Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves From the Tyranny of the Automobile
by Sarah Goodyear, Doug Gordon and Aaron Naparstek · 21 Oct 2025 · 330pp · 85,349 words
’s tried to get so much as a crosswalk painted or a stop sign installed on their corner—are frustrated with the pace of change? Tactical Urbanism Thankfully, there is an effective, inexpensive, and ingenious technique even ordinary citizens can use to demonstrate that change not only is possible but also can
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be achieved faster than a highway replacement in Philadelphia. It’s called tactical urbanism. According to Mike Lydon and Anthony Garcia, two expert practitioners in the field who defined the term, tactical urbanism is a creative, do-it-yourself approach that “employs short-term actions for long-term change
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of its resources to bear on the problem. Like it might, say, with an emergency highway repair. Jonathan Fertig’s actions inspired a wave of tactical urbanism demonstrations across the country, many of which resulted in permanent improvements. In New York City, an anonymous group of advocates calling themselves the Department of
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one case, their posts stayed up until the city replaced them with an official set. A group of activists in Wichita, Kansas, spiced up their tactical urbanism efforts with a bit of humor. They lined an unprotected bike lane on both sides with toilet plungers, the handles wrapped with reflective tape, to
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its website says, “The city of Los Angeles doesn’t keep us safe so we keep us safe.” Making the Water Visible to the Fish Tactical urbanism has the power to pierce the automotive bubble that so frequently surrounds politicians—sometimes in an almost literal sense, because so many elected officials are
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for cyclists or pedestrians who pass by while they’re in place—or even the permanent infrastructure changes they might inspire. A key benefit of tactical urbanism is that it helps, or even forces, the average person to see our car-based reality for the social construct that it is. As the
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snagging the perfect parking spot. “You’re part of a movement to reclaim streets,” he said. Mixing simplicity with creativity and holding fast to the tactical urbanism spirit of short-term actions for long-term change, Park(ing) Day draws in people who might never have given much thought to how street
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just like the passersby who witnessed the first Park(ing) Day, the fish finally saw the water. How Far Is Too Far? The question with tactical urbanism, especially when it’s taken up by individuals working outside the permission structure of city government, is how far is too far? There are lots
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TEXT “employs short-term actions for long-term change”: Mike Lydon and Anthony Garcia, Tactical Urbanism (Island Press, 2015), 2; and Robert Steuteville, “Tactical Urbanism Comes of Age,” Public Square, June 23, 2021, cnu.org/publicsquare/2021/06/23/tactical-urbanism-comes-age. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT On the morning of Friday, August 7
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Kids. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018. Longhurst, James. Bike Battles: A History of Sharing the American Road. University of Washington Press, 2015. Lydon, Mike, and Anthony Garcia. Tactical Urbanism: Short-Term Action for Long-Term Change. Island Press, 2015. Malm, Andreas. How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on
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, 126–32 as public health issue, 114 racial aspects of, 131, 138, 145–46 reversing in Ghent, BE, 180–91 school locations and, 57–58 tactical urbanism as a response to, 209–14 urban highways in, 174 care, ethic of, 92–93 car-free cities, 109, 191 car-free spaces, 112, 232
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improving, 28–29, 32–33 personal responsibility in, 17 public support for, 198 road, in Japan, 91–92 solutions for wildlife, 78–79 SUVs, 226 tactical urbanism for, 206–9 in Tokyo, JP, 169, 170 transportation, gender and, 149–52 See also infrastructure; traffic fatalities salmon, coho, 79–82 See also wildlife
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–69, 117, 120, 148–49 Superman, 3–5 surveillance, 228 SUVs, 88–89, 90, 96, 122, 194, 216–20 Sweden, 112 Syracuse, NY, 19 T tactical urbanism as a catalyst, 209–14 curbside dining and, 214–16 limits of, 216–20 for safety, 205–9 See also action ideas; hope Taft, William
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Heather Heyer as, 131 Henry Bliss as first, 6–7, 8 in Japan, 91 as local news, 24 at Ninth Street Brooklyn, NY, 27 provoking tactical urbanism, 208 public tolerance for, 99–100 rates of, 5–6, 95–96 reduction of, 189 reporting tone of, 12–13, 24 standard American unit of
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Americans and, 146 for nondrivers, 160–62 for pedestrians in Ghent, BE, 180 traffic effects on, 118 for wheelchair users, 157–60 urbanism, tactical. See tactical urbanism US Department of Transportation, 31, 58, 113 US Justice Department, 140 US Supreme Court, 142 USA Today, 53 Utrecht, NL, 181 V van Putten, Maartje
Cities Under Siege: The New Military Urbanism
by Stephen Graham · 30 Oct 2009 · 717pp · 150,288 words
using a vehicle bought off the Internet (Figure 10.11).45 Its task, they say, is a form of countersurveillance46 – it will work as a ‘tactical urban countersurveillance system [to] monitor public space’. Motivated by the sense that in contemporary politics ‘the real issues are above your heads’, the group’s drone
City 2.0: The Habitat of the Future and How to Get There
by Ted Books · 20 Feb 2013 · 83pp · 23,805 words
block, and eventually a local economy. This gathering is just one example of a movement happening all over the country: tactical urbanism. Also called DIY (do-it-yourself) urbanism or guerrilla urbanism, tactical urbanism uses short-term actions to catalyze real, long-term change. It might be quirky, but it’s a serious strategy
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for creating more vibrant, livable places through lightweight, temporary, grassroots projects called interventions. You’ve probably seen tactical urbanism at work, though you may not have recognized it as anything more than a hipster prank. Lampposts or tree trunks wrapped in brightly colored knitting
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and dominated by hordes of bicyclists, skateboarders, pedestrians, or even pole-vaulters? Open streets. Even the ersatz dinner in North Adams has a name: strEATing. Tactical urbanism melds elements of art, stagecraft, politics, citizen engagement, activism, science, and urban planning. It’s fun, but it also offers a remarkably practical way forward
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crafted experiments to test potential long-term improvements. Mike Lydon, Dan Bartman, Ronald Woudstra, and Aurash Khawarzad, the authors and lead instigators behind the first Tactical Urbanism guide, write, “Long-term change often starts with the process of trying something small. … There is real merit in a municipality spending $30,000 on
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, including Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., to name a few, are sanctioning activist efforts or even turning into tactical urbanists themselves. “Tactical urbanism has always been a combination of both bottom-up and top-down,” says Mike Lydon, quoted in Salon. There’s a need for a new
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” ethos of their parents, a slate of recent studies show that the rising Generation Y’s and Millennials want “smaller, closer, slower, more livable.”1 Tactical urbanism offers a way to revitalize neighborhoods and build those more livable urban environments right now and with minimal red tape. Increasingly — under cover of night
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businesses and revitalizing whole blocks, launching new entrepreneurs, and limiting traffic and pollution. Whether driven by cities or citizens, tactical urbanism has the power to transform our places, our neighborhoods, and our lives. Tactical urbanism is doing all of this on a shoestring, without years of permit processes and political wrangling — and that is
Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality
by Melissa Bruntlett and Chris Bruntlett · 27 Aug 2018 · 230pp · 71,834 words
half tired of grand plans that might never come to fruition, Sadik-Khan used a fresh “tactical urbanism” strategy to bring about change in a provisional and cost-effective manner. A growing practice among planners and advocates, tactical urbanism is the act of quickly transforming an existing space, using inexpensive materials, to temporarily create
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City will be monitoring this intersection closely. If deemed a success, it will be implemented in other problematic areas of Rotterdam. But of all the tactical urbanism interventions that Besselink has imported to Rotterdam during her tenure, she credits San Francisco’s PARKing Day as the start of it all. “It fit
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romantic idea of cycling for his fellow citizens. “After all, I wish that everybody can keep experiencing this remarkable phenomenon unconsciously,” he declares proudly. How Tactical Urbanism Helps Bostonians “Demand More” “As an architecture student, when you first get into school they tell you you’ll never be able to see the
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the street’ stuff,” Fertig declares proudly. The ‘on the street’ stuff is what Fertig is best known for, having made a name for himself through tactical-urbanism interventions in Boston. Like projects in Rotterdam and New York, his projects in Boston can be whimsical in their attempt to shed a positive light
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of which went viral on social media—the City stepped up and installed physical barriers, and thus began Fertig’s adventure into the world of tactical urbanism. Since that initial project, he has set up a crowdfunding webpage to raise money to temporarily upgrade other painted bike lanes in the Boston area
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at fault, all for the sake of convenience for the automobile. In the meantime, Fertig continues to direct his passion for better streets into new tactical-urbanism activations. And he is seeing change, although not as fast as he would hope. “I think, in the long run, Boston can start to resemble
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helps even the most auto-centric cities realize that “If they can do it, so can we.” Fertig sees the combination of social media and tactical urbanism as part of an increased demand from citizens for better mobility options. This is especially true when it comes to creating safe space for cycling
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natural disaster can benefit from nimble vehicles immune to the concerns of clogged streets, energy shortages, and flooded cars. “It is to cargo bikes what tactical urbanism is to activists, in that it gives them a real-life scenario to see how it goes, and to see what goes wrong and what
Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution
by Janette Sadik-Khan · 8 Mar 2016 · 441pp · 96,534 words
neighborhood streets, artificial turf or chairs in a parking space to create a park for a day, or yarn-bombing parking meters. In the book Tactical Urbanism, Mike Lydon and Anthony Garcia document the efforts of one neighborhood group in Hamilton, Ontario, that placed unauthorized traffic cones to create a neck-down
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.com/2013/04/04/guerrilla-road-safety-group-politely-installs-illegal-bike-lane-protectors-on-cherry-street/. In Dallas, neighbors: Mike Lydon and Anthony Garcia, Tactical Urbanism (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2015), 103–8, 121–22. CHAPTER 8: BIKE LANES AND THEIR DISCONTENTS “to talk about bicycles”: City Council, City of New
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, 27, 28 Summer Streets, 118–19, 122–23 Sunshine, Ken, 12 Superstorm Sandy, 189–90, 278–80 Sustainable Streets, 38 Sydney, Pitt Street, 50 T Tactical Urbanism: Short-term Action for Long-term Change (Lydon and Garcia), 135 Tahrir Square, 3 Taksim Square, 3 Taxis, 284–85 GPS-tracked traffic data, 101
Copenhagenize: The Definitive Guide to Global Bicycle Urbanism
by Mikael Colville-Andersen · 28 Mar 2018 · 293pp · 90,714 words
of demonstrations in the 1970s again anytime soon, we are now seeing smaller-scale activism with far-reaching effect through social media. While the phrase tactical urbanism is new, the idea is not. It is, however, on the rise all over the world as an effective tool for showing, as opposed to
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diverse as Mexico, Brazil, Latvia, and Japan, to name just a few. Jason Roberts and his Better Block Foundation are an amazing example of taking tactical urbanism to spectacular new levels. From the simple idea of temporarily transforming a run-down city block near Dallas, Better Block has now expanded We are
Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity
by Charles L. Marohn, Jr. · 24 Sep 2019 · 242pp · 71,943 words
. Give people confidence, and a little bit of room to be creative, and amazing things happen. I met Mike Lydon, one of the authors of Tactical Urbanism: Short-Term Action for Long-Term Change, back in 2010, when his ideas for iterating rapid change were forming. I must admit, I was still
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generating, all while improving the quality of life for people. This is how Mike and his colleague Anthony Garcia describe the process in their book, Tactical Urbanism. Tactical Urbanism is frequently applied to what urban sociologist William “Holly” Whyte called the “huge reservoir of space yet untapped by imagination.” Today’s reservoirs – vacant lots
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, pop-up stores, better block initiatives, chair bombing, parklets, shipping container markets, do-it-yourself (DIY) bike lanes, guerrilla gardens, and other hallmarks of the Tactical Urbanism movement.2 None of these projects were the result of a master plan, the formal process cities go through to envision change. Instead, these quick
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these iterative changes themselves. They developed an entire open-source catalog of hacks and improvements and made it available at betterblock.org. Together with the Tactical Urbanism toolbox, these are proven models for incremental approaches local leaders can use to make high-returning investments in any neighborhood. The keys to making this
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for an extended period of humility. Notes 1 “Paul Stewart on Neighborhood Revitalization”, Strong Towns Podcast, September 8, 2016. 2 Mike Lydon and Anthony Garcia, Tactical Urbanism, Short-Term Action for Long-Term Change (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2015). 9 Place-Oriented Government There was skepticism in the room when I finished
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critical, 182–183 fragile, 4 maintenance-free, 112–113 maintenance required to continue, 115 noncritical, 182 redundant, 182 T Taco John's, 132–134 Tactical Urbanism, 158–159 Tactical Urbanism (Lydon and Garcia), 158 Taleb, Nassim, 4, 59, 120–121, 193 Taxation, 46–50 Tax subsidies, for redevelopment, 133–134 Team approach, in local
Cities Are Good for You: The Genius of the Metropolis
by Leo Hollis · 31 Mar 2013 · 385pp · 118,314 words
destination with murals, food trucks, a dog park and a farmers’ market. Initiatives like Better Block are all part of a larger movement embraced by ‘tactical urbanism’. Here the emphasis is on incremental change from the bottom up, with a focus on five main goals: A deliberate phased approach to instigating change
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reward The development of social capital between citizens and the building of organisational capacity between public-private institutions, non-profit and their constituents.28 Such tactical urbanism can be found in many places: Depave is a group from Portland, Oregon that tears up unwanted asphalt and returns the land to gardens. The
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Spaces, Danish Architectural Press, 2003, p. 54. 26. Ibid., p. 58. 27. ‘The Origin of the Power of Ten’, www.pps.org/reference/poweroften 28. Tactical Urbanism, Volume 1, pp.1–2. Chapter 4: A Creative Place 1. www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010–11/04/david-cameron-silicon-roundabout 2
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Lindsay G., Instant Cities, www.greglindsay.org Lydon, M., Bartman, D., Woudstra, R. and Khawarzad, A., Tactical Urbanism, Volume 1, Next Generation of New Urbanists, 2011 Lydon, M., Bartman, D., Woudstra, R. and Khawarzad, A., Tactical Urbanism, Volume 2, Next Generation of New Urbanists, 2012 McKibben, B., Hope, Human and Wild, Milkweed Editions, 2007
Retrofitting Suburbia, Updated Edition: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs
by Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson · 23 Mar 2011 · 512pp · 131,112 words
The End of Traffic and the Future of Transport: Second Edition
by David Levinson and Kevin Krizek · 17 Aug 2015 · 257pp · 64,285 words
turning to plant-filled, orange five-gallon buckets from your local hardware superstore, or strips of green astroturf.288 These type of initiatives are termed 'tactical urbanism' or 'guerrilla traffic calming.'289 Sanctioned or unsanctioned by the community, the result might be parklets, 'Pavement to Plaza', or 'Build a Better Block' initiatives
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-summer-of-demos-one-day-protected-bike-lanes-sweep-across-america 289 Some say a more "strategic" variant is referred to as tactical urbanism. See Lydon, Mike and Garcia, Anthony (2015) Tactical Urbanism: Short-term Action for Long-term Change. Island Press. 290 City of Boulder. Colorado. Living Lab. https://bouldercolorado.gov/goboulder/bicycle
Bike Boom: The Unexpected Resurgence of Cycling
by Carlton Reid · 14 Jun 2017 · 309pp · 84,038 words
A Brief History of Motion: From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next
by Tom Standage · 16 Aug 2021 · 290pp · 85,847 words
Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the Quest for a New Utopia
by Anthony M. Townsend · 29 Sep 2013 · 464pp · 127,283 words
Where We Want to Live
by Ryan Gravel · 2 Feb 2016 · 259pp · 76,797 words
Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design
by Charles Montgomery · 12 Nov 2013 · 432pp · 124,635 words
The Future Is Analog: How to Create a More Human World
by David Sax · 15 Jan 2022 · 282pp · 93,783 words