NJB Studios
The Urbanist AgendaEpisodes
Episodes of The Urbanist Agenda
Mark All
Los Angeles is (in)famous for its car-dependent sprawl, but there are pockets of good urbanism, and there are people working hard to build more of them. I talked with Ellory Smith from Streets For All Los Angeles about her outlook on where LA i
Canada's housing crisis is one of the worst in the world. But why? In this episode I talk to Mike Moffatt, Canadian economist and housing expert about what's going on in the Canadian housing market, as well as the common factors that are creati
Trams are great. They create and enable some of the best urbanism around. And yet the streetcars in Toronto are slow and unreliable and painful to take. What is Toronto doing wrong, and what could other "streetcar" cities learn from their mista
What should you do when your city won't fix things, even after years of advocacy? The answer might be guerrilla urbanism, aka tactical urbanism. I talk to Bike Curious about the people who are tired of waiting, and just get things done by thems
New York City was about to roll out congestion charging. The cameras were up, the staff were hired, the metro projects were financed, and thousands of people were lined up to make public transit better ... and then the governor cancelled it on
Level boarding is simple enough: the floor of the train should be level with the platform. But it's not very common, is it? Why? And what can we do about it? Because once you learn the details of level boarding, you'll realise just how importan
When a bike lane was installed on Valencia Street in San Francisco, one business owner hated it so much he went on a hunger strike. Bike lanes are almost universally positive for business, so why do some business owners hate them so much? Jon f
As housing and transportation prices are skyrocketing around the developed world, Japan has remained (relatively) affordable. I talk to Greg from the YouTube channel Life Where I'm From about how Japan is different - from transportation to hous
For most of us, autonomous vehicles are this nebulous concept that might appear some time in our future, but there are other people living with this reality today - whether they like it or not. In this episode, I talk to Jon from the Twitch cha
Yup. Cars are REALLY expensive, and they're getting more expensive. And yet, most car owners seem completely oblivious to it.Canadians estimated to pay over $1,300 a month to own a car, report findsCar ownership cost me a LOT of money. I'm done
Europe is known for its train networks, and the EU has been promoting trains as the preferred mode of travel. But the train networks are not functioning well, and it's not a coincidence that many EU countries are spending twice as much on roads
It occurred to us the other day that we have lived 10 years without owning a car. This didn't happen intentionally, we just moved to a walkable neighbourhood and living car-free just made the most sense. In this episode, I talk with Mrs. NJB ab
Can rural people understand city folk and vice-versa? American Fietser thinks so. He went from being a die-hard truck driver to a cargo-bike riding urbanist, and it all started with a trip to the Netherlands.Directly support the production of t
City Simulators, such as SimCity and Cities: Skylines are very popular, both among gamers and the general public. But these are just games: they don't accurately model real cities, and that can result in misleading assumptions about what a city
The "War on Cars" is a phrase that comes up every few years whenever some right-wing politician wants to get elected. But this phrase is nothing new, and has been around almost as long as cars themselves. In this episode, I talk to Doug Gordon
Not Just Bikes, normally a champion of all things Amsterdam, talks to RMTransit about why the Amsterdam Metro isn't good enough. And if GVB has their way, it might become even worse.https://www.at5.nl/artikelen/219864/metrolijnen-50-en-53-worde
America has Traffic Engineers. The Netherlands has Transportation Engineers. One is concerned with moving as many cars as possible, the other builds transportation systems. In this podcast, I'm joined by Steffen Berr, an American Traffic Engine
Our family has lived in the Netherlands for 5 years now. In this episode, I have a conversation with my wife, Mrs. NJB, about our experiences and how it compares to other places we've lived before.Directly support the production of this podcast
I was recently asked to comment on a news story in my hometown of Fake London in Canada: a single mom had her car break down and she couldn't afford to fix it, so she asked people how feasible it was to go car-free. In the end, she had to spend
Rowhouses have been around for literally thousands of years: a house that's connected to the house next to it. This type of housing is illegal in huge swaths of the US and Canada, but it's extremely common elsewhere because it is the greatest f
Paying for public transit is way too complicated, especially if you're an occasional user or tourist. Can open payments make this process easier for everyone?In this conversation, Jason from Not Just Bikes and Thea from Urban Caffeine discuss r
Toronto's mayor stepped down, which gives the city a unique opportunity to make a meaningful change. Without an incumbent in the race, the field is wide open for someone new to take charge. Will Toronto choose good urbanism, or will it continue
Traffic engineers in the US and Canada have complex guidebooks and formulas for everything they do, but somehow they still build places that are dangerous, expensive, ugly, and terrible at actually moving people. Jason (Not Just Bikes) and Ray
During the covid-19 pandemic, many US cities made streets off-limits to cars and opened them to people walking an cycling. These "open streets" were loved by urbanists everywhere, but now that the lockdowns are over, many of these places are be
Toronto has almost completely stopped issuing parking tickets to drivers, even as it faces critical budget problems. But this is just one more decision in a long line that allow drivers in Toronto to get away with almost any behaviour. From run
Rate
Join Podchaser to...
- Rate podcasts and episodes
- Follow podcasts and creators
- Create podcast and episode lists
- & much more
Unlock more with Podchaser Pro
- Audience Insights
- Contact Information
- Demographics
- Charts
- Sponsor History
- and More!
- Podcasts
- Best Podcasts
- New Podcasts
- Podcast Charts
- Best Episodes
- Add a Podcast
- Claim a Podcast
- Podchaser 25
- Features
- Podcast Credits
- Podcast Networks
- Podcast Lists
- Podcast Monitoring
- Podcast Sponsors
- Podcast Contacts
- Community
- Account
- Register
- Log In
- Find Friends
- Resources
- Help Center
- Newsletter
- Blog
- API
Podchaser is the ultimate destination for podcast data, search, and discovery. Learn More
- © 2025 Podchaser, Inc.
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service
- Contact Us