Mike Lydon is a principal of Street Plans Collaborative, based in the Brooklyn, N.Y., and has been working with the town of Freeport to implement an active-living plan. As an internationally recognized planner, writer and advocate for livable cities, his work has been featured by NPR, the New York Times, CNN Headline News, the Atlantic Cities, Planetizen, Grist, Utne Reader, Salon, Next City, Architect Magazine, and Streetsblog, among other publications.

In 2009, Lydon collaborated with Andres Duany and Jeff Speck in writing “The Smart Growth Manual,” published by McGraw-Hill. He is also the creator and primary author of “The Open Streets Project and Tactical Urbanism: Short-Term Action, Long-Term Change Vol. 1 and Vol.2.” A founding member of the New England Chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism, he remains active in both local and national planning, design, and smart growth advocacy issues. He also speaks internationally on the topics of smart growth, livable cities, tactical urbanism, planning and social media, and complete streets/active transportation.

Before launching the firm in 2009, Lydon, who grew up in the Maine town of Washington, worked for Smart Growth Vermont, the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition, and the GetDowntown Program in Ann Arbor, Mich. He is an adviser to the Bicycle Coalition of Maine. As the lead consultant on the fledgling active living plan in Freeport, Lydon will be speaking at Freeport Community Services on Nov. 14 during an active-living plan summit designed to educate the public on what benefits the plan will bring to the town.

Lydon received a degree in American Cultural Studies from Bates College and a master’s in urban planning from the University of Michigan. He recently spoke with the Tri-Town Weekly on what an active plan is, his time in Maine, and where the idea for an active living plan stems from.

Q: The open streets movement is a component of an active living plan. How would you describe this?

A: It started in the 1960s as a way to counteract how automobile dominated streets were becoming. It was an idea in cities like New York, San Francisco and Seattle as a way to open streets for people to walk, bike and skate; basically to be active. Around that same time in the 1970s Bogota, Columbia started doing something similar and really scaled that up over time. By the early part of the last decade, they were doing about 70 miles of interconnected streets and closing off traffic every single week on Sunday.

Q: After closing off traffic, what types of things did Bogota do to encourage people to take advantage of the traffic-free zone?

A: They were having dances and other celebrations. People here in the states saw this but it never initially caught on as a big initiative. Around 2007, it started to come back into fashion here. There are now over 100 initiatives in North America, which is very exciting.

Q: The benefits of this plan may be obvious, but can you describe what those may be?

A: First and foremost, it’s about community. You get out into your main streets, neighborhoods, and downtown areas with hundreds or thousands of people in a way that’s not really commercialized. There’s not an explicit economic component, like with a festival or fair, to the active-living plan. It creates a great number of social connections and it can build constituencies of people to support investing in walking and biking infrastructure. The other benefit involves the small stores in a town. For example, in Los Angeles, businesses along the route of a similar project have seen a 10 percent increase in sales over time. Again, it’s not the point of the event but it’s pretty phenomenal that businesses do well and see repeat customers who have visited the store. With this plan, there is also a physical activity benefit by allowing people to take walks or bike along a route.

Q: With America’s love affair with the automobile, do you meet resistance to these ideas?

A: I think a lot of people are open to it politically as it benefits everyone. The challenge can be finding the money to pay for the implementation of the program. A lot of times the money can be grant sourced. There is some push-back occasionally from businesses to close off the streets to cars. It means sometimes that you can’t park a car in front of a particular store, a concern if you’re maybe selling washers and dryers. People tend to take advantage of this plan on the weekends when some stores are not doing a high volume of business. Once you walk people through it, they tend to see the benefits.

Q: Is Freeport well suited to the idea of an active-living plan?

A: I think it definitely is. There is a very strong community of people who are trying to organize around these ideas and connect existing elements of the town to an active living plan. There are a lot of facilities that people can use for walking or biking, but they are not connected. This can be instructive when designing for future projects to include bike paths and improve access for hiking, walking, mountain biking and snowshoeing.

Q: How about implementation of this plan?

A: We recommend trying it once a year; maybe have a bike festival and if it goes well, do it again next year. Start small and go from there. The point for us is to give them concrete suggestions on how to do this.

Q: Is this idea of an active-living plan and open streets becoming a national trend?

A: it is becoming a trend. We are seeing an increase of interest and demand. It’s cultural and generational, too. There was a knee-jerk reaction to how far we went in making infrastructure for cars. People are looking for new opportunities to be mobile and healthy without necessarily stuck in traffic in a car. It’s been a long time in the making; the oil embargo of the 70s was a part of it. People are open to different ideas and it mirrors other trends including locally sourced food and an emphasis on community.

Mike Lydon, of the New York-based Street Plans Collaborative, has been working with the town of Freeport to implement an active-living plan that would encourage more physical activity and foster a sense of community.