See the videos of Dan’s visit. Click here.

Walkability expert Dan Burden will be in Humboldt County on July 22nd to the 25th — Saturday through Tuesday.

• Named by TIME as “one of the six most important civic innovators in the world.”
• Named by Planetizen as one of the “Top 100 urbanists of all time.”
• Recognized by the White House as one of the top ten Champions of Change in Transportation

Free events will take place in Arcata, McKinleyville,  Eureka, and Blue Lake. 

For further information, contact Oona Smith, Senior Regional Planner, Humboldt County Association of Government — oona.smith at hcaog.net 

From the Project for Public Spaces website:

Dan Burden is the Director of Innovation and Inspiration at Blue Zones, as well as cofounder and former Executive Director of the Walkable and Livable Communities (WALC) Institute, a nonprofit organization that works throughout North America and the world to create healthy, connected communities that support active living and advance opportunities for all people through walkable streets, livable cities, and better built environments.

In his work, Dan brings together many disciplines and issues — such as street design, public safety, economic development and land-use planning — to create a holistic vision for healthy communities that are pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly. He is considered an international expert in walkability, bikeability, traffic calming, and road diets.

Burden has spent more than 40 years helping to get the world “back on its feet.” His efforts earned him the first-ever lifetime-achievement award, issued by the New Partners for Smart Growth and the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals. Additionally, in 2001, Burden was named by TIME magazine as “one of the six most important civic innovators in the world.” Also that year, he became Distinguished Lecturer for the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2009, a user poll by Planetizen named him one of the Top 100 Urban Thinkers of all time.

from the Walkable Communities website:

• There are few people in the country who know more about traffic calming practices, access management, intersection design and other strategies for creating pedestrian and bicycle friendly communities than Dan Burden. He has taught bicycle and pedestrian facility design courses in hundreds of different communities throughout the nation.
• Dan has personally photographed and examined walking and bicycling conditions in over 200 cities in the U.S. and abroad. He worked as a bicycle consultant in China for the United Nations in 1994, and he has been to Australia and many European countries to photograph their great cities. His pictures have been published in the New York Times, National Geographic, Better Homes and Gardens, Sierra Club calendars and Weekly Reader. Presentations are always richly illustrated with examples from near and far. Dan is currently part of a team collecting (videotaping) and analyzing traffic calming and innovative pedestrian facilities throughout the U.S.
• Dan served as the principle writer for the National Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning and Design Curriculum, being introduced at many universities. His insights are becoming a model for college courses in civil engineering and urban planning departments throughout the country. He serves as one of the main course instructors for the NHI (National Highway Institute) course on Bicycle and Pedestrian Facility Design. Dan has given staff training to traffic engineers, planners and community redevelopers across the country.

Walkable Communities, Inc., is a non-profit that Dan Burden founded in 1996 and is currently the Executive Director.  Read more about Dan and Walkable Communities at their website, here.