Welcome to the Future of Slow Cities w/ Paul Tranter

In this episode, we head down under, for a chat with Professor Paul Tranter, Honorary Associate Professor in Geography in the School of Science at the University of New South Wales Canberra in Australia, about why we all need to just slow down a bit. Paul researches children’s well-being and the dominance of speed and mobility in urban planning and society. His work has demonstrated that child-friendly modes of walking, cycling, and public transit are also the modes that paradoxically reduce time pressure for urban residents. In this conversation, we dive into the details of his recent book Slow Cities: Conquering our Speed Addiction for Health and Sustainability that he co-authored with Rodney Tolley. Additional Helpful Links: Slow Cities Book Slow Cities Manifesto Build slower cities or keep careening towards disaster – opinion Slaves to speed, we’d all benefit from ‘slow cities’ – article in The Conversation Time to hit the brakes on the “Hurry Virus” Introduction: changing cultures of speed – journal article Speed Kills: The Complex Links Between Transport, Lack of Time and Urban Health – journal article Active Travel: A Cure for the Hurry Virus – journal article Children’s Play in their Local Neighborhoods: Rediscovering the Value of Residential Streets Busted: 5 myths about 30km/h speed limits in Australia 30Please.org – children Pontevedra, Spain, wins the first EU urban road safety award – European Transport Safety Council Pontevedra, Spain Increases Downtown Livability by Reducing Vehicle Access – article in Smart Cities Dive Reclaiming the streets: the increasing trend of pedestrianisation around the world Miguel Anxo Fernández Lores, Mayor of Pontevedra City, Spain Why the need for speed? Transport spending priorities leave city residents worse off – article in The Conversation Raising an Unhurried Child In Praise of Slowness – book In Praise of Slowness – TED Talk ************ Active Towns Podcast episode featuring Peter Norton Active Towns Podcast episode featuring David Nuttall Shared Streets and Woonerfs – Hans Monderman and Ben Hamilton-Baillie Walkscore 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: Various mixes also by John Simmerman 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 experi...