Tag: Jeff Speck

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Show #643 – January 27, 2024

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Guests: Jeff Speck & Chris Dempsey

As many of you know, I have an abiding interest in urban planning, walkable and bikeable cities, and sustainability. In furthering that interest, I love speaking with folks who are involved in any or all of these areas and today is no exception. 

My guests today are Jeff Speck and Chris Dempsey.  In the past, Jeff and I have

Photo Credit Chip Marler

had several powerful conversations about the work he does in assisting cities, towns, and municipalities become “walkable” and “bikeable.”  His books, Walkable City and Walkable City Rules, are nothing short of step-by-step instructions on how to achieve these goals.

Joined now by Chris Dempsey in a just announced new partnership, “SpeckDempsey,” the impact of their ideas coupled with their backgrounds will serve to transform communities nationwide. 

My thanks to Jeff Speck and Chis Dempsey for joining me today.  As always, Jeff just tells it like it is and I was really pleased to meet his new partner, Chris Dempsey.  I know this partnership is going to produce some exciting results and I’m going to be following them.  You can also keep tabs on them and their work at speckdempsey.com and on social media. 

Transcript_January 27

 

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Show #634 – August 6, 2023

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Guests: Jennifer Boyd: Dave Wages

Sometimes I wonder how I ever became so lucky as to be able to have conversations with the people I do, and this episode of the show highlights two of those people.

First up is Jennifer Boyd.

Jennifer is the founder of Boyd Productions,LLC, a documentary production company that prides itself on creating films that spark curiosity, connectivity, and societal change. Her multilingual, female-led team has more than 20 years of experience in filmmaking, music, television, and journalism.

Jennifer has produced and directed more than 25 documentaries on topics ranging from climate change to gun control. Good Morning America has called her work “groundbreaking.”

The doc – as she calls it –is called The Street Project.  The production is fascinating, the content relevant, and several of the people who are included in this film have been on the TOC podcast in the past.

The Street Project is a story about a massive movement across the world to reclaim our largest public spaces – namely, our streets. The film starts in NYC and looks at the issues of safety and the usage of space across the globe. With more than 40,000 cyclists or pedestrians killed across the world last year, Jennifer Boyd gives us a thorough examination of how the way we’ve used our public spaces and what has changed through the last ten decades.

Then, I speak with custom frame builder Dave Wages from Ellis Cycles.

The bicycle business has its biggies – the Treks and Specialized and Canyons – and then it has the custom builders such as Richard Sachs, Peter Wiegel, and my guest today, Dave Wages.

Between those two bookends, there were companies such as Waterford Precision Bicycles and Serotta Custom Cycles.  These were shops that could produce a frame-to-order within a few weeks and might have a small staff that could turn out upwards of several hundred to perhaps a thousand frames per year.

Now, those mid-sized custom shops are mostly gone. You may remember that Dave cut his frame building teeth with Serotta and Waterford and now, both of those companies are gone.

So I wanted to know what Dave, has since gone out on his own to produce his exquisite one-of-a-kind framesets, thinks about the situation as well as what he sees going forward.

Dave’s insights are spot-on and I think you’ll appreciate what he has to say.

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Show #472 – September 28, 2019

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Guests: Steve Frothingham; Jeff Speck

Steve Frothingham, editor of Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, talks with me about the tariffs and the effects they have had and are having on the bicycle business.

Then, I speak with Jeff Speck. He is one of the most influential city planners working today. Formerly the Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts, his company Speck and Associates is a planning firm that serves both municipal and private clients.

Jeff walks the walk, talks the talk, and give us a fascinating “civic” lesson in when and how communities thrive, how the environment is either supported or undermined, and where we find inequity in society.

Oddly enough, we have a fairly deep discussion of parking and how it affects how cities thrive – and, in fact, cities are NOT thriving! Making them more bikeable and walkable though?

Yes – bicycles, walking, and public transit play a HUGE role in all of it.

We talk about some practical ideas that even cities in dire financial straits can do to make walking and biking safer as well as controlling traffic more intentionally and successfully.

So, while his book, Walkable City Rules, 101 Steps to Making Better Places, might be a manual for professionals, I believe hearing the ideas and successes puts them into a place where you can see yourself perhaps getting involved and helping to make lasting change. You can attend council and planning meetings and, taking some of Jeff’s simple “rules” show your city there just might be room for protected bikes infrastructure.

One more thought here… many of us have abandoned the roads because of safety concerns. Instituting some of the “rules” in Jeff’s book might just put us back ON the roads – where bicycle belong!

I don’t usually air the small talk that takes place as we begin to roll for recording the show; but, Jeff sort of surprised me by asking ME questions and the interview just began to unfold – without any formal. introduction.

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Show #423 – October 20, 2018

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Guests: Gary Helfrich (from 2011); Jeff Speck (from 2013)

You know, I really wanted to produce a brand new episode this week but, the Universe had other plans and instead presented me with a nasty cold and wicked cough.

So rather than foist them upon you (and unsuspecting guests!) I decided to bring back a couple of my favorite interviews from past shows.

One of those is with Gary Helfrich – at the time (2011) he was part of the Sonoma County bicycle scene. And when we spoke, he talked about all the things he’d done including being the head roadie for Aerosmith and building some crazy thing for Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, burying a whole titanium frame in the walls of a house in Somerville, Mass., and being the creator of one of the finest frame jigs in the world – the Arctos. The conversation was lively, fun, interesting and worth listening to a second (or third) time.

 

Then, it’s a re-do with Jeff Speck (2013). Jeff is a city planner and urban designer who, through writing, lectures, and built work, advocates internationally for more walkable cities. His book, Walkable City, eas published in 2013 and is still one of the most important on the topic.

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Show #209 – August 30, 2014

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Guests: Chris Coburn, Cyclocross Superstar Katie Compton, Matt Shad, Jan Michael Ramery & Jonathan Strauss

To everyone who is in and around Napa – we hope you are all safe, well, and recovering from the earthquake!

This week, we talk briefly with Chris Coburn. Chris’ brother Dr. Miles Coburn was a much loved biology professor, father, husband, son, and brother. He was killed in a bike accident back in 2008 and since then, we honor Miles and his commitment to cycling and the environment with the Ride for Miles, a commemorative ride that starts and end right here on the campus of John Carroll University.

Then we head on out to Colorado Springs to talk with SUPERSTAR Katie (FN) Compton. There isn’t a more dominant or successful cyclist when it comes to cyclocross than Katie. Amassing twenty two World Cup wins and four medals at the Cyclocross World Championships, as well as 90+ UCI wins, Katie shares her story with us this evening.

After a break and some news, we head on down to Columbus, Ohio to speak with Matt Shad. Matt is an urban planner as well as the director of the Great Placemaker’s Lab, a 3-day workshop that offers cuty planners, landscape architects, and anyone else involved in the planning, design, and management of neighborhoods and public spaces.

Topics for the workshops range from walkability, art, and retail to aging, transit, and parking. The plenary speaker will be Jeff Speck, who we interviewed back in June, 2013. Speck’s Walkable Cities is still one of my preferred books when we talk about downtowns and transportation.

And finally, we go to Miami, Florida to speak with the organizers of an event that rivals any amateur ride or race anywhere: The Road Titans 300+ Cycling Challenge. You just might want to get your low gears on and head on down to Oconee County, South Carolina for 3 days of riding, climbing, mid-November. Jan Michael Ramery and Jonathan Strauss will fill us in on all the nitty gritty details.

So, click the download button and let’s go!