Join our joint online event with Queen's University Belfast: "Confessions of a Recovering Engineer" with Charles Marohn on January 24, 2023.

This is part of the Planning the Post-Pandemic City lecture series exploring how we can re-imagine our post-pandemic cities to be more inclusive, green and liveable.

About this event series:

The global COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and magnified issues of urban inequality and environmental justice. Quarantine measures and the shutdown of city centres have highlighted the extent to which urban land is dominated by road and car parking infrastructure. In many places, air quality has improved, nature has become more prominent and neighbours are starting to speak for the first time. This online lecture series organised by the Planning Society at Queen's University Belfast, will explore, through comparative practice, how planning can re-imagine our cities to enhance well-being through creating more vibrant, sustainable and biodiverse places.

About this event:

24th January 2023 at 16.00 GMT - "Confessions of a Recovering Engineer" with Chuck Marohn (Strong Towns) organised by the Planning School at Queen's University Belfast and the Transport Planning Society

In Confessions of a Recovering Engineer, Strong Towns founder and president Charles Marohn pulls back the curtain on the North American transportation system. Drawing on his decades of experience as a professional engineer and planner, he explains why the conventional approach to traffic engineering is making people less safe, bankrupting towns and cities, destroying the fabric of communities, and actually worsening the problems (like congestion) engineers set out to solve.

He also talks about how transportation can be fixed—and why fixing it will involve not just engineers, but local residents and officials who have become effective and empowered advocates, connected with others to make real change. It is possible to build a transportation system that makes you, your family, and your community safer and more prosperous.

Charles Marohn—known as “Chuck” to friends and colleagues—is the founder and president of Strong Towns, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building stronger and more financially cities. He is a land use planner and (now retired) engineer with decades of experience. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning, both from the University of Minnesota.

Marohn is the author of Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity (Wiley, 2019). He hosts the Strong Towns Podcast and is a primary writer for Strong Towns’ web content, which annually reaches more than 2 million people. He has presented Strong Towns concepts in hundreds of cities and towns across North America. Planetizen named him one of the 10 Most Influential Urbanists of all time.

The Transport Planning Society seeks to facilitate, develop and promote best practice and innovation in transport planning and provide a focus for dialogue between all those engaged in it whatever their background. The Society recently released its State of the Nations Update – available here: https://tps.org.uk/tps-policy/state-of-the-nations-update-2022

Any questions can be forwarded to Dr Neil Galway - n.galway@qub.ac.uk