From RaisetheHammer.org — Toronto's Chief Planner Keesmaat Addresses Hamilton Ont The Ambitious City Conference

Jennifer Keesmaat, Chief Planner for the City of Toronto and one of the most highly regarded planning professionals in North America, addressing The Ambitious City event in Hamilton Ontario . 

Keesmaat's first principle is that great cities design their places and streets for people, not cars. She contrasted the old paradigm of designing for cars, which simply leads to more cars, with the new paradigm of designing for people, which leads to more people.

Following from this, great cities have neighbourhoods with central main streets that provide a variety of amenities. "Places where you have multiple destinations within a five minute walk from home...give you a reason to be in public space."

To make great neighbourhoods work, people need a variety of ways to get around: walkable streets, bike lanes and good transit as well as automobile lane capacity. "If you do it right, you will encourage people to choose other ways to get around." Read more: Inspiring Talk on The Ambitious City by Toronto's Chief Planner - Raise the Hammer