Calmer, More Enjoyable Cities - Chris & Melissa Bruntlett

Livable City

How calm and enjoyable is your neighborhood, your town, your city? I’m not talking about a sleepy place where very little is going on, but a vibrant place that is still, even while bustling, calm and enjoyable for the vast majority of people who live there or move through it. If not your town or city, then have you visited one where you really noticed and enjoyed this aspect about that place?

When people go and visit a place like the cities of the Netherlands where they are described as being low car. Even if one didn’t grow up in a Dutch city, most end up loving these places and even go home wondering why their home city is disproportionately car-dominated and not calm nor enjoyable. In fact our places designed around the car are downright forgettable and even hostile. So where have we gone wrong over the years in tricking ourselves into believing that we actually prefer car-dominated places?

My guests today are Chris and Melissa Bruntlett of Modacity fame. Chris and Melissa are well known by many who think a lot about these kinds of things. They have the very popular Twitter and Instagram feeds that tell the story about the amazing things that are possible when we change our mindsets and our relationship to the car.

And make no mistake, it really is our mindset around how we view our daily lives, our neighborhoods and how we get to work, to school and everything in between. Consider how fast the US reduced the total number of people who smoke cigarettes once the US as a nation decided it was no longer in our best interests together to keep promoting tobacco use.

Cycling, on the other hand, has only benefits of many kinds to contribute to a city and its residents. And as Chris and Melissa discuss, they’ve found firsthand that a city, and really a nation, that is oriented towards walking and cycling first is the most accessible, the most convenient, the most humane and dare we say, the most livable. Food for thought.

Follow the work of Chris and Melissa with Modacity on Twitter or Instagram and definitely check out their work at the Modacity website where you can be inspired by their work and get involved.

Also if you like the work that Chris and Melissa are doing, consider checking out their book Building the Cycling City and purchasing a copy to help them keep bringing their story to the world about the wonders of Dutch cycling cities.

Brought to you by SquadCast and post-production by Creekmore Music.