The Importance of Livable Streets with Bruce Appleyard

The Importance of Livable Streets with Bruce Appleyard

From The War on Cars by The War on Cars, LLC

January 20, 2026 · 53 min · Episode 165

About this episode

Dr. Bruce Appleyard discusses the significance of designing streets with human needs in mind and the impact of car-centric infrastructure on communities.

We talked with Dr. Bruce Appleyard, who has spent a lifetime thinking about what we mean when we talk about liveable streets—and why it is so important that we build our cities with human beings in mind, first and foremost. Bruce's research makes an appearance in Life After Cars, and his father, Donald Appleyard, was a legend in this field for his work that led to the indispensable book Livable Streets, published in 1981. In 2020 Bruce published Livable Streets 2.0, which brings his father's book up to date while preserving its core principles and teachings. We talked with him about how streets can foster (or erode) social ties in our communities, how car-centric infrastructure harms children's ability to navigate, and how we can fulfill what his father called "the promise of our streets." 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! 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…

People in this episode

Host: The War on Cars

Guest: Bruce Appleyard

Topics covered

Keywords

Sponsors

Cleverhood

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Thesis, Penguin Random House

Books & works: Livable Streets, Livable Streets 2.0, Life After Cars

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