Engineering + Urban Planning with Dr. Steve Hankey

Summary

The speaker discusses their work in urban planning, focusing on creating healthy environments for communities. This includes promoting active lifestyles through biking and walking, protecting against environmental hazards like air quality issues, and promoting mental health. Their journey into urban planning began after working at Zipcar, where they were introduced to urban planning concepts. The speaker appreciates the tangible changes urban planning can bring to communities, particularly through projects like trail systems and parkways. They emphasize the broad scope of urban planning, from housing to equity issues, and the importance of focusing on areas of personal impact.

Takeaways

• 🚴 Urban planning aims to create environments where every community can thrive, focusing on promoting healthy lifestyles.
• 🏃 The goal is to provide spaces where people can be active, like walking and biking areas, improving overall health.
• 🌳 Urban planning also addresses protection from environmental hazards, such as improving air quality and reducing exposure to contaminants.
• 🧠 A newer focus in urban planning is promoting mental health through thoughtful environmental design.
• 🏙️ The speaker's introduction to urban planning began after an engineering undergraduate degree, with practical work at Zipcar, which was influenced by urban planners.
• 🚗 Working with Zipcar exposed the speaker to various neighborhoods, fostering an interest in urban planning and community impact.
• 📚 The speaker pursued both urban planning and engineering in graduate school, expanding their understanding of the field.
• 👷 Unlike traditional engineering, urban planning allows for visible change on the ground, especially in community projects like bike and pedestrian paths.
• 🏞️ Projects in urban planning, such as trails and parkways, may progress slowly, but they lead to tangible improvements in the urban landscape.
• 🌆 Urban planning is a broad field, encompassing housing, environment, equity, and community engagement, requiring a focus on areas where one can make a significant impact.

Q & A

What is the speaker's definition of urban planning?

The speaker defines urban planning as creating processes and the ability to allow every community to thrive, with a focus on promoting a healthy lifestyle and protecting communities from environmental hazards.

How does the speaker connect urban planning to health?

The speaker connects urban planning to health by emphasizing the creation of spaces where people can be active (e.g., biking, walking) and are protected from environmental hazards like poor air quality. They also mention promoting mental health as a newer area of focus.

What kind of work has the speaker been involved in related to air quality?

The speaker mentions working on protecting communities from exposure to air quality issues and other contaminants as part of their urban planning efforts.

How did the speaker become interested in urban planning?

The speaker became interested in urban planning after working for Zipcar, where they were exposed to urban planning through projects involving placing cars in different neighborhoods. This experience, combined with their background in engineering, led them to study both urban planning and engineering in graduate school.

What did the speaker study in undergraduate and graduate school?

The speaker studied engineering in their undergraduate years and later pursued both urban planning and engineering in graduate school.

What is one of the aspects the speaker enjoys about urban planning?

The speaker enjoys seeing tangible changes in the urban environment as a result of their work, such as improved bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, which directly benefits the community.

What types of projects has the speaker worked on?

The speaker has worked on projects involving bicycle and pedestrian counts, planning trail systems, parkways, and other community-focused urban planning efforts.

How does the speaker feel about the pace of change in urban planning?

While the speaker acknowledges that change can be slower than desired, they find it rewarding to see gradual improvements in urban environments over time.

What makes urban planning a broad and complex field according to the speaker?

Urban planning is broad because it encompasses a wide range of issues, including housing, the environment, equity, and community engagement, making it a field with diverse and intersecting areas of focus.

What advice does the speaker offer for those entering the field of urban planning?

The speaker suggests that individuals entering the field should first explore various topics within urban planning and then focus on the areas where they feel they can make the most impact.

Outlines

00:00

🚴‍♀️ Promoting Community Health Through Active Lifestyles and Urban Planning

This paragraph discusses the importance of creating urban environments that promote community health. The speaker emphasizes providing spaces for physical activities like biking and walking, as well as ensuring protection from environmental hazards, such as poor air quality. Mental health is also highlighted as a growing focus. The speaker describes how urban planning can support these initiatives by creating spaces where people can live healthier lives. Their personal journey into urban planning began after their undergraduate studies in engineering, where they joined Zipcar and were exposed to urban planning concepts. This experience led them to pursue further education in both urban planning and engineering.

🌳 Impacting Communities through Urban Planning and Engineering

In this section, the speaker reflects on their career in urban planning and the ability to see tangible changes in the community over time. They express appreciation for how urban planning allows them to work directly with communities on projects like bicycle and pedestrian counts, planning trail systems, and parkways. Unlike other fields, urban planning enables professionals to witness real, gradual changes in neighborhoods. The speaker describes their experience working in Minneapolis and other areas, emphasizing the rewarding nature of seeing community transformations, even if progress may sometimes feel slow.

🏙️ The Broad Scope and Challenges of Urban Planning

Here, the speaker elaborates on the broad and multifaceted nature of urban planning, which includes addressing a wide range of issues such as housing, the environment, equity, and community engagement. While the broad scope of urban planning can be challenging, the speaker advises focusing on the areas where individuals can make the most impact. They recommend that by the end of one's time in the field, it's important to reflect on personal values and determine where to concentrate efforts in order to create meaningful change.

Keywords

💡Urban Planning

Urban planning refers to the process of designing and organizing urban spaces to create environments that enhance quality of life for communities. In the video, it encompasses activities like creating spaces for biking and walking, improving air quality, and promoting mental health. The speaker highlights how urban planning can lead to visible changes in communities, improving both physical and mental well-being.

💡Health

Health in the video is discussed as a broad concept that includes physical, environmental, and mental well-being. The speaker emphasizes how urban planning can promote healthy lifestyles by creating spaces for physical activities like biking and walking, while also addressing issues like air quality and mental health. Health is framed as a key outcome of effective urban planning.

💡Biking and Walking

Biking and walking are used in the video as examples of active modes of transportation that urban planning can promote. The speaker mentions the creation of spaces that encourage these activities as essential for public health, demonstrating how physical activity can be integrated into everyday life through well-planned urban spaces.

💡Air Quality

Air quality is presented as a crucial environmental concern in the context of urban planning. The speaker discusses how protecting communities from exposure to poor air quality and contaminants is part of creating healthy environments. Improving air quality through urban planning is an example of addressing environmental hazards in cities.

💡Mental Health

Mental health is identified as a newer area of focus in urban planning. The speaker mentions the importance of designing urban environments that support mental well-being, reflecting a holistic approach to health that includes both physical and psychological aspects. Urban spaces that promote relaxation, social interaction, and reduced stress can contribute to better mental health.

💡Community Engagement

Community engagement is described as a key aspect of urban planning in the video. It involves working with local residents to understand their needs and preferences, particularly when planning for changes in urban spaces like biking and walking paths. The speaker highlights that involving communities ensures that urban developments reflect the desires and well-being of the people who live there.

💡Equity

Equity is discussed as an important principle in urban planning. It refers to the fair distribution of resources and opportunities across different communities, ensuring that all groups, especially marginalized ones, have access to healthy environments. The speaker notes that equity is a broad topic within urban planning, emphasizing the need for fairness in addressing issues like housing, environmental quality, and public health.

💡Engineering

Engineering, in the context of the video, is the speaker's original field of study and serves as a foundation for their later work in urban planning. Engineering provides the technical skills needed for planning infrastructure, while urban planning adds the social and environmental perspectives necessary for creating healthy, livable communities. The speaker's transition from engineering to urban planning highlights the interdisciplinary nature of the field.

💡Environmental Hazards

Environmental hazards are risks posed by factors like pollution and contaminants, which can negatively affect health. The speaker mentions efforts to protect communities from such hazards as part of urban planning. Addressing these risks through urban planning can create safer, healthier environments for people to live and work in.

💡Visible Change

Visible change refers to the tangible, physical improvements that urban planners can witness over time as projects are implemented. The speaker talks about how they have seen communities transform through efforts like bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure projects. This concept illustrates the impact of urban planning in real-world settings and its ability to improve environments for residents.

Highlights

Urban planning focuses on creating processes and abilities to allow every community to thrive, particularly in the area of health.

Key areas of focus in urban planning for health include providing spaces for biking and walking and protecting people from environmental hazards.

Improving air quality and mental health are growing areas of emphasis within urban planning.

The speaker chose urban planning after an undergraduate degree in engineering and working at Zipcar, which was managed by urban planners.

Working at Zipcar involved understanding different neighborhoods and helped the speaker become more aware of urban planning issues.

The speaker pursued both urban planning and engineering in graduate school to broaden their expertise beyond just engineering.

One attractive aspect of urban planning is the ability to see tangible change over time in communities, unlike other fields.

Urban planning projects often involve working with communities on initiatives like bicycle and pedestrian counts, trail systems, and parkways.

The speaker has seen real-world changes in Minneapolis and other areas through these community-based projects.

Urban planning encompasses a broad range of topics, including housing, the environment, equity issues, and community engagement.

One challenge in urban planning is its wide scope, which includes anything you can imagine in an urban environment.

The speaker encourages individuals to explore a variety of urban planning topics before honing in on a specific area where they can make the most impact.

Urban planning allows practitioners to make an impact in the world by shaping the physical and social environments of cities.

The speaker highlights the satisfaction of seeing slow but meaningful progress in community projects.

Despite the broad nature of the field, urban planning offers the opportunity to engage with diverse challenges and solutions in city environments.

Transcripts

[Music]

by definition would be you know creating

the the processes and the ability to

allow every community to thrive a lot of

the work we do is on health you know and

instead of providing spaces and places

where people can have a healthy

lifestyle so for me that means you know

providing places where people can be

active so biking and walking you know in

a sort of frequent manner being

protected against environmental hazards

we do a lot of work with air quality so

protecting against you know exposure to

air quality and other contaminants you

know a newer area is having promoting

mental health so I guess sort of having

for health in a lot of different domains

but creating you know places in the

urban environment where people can be

healthy so I got I choose to urban

planning after I was an undergraduate

so my undergraduate was in engineering I

took a job with a company called Zipcar

out of college so car was run by a bunch

of urban planners you know or many urban

planners so I got really introduced to

the topic a lot of the work we were

doing was sort of you know locating zip

cars you know in different neighborhoods

and sort of learning about those

neighborhoods that kind of opened my

eyes up to it and when I decided to go

back to graduate school I you know

studied both urban planning and

engineering and so that's sort of you

know opened my eyes to sort of not only

the engineering side I guess which I was

you know trained in at the beginning but

also to to all the topics that are

within urban planning one thing I really

liked about it as opposed to sort of

some of the engineering things I had

worked on is that you get to see a lot

more change on the ground through a lot

of the projects that we've been working

on you know for me both in Minneapolis

and then then here as well you know a

lot of those projects have been working

with the community on bicycle and

pedestrian counts and planning for trail

systems and parkways and those sorts of

things and so you know over the years

you actually get to see the ground

change you know unlike a lot of fields

you know we're sort of out there working

with people and you actually get to see

the changes little by little which could

be maybe not as quick as you want a lot

of times but for me it's cool to see

that that happened one of the cool

things about it and I think one of the

tough things to tackle is that it's

really broad urban planning encompasses

anything you can imagine in a city or an

urban environment in so that could be

you know housing or the environment

or equity issues or community engagement

you know lots and lots of things and so

yeah I think it's useful to sort of

first try and take as much of that as

you can but then decide sure to where

you want to make your impact to try and

hone in by the end of your time here on

I'm sort of what what's important to you

and where you think you can make an

impact in the world and that's what's up