Ian Semple

I’ll keep these photos and repost when they are streets.

Excited to have @brenttoderian.bsky.social come to Kingston and lead this incredibly important discussion!

What Makes Bluesky the New ‘It’ Space for Urbanists Planners are turning to the up-and-coming platform, as well as other social media, to expand their reach and increase community engagement.

NEW: What makes BLUESKY the new “IT” place for Urbanists? It’s pretty significant that the American Planning Association is putting this out there to its huge membership. I was interviewed for it, as was @mitchellsilver.bsky.social & others.

Please share!

@bsky.app www.planning.org/planning/202...

Pedal politics: How Toronto’s bike lanes became so divisive Study after study shows that bike lanes make roads safer for everyone and have a minimal effect on traffic congestion. Yet, in Canadian cities, they’re not always popular

New podcast episode from City Space - great listen for urban issues with a Canadian perspective - bike lanes and data and politics…

www.theglobeandmail.com/podcasts/art...

Highly recommend this article by @taras-grescoe.com about the thoughtful, precise, deliberate Swiss transportation system choices and the comparisons to our North American approach.

So many implications from the increase in telework that we are just starting to study and understand. In my city we have a full travel survey from Sept 2019 that we will soon be able to compare with a full travel survey completed in Sept 2024. Cannot wait to dive in...

One of my favourite resources to share with people (and to refer back to myself) is the work by Todd Litman’s at the VTPI. This article by Todd and Rowan Steele is excellent and helps frame so many of the discussions I am having in my community right now.

www.vtpi.org/landtravel.pdf

Trams in downtown Melbourne

Making public transit free can be a popular and highly symbolic action, but I’ve been on the record for quite a while saying that it should be compared with the projected/expected effects of spending the same amount of public money on increasing frequency and other elements of improved service. 1/

Great perspective on all the benefits of moving the curb when the opportunity presents itself.

With the multi-decade lifespan of a street we really do get one shot to save money, increase safety, help the climate, and generally make things more pleasant.

People on board with new solution to Toronto traffic that would limit cars on city streets Fixing Toronto's gridlock is now so high on the political agenda that the Province is ripping out brand-new bike lanes in a misguided attempt to get …

“Though restricting some vehicle access to the city may seem like a bold move akin to the controversial congestion fee, it is just the latest in a series of steps that Paris has taken toward having less gridlocked, more ‘complete,’ as Toronto would say, streets”

www.blogto.com/city/2024/12...

I also took in the "The Master Plan" at Soulpepper last week and completely agree! Also a sneaky way to rope your non-planning friends and family into 2.5 hours of Planning 101.

The scale and time associated with reprioritizing our built form back to the people it is meant to serve feels daunting…

…but also so urgently needed to face climate action, housing affordability, and the task of creating complete communities head on.

The Psychological Traps That Keep Us Stuck Commuting Via Car Even when better options are available, switching modes is tough.

The “moments of change” concept in this article is interesting in considering how to maximize (always limited) TDM incentives.

slate.com/technology/2...

More highways likely won’t clear Ontario’s traffic. What will? | The Narwhal Decades of research shows new lanes attract more drivers, but internal emails show some in the Ontario government think that’s ‘silly’

If you corner me at a party I’m going to talk to you about the perils of induced demand…

Great article with some Canadian examples.

thenarwhal.ca/ontario-high...

Always keen to learn about multi-modal success stories like this one in Vancouver.

Cities on the World's Best List are Putting People First Not Cars According to the latest report, these cities stand out for their approach to urban development with innovative mobility solutions

Big city or small, it always comes back to putting people first.

momentummag.com/cities-on-th...

Excited to join Blue Sky! Looking forward to connecting and sharing ideas on creating, tuning up, and growing multi-modal transportation systems to shape better cities.