October 18-20
Speakers and Performers
Mike Lydon
Tactical Urbanism, Better Streets, Better Places
Mike Lydon is Principal of The Street Plans Collaborative. Before launching the firm in 2009, Lydon worked for Smart Growth Vermont, the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition, and Ann Arbor’s GetDowntown Program. From 2006 - 2009 Lydon worked for Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company (DPZ), an international leader in the practice of smart growth planning, design, and research techniques. At DPZ Mike worked extensively on Miami 21, the recipient of the American Planning Association’s 2011 National Planning Excellence Award, and contributed to several other research initiatives and smart growth projects.
As a planner, writer, and advocate, Mike’s work has appeared in or been featured by NPR, The New York Times, CNN Headline News, Planetizen, Grist, Utne Reader, Next American City Magazine, Planning Magazine, Streetsblog, and a number of other publications.
Mike collaborated with Andres Duany and Jeff Speck in writing The Smart Growth Manual, published by McGraw-Hill in 2009, and honored by Planetizen as one of the top ten planning books of 2010.
A founding member of the New England Chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), a Board Member for CNU New York, and a steering committee member of the Next Generation of New Urbanists, Lydon remains active in both local and national planning, design, and smart growth advocacy issues. He also speaks regularly at trainings and conferences on the topics of smart growth, planning and social media, complete streets, tactical urbanism, and active transportation.
Mike remains a regular contributor to Planetizen and is a founding co-editor of A Living Urbanism, a journal chronicling the ever-changing built environment. He was also selected in 2009 as one of 34 Urban Vanguards by Next American City magazine. Mike is the primary author of The Open Streets Project and Tactical Urbanism: Short-Term Action, Long-Term Change, two research efforts contributing to Pattern Cities, a project about cities and the ideas they incubate.
While living in Miami Mike served as a member of the City’s Bicycle Action Committee, where he helped spearhead the creation of the city’s first Bicycle Action Plan, and the formulation of a monthly open streets initiative, entitled Bike Miami Days. He currently serves on an Executive Committee for Transportation Alternatives—one of the country’s leading active transportation advocacy organizations, based in New York City and is an advisor to the Bicycle Coalition of Maine.
Mike received a B.A. in American Cultural Studies from Bates College and a Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan. Mike is a CNU-Accredited Professional.
He encourages you to trade four wheels for two.