Tag Archives: planning

How to Change the World: My brief guide now available!

I’ve distilled years of training, research, and practice into a short-and-sweet book on setting and achieving serious goals. The title is How to Change the World (Or Your Corner of It): Planning and Working for Success. It’s available from many sources, including Amazon and these major vendors.

Here’s the blurb:

Do you want to change the world—or yourself? To improve your work? To make the best decisions possible? Then this brief but comprehensive guide to planning, doing, and revising is for you.

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Vision Zero after zero progress?

Washington, D.C., like other cities around the world, is trying to eliminate traffic deaths through a program called Vision Zero. Inspired by Sweden, this has been a model project in many ways, but the lack of positive results is testing its proponents.

Effecting change per se is my topic here, rather than the specific alterations that D.C. et al. have wrought as part of Vision Zero. Continue reading

Jakartans can’t be turned into pedestrians, so why try?

A few months ago, the New York Times published a pretty good article on why people in Jakarta walk so little. Since I studied this and related questions in-depth from 2010 to 2012, I have some quibbles and additions, but all in all I recommend it.

The article includes quotes from a pro-pedestrian activist. However, in a presentation of my research, I labeled the promotion of pedestrianism in Jakarta a “lost cause.” Continue reading

Human roadblocks should prompt a detour

In a recent op-ed article in the Guardian, Andrew Gilligan draws a political lesson from his tenure as cycling commissioner in London. It’s worth a full read. Gilligan points out that proposals to expand bicycling infrastructure – lanes and paths – have great popular support in Britain but often aren’t put into action. He blames politicians for succumbing to opposition by a vocal minority or for simply lacking initiative.

How might cycling advocates overcome roadblocks to democratically supported improvements? Continue reading