Chris & Melissa Bruntlett: Fewer Cars, Better Living | Turn the Lens #18

Turn the Lens with Jeff Frick

I was introduced to Chris and Melissa Bruntlett in 2018 through 'The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality: Building the Cycling City', a bookshelf stable for anyone involved in urban mobility & transportation planning around the globe. Chris and Melissa took it up a notch with their 2021 release 'Curbing Traffic: The Human Case for Fewer Cars in our Lives' where the focus widens beyond bikes and transportation to broader societal and individual ills caused through the use of a transportation system optimized around metal boxes shooting through space, at the very expensive taking a very expensive toll it talks on that space, and the people in it. The second-order impacts of a bike first transportation (or more appropriately, 9-to-5-commute-in-car-optimized') system, are pretty amazing. Beyond physical to mental health in a constant multi-sensory engagement with the community and environment around us, navigating a world not of rules, but of flow at human speed. Not car first means the very youngest can safely navigate to school and activities with friends, no need for the minivan. The old and infirm who've had their keys taken away are no longer facing a mobility death sentence, forever dependent on a car driving assist. When the car is only one of many options, and especially when it's not the primary, mobility independence is opened to all who can't drive. Can't wait to meet in person on that side of the Atlantic one of these days. Thanks, Chris and Melissa Podcast Page - transcript, notes, etc. TurnTheLensPodcast.com