to Support My Efforts:

1. Become an Active Towns Ambassador by "Buying Me a Coffee" or by pledging as little as $1 per month on Patreon

2. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a "thumbs up," leave a review on Apple Podcasts, and share it with a friend.

3. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred listening platform and the Active Towns YouTube Channel

4. Pick up some Active Towns #StreetsAreForPeople Merch at my store

Credits:

All video and audio production by John Simmerman

Music:

Walking California Style by Keith LuBrant, Uplifting Acoustic Loop by Joel Thomas Hunger, and Gentle Happiness by Bruce Zimmerman via Storyblocks.com

Resources used during the production of this episode:

- My awesome recording platform is Ecamm

- Adobe Creative Cloud Suite

For more information about my Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit my links below:

- Website

- Twitter

- Newsletter

- Podcast landing pages

- Facebook

- Instagram

Background:

Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.

I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.

Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."

My Active Towns suite of channels feature my original video and audio content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.

Thanks for tuning in; I hope you have found this content helpful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2020

Advocates for Healthy Communities, Inc. is a nonprofit 501c3 organization (EIN 45-3802508) dedicated to helping communities create a Culture of Activity. To donate, click here.

In this episode, I catch up with bicycle and clean air advocate extraordinaire Frank Peters of Santa Barbara, CA. The primary topic is the city's transformation of State Street, its iconic downtown main street, into a car-free zone because of the devastating impacts from Covid-19. 

Cities around the world have been dramatically reshaping and reimagining their public spaces, especially their downtown streets in response to the negative economic and health impacts from the novel coronavirus pandemic, Covid-19. Santa Barbara, California took the bold step of making State Street, the main shopping and dining destination in the downtown district, a car-free zone and the results have been amazing.

Helpful & Relevant Links:

Video version of this episode (shortened)

Episode landing page on Active Towns website

Walk Bike Places Conference

Russ Roca and Path Less Pedaled

Oregon Scenic Bikeways

Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition

cycleCalCoast

Four Easy Steps to Support My Efforts:

1. Become an Active Towns Ambassador by "Buying Me a Coffee" or by pledging as little as $1 per month on Patreon

2. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a "thumbs up," leave a review on Apple Podcasts, and share it with a friend.

3. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred listening platform and the Active Towns YouTube Channel

4. Pick up some Active Towns #StreetsAreForPeople Merch at my store

Credits:

All video and audio production by John Simmerman

Music:

Ultimate Inspiration by Sander Kalmeijer, Perfect Smile by Lance Conrad, and Uplifting Forward Thinking by Jeppe Reil and Thomas Reil via Storyblocks.com

Resources used during the production of this episode:

- My awesome recording platform is Ecamm

- Adobe Creative Cloud Suite

For more information about my Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit my links below:

- Website

- Twitter

- Newsletter

- Podcast landing pages

- Facebook

- Instagram

Background:

Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.

I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.

Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."

My Active Towns suite of channels feature my original video and audio content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.

Thanks for tuning in; I hope you have found this content helpful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2020

Advocates for Healthy Communities, Inc. is a nonprofit 501c3 organization (EIN 45-3802508) dedicated to helping communities create a Culture of Activity. To donate, click here.

In this episode, I reconnect with Meredith Glaser, a Ph.D. doctoral candidate within the University of Amsterdam's Urban Cycling Institute, for a discussion about living in The Netherlands as an ex-pat from California, accelerating reform to support human-scaled accessibility, and developing an understanding about the transfer of knowledge from study tours.

Meredith had originally planned to only study and work abroad for a year or so, well that has turned into a decade of living in Amsterdam, raising a family, and developing a passion for a better understanding of Dutch cycling and how other cities around the world can best learn from the experiences of The Netherlands. In this long-form interview with John Simmerman, Founder of the Active Towns Initiative and host of the Active Towns Podcast, Meredith discusses what it has been like to make such a huge change culturally and how active mobility becomes second nature because of the built form, policy structures, and societal norms.

Meredith also discusses in-depth two recent papers she has published along with some of her colleagues at the Urban Cycling Institute, Learning from abroad: An interdisciplinary exploration of knowledge transfer in the transport domain and Accelerating reform to govern streets in support of human-scaled accessibility

Additional and Helpful Links:

Spokes! Ridecast video with Meredith Glaser: Where did all the traffic lights go?

Amsterdam Bike Tour by Urban Planner Meredith Glaser video

Four Easy Steps to Support My Efforts:

1. Become an Active Towns Ambassador by "Buying Me a Coffee" or by pledging as little as $1 per month on Patreon

2. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a "thumbs up," leave a review on Apple Podcasts, and share it with a friend.

3. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred listening platform and the Active Towns YouTube Channel

4. Pick up some Active Towns #StreetsAreForPeople Merch at my store

Credits:

All video and audio production by John Simmerman

Music:

Happy Uplifting Dance Track by Fredrik Storm, Happy News by Evgeny-Kiselevich, and Road to Success by Mikael Manvelyan via Storyblocks.com

Resources used during the production of this episode:

- My awesome recording platform is Ecamm

- Adobe Creative Cloud Suite

For more information about my Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit my links below:

- Website

- Twitter

- Newsletter

- Podcast landing pages

- Facebook

- Instagram

Background:

Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.

I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.

Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."

My Active Towns suite of channels feature my original video and audio content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.

Thanks for tuning in; I hope you have found this content helpful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2020

Advocates for Healthy Communities, Inc. is a nonprofit 501c3 organization (EIN 45-3802508) dedicated to helping communities create a Culture of Activity. To donate, click here.

In this episode, I catch up with Pam LeBlanc, a freelance writer based in Austin, TX, who is constantly creating content about adventure, fitness, and travel. In addition to chatting about some of her recent and upcoming explorations, they talk about her recently published book. NOTE: Video episode available. 

Having a spirit of adventure and being pretty much "Up for Anything" has served Pam LeBlanc well over the decades as an accomplished journalist, photographer, and author.

We were fortunate enough to catch Pam between several big trips to learn more about her latest adventures and the publication of her first book, My Stories, All True: J. David Bamberger on Life as an Entrepreneur and Conservationist published by Texas A&M University Press.

Additional Helpful Links:

Active Towns Landing Page for this episode - to access the video version, photos, and bonus material

Pam's website: pamleblancadventures.com

Facebook page

Instagram

Four Easy Steps to Support My Efforts:

1. Become an Active Towns Ambassador by "Buying Me a Coffee" or by pledging as little as $1 per month on Patreon

2. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a "thumbs up," leave a review on Apple Podcasts, and share it with a friend.

3. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred listening platform and the Active Towns YouTube Channel

4. Pick up some Active Towns #StreetsAreForPeople Merch at my store

Credits:

All video and audio production by John Simmerman

Music:

Simply Adorkable by Sander Kalmeijer and Happy Walk by Simon Jomphe Lepine via Storyblocks.com

Resources used during the production of this episode:

- My awesome recording platform is Ecamm

- Adobe Creative Cloud Suite

For more information about my Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit my links below:

- Website

- Twitter

- Newsletter

- Podcast landing pages

- Facebook

- Instagram

Background:

Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.

I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.

Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."

My Active Towns suite of channels feature my original video and audio content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.

Thanks for tuning in; I hope you have found this content helpful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2020

Advocates for Healthy Communities, Inc. is a nonprofit 501c3 organization (EIN 45-3802508) dedicated to helping communities create a Culture of Activity. To donate, click here.

In this episode, I connect with Angie Schmitt, the author of the new book Right of Way: Race, Class, and the Silent Epidemic of Pedestrian Deaths in America published by Island Press. We discuss the many complicated and convoluted reasons why this has been happening and talk about some of the inspiring, hopeful stories of change she highlighted in the book.

Helpful Links:

• Streetfilms video of Jorge Canez aka Peatónito ("little pedestrian") https://www.streetfilms.org/peatonito-is-in-nyc-protecting-pedestrians-from-cars-in-the-crosswalk/
• Streetsblog USA 
• Pedestrian Safety: The Last Frontier - Clarence M. Ditlow, III https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Ditlow
• It Could Be Me campaign, Triny Willerton 
• Families for Safe Streets https://www.transalt.org/familiesforsafestreets
• STROAD Defined 
• Angie’s new firm: 3mph Planning and Consulting
• The suburb where everyone can walk to school, Lakewood, OH: Streetsblog article and Streetsfilms video 
• Disney’s Motor Mania Cartoon - Mr. Walker vs. Mr. Wheeler, video
• Hans Monderman - Shared Streets

Four Easy Steps to Support My Efforts:

1. Become an Active Towns Ambassador by "Buying Me a Coffee" or by pledging as little as $1 per month on Patreon

2. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a "thumbs up," leave a review on Apple Podcasts, and share it with a friend.

3. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred listening platform and the Active Towns YouTube Channel

4. Pick up some Active Towns #StreetsAreForPeople Merch at my store

Credits:

All video and audio production by John Simmerman

Music:

Escaping Forever by Michael Vignola, Stay with Me by Lance Conrad, and The Dark Night by Neil-Cross via Storyblocks.com

Resources used during the production of this episode:

- My awesome recording platform is Ecamm

- Adobe Creative Cloud Suite

For more information about my Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit my links below:

- Website

- Twitter

- Newsletter

- Podcast landing pages

- Facebook

- Instagram

Background:

Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.

I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.

Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."

My Active Towns suite of channels feature my original video and audio content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.

Thanks for tuning in; I hope you have found this content helpful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2020

Advocates for Healthy Communities, Inc. is a nonprofit 501c3 organization (EIN 45-3802508) dedicated to helping communities create a Culture of Activity. To donate, click here.

In this episode, I welcome back a good friend to the Active Towns Podcast, Mr. Ryan Van Duzer, to talk about his recent bikepacking adventures and help us launch our video podcast. That's right! We will now feature a video version of a select number of our future episodes that will really benefit from having a visual component. Ryan is the perfect guest for our first video episode because of all his vibrant imagery that he produces on his DuzerTV YouTube channel.

So if you'd like to watch the video podcast version of this episode click on this link: Bikepacking w/ Ryan Van Duzer - video

Additional Helpful Links:

- Bikepacking Magazine
- Priority Bicycles
- Caballo Blanco Copper Canyon Ultra Run 2021 Sign-up
- League of American Bicyclists
- PeopleForBikes
- Our First Active Towns Podcast Interview w/ Ryan
- Our on-bike video interview w/ Ryan
- StreamYard
- Mira the Super Dog's Instagram Account
- Born to Run Book
- Barefoot Ted
- RAGBRAI Bike Ride Across Iowa

Some of Ryan's Videos mentioned in the podcast:
- Backyard Bikepacking
- Tahoe Twirl Playlist
- The Great Divide Playlist
- Caballo Blanco Run 2017
- Caballo Blanco Run 2018
- Baja Bikepacking Part 1
- Baja Bikepacking Part 2
- RAGBRAI 2019 Videos
- Ryan's Priority Bikepacking Bike
- Ryan's Pack List for the Great Divide Ride
- Ryan's Priority Apollo Bike Review
- Ryan's Behind the Scenes Filmmaking Process
- Colorado Hut Trip Playlist 2019
- Ryan's mom gets an e-bike
- Community Cycles Moves by Cargo-bike
- Living a Car-Free Lifestyle

Four Easy Steps to Support My Efforts:

1. Become an Active Towns Ambassador by "Buying Me a Coffee" or by pledging as little as $1 per month on Patreon

2. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a "thumbs up," leave a review on Apple Podcasts, and share it with a friend.

3. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred listening platform and the Active Towns YouTube Channel

4. Pick up some Active Towns #StreetsAreForPeople Merch at my store

Credits:

All video and audio production by John Simmerman

Music:

Progressive Pop Dua Lipa Feel by Elonte Chandler, Morning Sun by Will Van De Crommert, and Happy and Inspiring by James Grant via Storyblocks.com

Resources used during the production of this episode:

- My awesome recording platform is Ecamm

- Adobe Creative Cloud Suite

For more information about my Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit my links below:

- Website

- Twitter

- Newsletter

- Podcast landing pages

- Facebook

- Instagram

Background:

Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.

I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.

Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."

My Active Towns suite of channels feature my original video and audio content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.

Thanks for tuning in; I hope you have found this content helpful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2020

Advocates for Healthy Communities, Inc. is a nonprofit 501c3 organization (EIN 45-3802508) dedicated to helping communities create a Culture of Activity. To donate, click here.

In this episode, I connect with Donald Shoup, a Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Urban Planning at UCLA for a fascination discussion about how strategic parking policy reforms can help create healthy, vibrant communities. 

In 2005, Donald Shoup published a nearly 800-page book called The High Cost of Free Parking which quickly became a "cult-classic" in urbanism, transportation, and planning circles. In 2018 he followed up by editing Parking and the City a series of case studies, stories, and learnings from around the world.

Perhaps the most significant achievement in his writings, presentations, and conversations is how he makes talking about parking policy interesting, engaging, and even humorous at times.

Additional Helpful Links:

Episode Landing Page on the Active Towns website (bonus photos)

Parkumentaries - including a link the Adam Ruins Everything truTV video

Adam Ruins Everything Podcast Episode featuring Donald Shoup

Parking Articles

CNU27 - Louisville, KY keynote presentation video

Shoupistas Facebook Group

Four Easy Steps to Support My Efforts:

1. Become an Active Towns Ambassador by "Buying Me a Coffee" or by pledging as little as $1 per month on Patreon

2. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a "thumbs up," leave a review on Apple Podcasts, and share it with a friend.

3. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred listening platform and the Active Towns YouTube Channel

4. Pick up some Active Towns #StreetsAreForPeople Merch at my store

Credits:

All video and audio production by John Simmerman

Music:

Summer Techno Jam by Christina Nemo, Destination Optimistic by Simon Jomphe Lepine, and Technology & Motivation by Ihor Vitsinskyy via Storyblocks.com

Resources used during the production of this episode:

- My awesome recording platform is Ecamm

- Adobe Creative Cloud Suite

For more information about my Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit my links below:

- Website

- Twitter

- Newsletter

- Podcast landing pages

- Facebook

- Instagram

Background:

Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.

I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.

In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.

Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."

My Active Towns suite of channels feature my original video and audio content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.

Thanks for tuning in; I hope you have found this content helpful.

Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2020

Advocates for Healthy Communities, Inc. is a nonprofit 501c3 organization (EIN 45-3802508) dedicated to helping communities create a Culture of Activity. To donate, click here.