The RegenNarration 240. World’s Best Place for Active Transport, with Streets for People co-founder Shannon Leigh
Shannon Leigh is co-founder and Director of Streets for People, and previously an award-winning urban and transport planner at the Department of Transport and later Curtin University. Investment in active transport is one of the most livelihood-rich, climate-friendly measures available. And given cost blow-outs in public health, climate related damage, and car dominated infrastructure, it’s another vital transition more of us are after – especially in the wake of the tripling of cycling in Perth since COVID-19.
On that alone, WA’s former Auditor General, Colin Murphy, said that “It is hard to think of an activity with more benefits than cycling, for cyclists and for the wider community.” So to talk more about an active transport vision for WA, Shannon takes us to one of her favourite shared pathways by the Swan River.
This episode was originally released as part of a series of nine episodes I produced a few years ago for the Clean State podcast, dedicated to regenerative transitions in my home state of Western Australia. Sadly, the podcast and its host non-profit are no more. But the series of episodes featured such brilliant guests and stories, that are still so very relevant, and not just to West Australians, so we resolved to re-release them here.
To hear the rest of the Clean State series, and more stories of regeneration from around WA, Australia and the world, follow The RegenNarration wherever podcasts are found, or on the website.
You can access the Clean State Plan, and its brilliantly formatted Summary, towards the bottom of the episode web page (where you can also find a four minute bonus episode of previously unreleased material from this conversation, if you didn't catch it in your podcast feed).
And for more from behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Recorded in October 2020.
Title slide: Shannon Leigh by the Swan River / Derbal Yerrigan for this conversation (pic: Anthony James).
With thanks to the Conservation Council of WA, auspicing organisation for Clean State WA, for permission to re-release this series.
Music:
Eden is Lost, by Selfless Orchestra.
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