Imagine Streets for People

Imagine Streets for People

"Why was John Lennon in Bed with a Bicycle in 1969?"

The words we use to describe how we move through cities don't just reflect reality; they shape it. They create it. The language of "traffic", "flow", and "congestion" shapes the streets we build, the policies we write, and the way we relate to each other in public space. If we want a genuinely different mobility system, we need to start by questioning the assumptions baked into how we talk about it, and imagining new ones.

Prof Marco te Brömmelstroet
Chair of Urban Mobility Futures, University of Amsterdam

Marco te Brömmelstroet holds the chair of Urban Mobility Futures at the University of Amsterdam, is the founder of the Urban Cycling Institute, and is currently the founding academic director of the Lab of Thought. In his teaching and research, he explores how worldviews and assumptions have created our contemporary mobility system and its problems. In his Lab work, he actively looks for alternative ways of thinking about mobility and streets. With these insights, he lets audiences understand their own role in the mobility transition.

The Master of Urban and Regional Planning Programme at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington gratefully acknowledges the support of

The Public Transport Association Australia New Zealand (PTAANZ https://ptaanz.org)

Boffa Miskell (https://www.boffamiskell.co.nz)

The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (https://www.netherlandsandyou.nl/web/new-zealand)

Their support has helped bring together people from across the sector to share ideas, learn from one another, and collaborate on shaping the future of our cities, communities, and transport networks. We are thankful for their role in making this event possible.