Fewer Vehicles, Not Just EVs w/ RMI's Ben Holland

In this episode, I connect with Ben Holland, Senior Associate at RMI (Rocky Mountain Institute), for a conversation about why we need fewer motor vehicles, not just electric vehicles, and the inherent fragility of car-centric cities. Active Towns Landing Page for this Episode (for additional photos and content)In order to combat climate change, we know that we must electrify the motor vehicle fleet (and other fossil fuel burning engines for that matter) as soon as possible, but what we also need is far fewer motor vehicles on our roads (not to mention far fewer lane miles), especially in our cities. We also discuss the critical role that walkable urbanism, better land-use patterns, and active mobility networks appropriate for "All Ages & Abilities" play in our quest for sustainable, successful, equitable, and livable communities.Additional Helpful Links:Electric Cars Are Great, But Even Better: No Cars an article with Beth Osborne, Director of Transportation for AmericaTransportation for America: Driving Down Emissions RMI's Coming Back Stronger ReportRMI: Building Urbanism into Climate Policy RMI: We Need New HousingRMI: The Pandemic and Fragility of Auto-Centric CitiesRMI: Bringing Back Clean Air Bloomberg Newsletter: Need To Think Outside the Electric Car Ben's Guest Opinion regarding opening up West Pearl Street to DinersCNU - Congress for the New UrbanismCNU - Central Texas ChapterStrong TownsNRDC - (Natural Resources Defense Council)World Resource Institute (WRI)IPCC: Mitigation pathways compatible with 1.5°C in the context of sustainable developmentBetter BoulderBedrooms for PeopleSouthwest Energy Efficiency ProjectUC Davis VMT Induced Demand Calculator  RMI Colorado Induced Demand CalculatorUC Davis National Zero Carbon PlanSmart Growth America Martha Roskowski - Further Strategies Constantine Samaras - Low Carbon Transportation researcherTalking Headways/Overhead Wire Podcast Episode: Jeff Wood and BenChuck Marohn and James Howard Kunstler - Strong Towns Podcast: "Why can't we just have corner stores again..." @41:50Active Towns Podcast Episode w/ Jason Slaughter of Not Just BikesMelissa & Chris Bruntlett's Active Towns Podcast episode and their new book Curbing TrafficIndianapolis Cultural TrailFour Easy Steps to Support My Efforts:1. Become an Active Towns Ambassador by "Buying Me a Coffee" or by pledging as little as $1 per month on Patreon2. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a "thumbs up," leave a review on Apple Podcasts, and share it with a friend.3. Subscribe to the podcast on your preferred listening platform and the Active Towns YouTube Channel4. Pick up some Active Towns #StreetsAreForPeople Merch at my storeCredits:All video and audio production by John SimmermanMusic:Various mixes also by John SimmermanResources used during the production of this episode:- My awesome recording platform is Ecamm- Adobe Creative Cloud SuiteFor more information about my Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit my links below:- Website- Twitter- Newsletter- Podcast landing pages- Facebook- InstagramBackground:Hi Everyone, my name is John Simmerman.I’m a health promotion professional with over 30 years of experience and my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization of how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.In 2012 I launched the non-profit Advocates for Healthy Communities as an effort to help promote and create healthy, active places.Since that time, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be, in order to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."My Active Towns suite of channels feature my original video and audio content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.Thanks for tuning in; I hope you have found this content helpful.