Planning Livable Downtowns with Brent Toderian
The War on Cars
The War on Cars, LLC
4.9 • 937 Ratings
🗓️ 24 February 2026
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Brent Toderian has decades of experience in city planning, urban design, and transportation. He was chief planner for the city of Vancouver from 2006 to 2012, a time when the city hosted and was transformed by the Winter Olympics. As a consultant, Brent has advised and collaborated with folks from Auckland to Buenos Aires to Copenhagen to Reykjavik, and he often sparks conversation on social media, where he is one of the most prominent voices advocating for more human and humane urban design. We talked with him about how to make downtowns attractive and livable for families, why developers should value regulation, and that legendary urban Costco in Vancouver. Plus, Brent gives us the scoop on the new Urban Truth Collective and its mission to beat back the lies people tell about cities.
Join The War on Cars on Patreon and listen to exclusive ad-free versions of regular episodes, Patreon-only bonus content, Discord access, invitations to live events, merch discounts and free stickers!
Find out more about Brent Toderian and all his projects at his website, and follow him on Bluesky.
And check out the brand-new Urban Truth Collective, Brent's collaboration with Tom Flood and Grant Ennis.
Order our new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Find us on tour and get tickets at lifeaftercars.com.
Thanks to Cleverhood for sponsoring this episode. Listen to this episode for the latest discount code and get the best rain gear for walking and cycling.
The War on Cars is produced with support from the Helen and William Mazer Foundation.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We are heading into one of the most unpredictable times of the year in terms of weather. |
| 0:08.0 | As winter loosens its grip and spring beckons on the horizon, pretty much anything can happen at any time. |
| 0:16.0 | And I love it. |
| 0:18.0 | The trick to rolling with the meteorological punches is having the right gear, |
| 0:23.6 | and my cleverhood zipster is an indispensable part of my kit. Alone or layered over a puffer |
| 0:30.1 | or fleece, it lets me brave the ever-changing elements and enjoy the wild ride of late winter to the |
| 0:37.1 | fullest. |
| 0:38.6 | Right now, through the end of February, you can get 15% off the Zipster and all the other great |
| 0:44.5 | cleverhood gear at cleverhood.com slash war on cars. |
| 0:49.3 | Just enter code, kiss me, you fool, at checkout. |
| 0:52.7 | And enjoy the ride. The problem with American conversations |
| 1:01.8 | about this is that brings up the R word, regulation, you know, which is like this evil word in the |
| 1:08.2 | United States, which is just ideology. I always say it's your |
| 1:11.2 | ideology that's keeping you from succeeding. When I work with my American cities, you tell me what |
| 1:16.1 | you want. I'll tell you how to get it. But if you say, oh, I can't do that because it's against |
| 1:20.5 | my ideology of zero regulation or regulation being bad, well, then you're not going to succeed. |
| 1:27.1 | That's the truth of it. |
| 1:33.1 | This is the War on Cars. I'm Sarah Goodyear. Doug is away this week. We have got a terrific |
| 1:40.7 | guest with us today who has a lot to say about building better cities |
| 1:45.2 | and who speaks with a special kind of authority because he has actually done the work |
| 1:51.7 | to make that change in cities around the globe. |
| 1:56.2 | We'll get to that conversation in a moment, but first we have some quick business to take care of. If you like what |
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