Biography of Dr. Bruce Appleyard

Dr. Bruce Appleyard is an Associate Professor of Urban Design and City Planning at San Diego State University where he  works with people and agencies to help them make more informed decisions about how we all live, work and thrive, now and well into the future.

Dr. Appleyard specializes in applied research of human settlement and behavior patterns at the intersection of urban design, transportation,  land use, environmental science & policy. His  work focuses on how policies and practices can be used in concert with one another to improve a range of sustainability, livability, and social equity, outcomes.

Working from the human to regional/ecosystem scale, he is an author of numerous peer-reviewed and professional publications and is a global thought leader on urban quality, the future of transport, and reimagining & redesigning streets for livability, placemaking, and especially for pedestrians and bicyclists. His expertise also extends to coordinating housing, land use, transport to help places become more sustainable, livable, healthy, and equitable. He recently published Livable Streets 2.0, a 600+ page book about the conflict, power, and promise of our streets (https://bit.ly/LivableStreets).

He also combines GIS and a variety visualization tools and methods to better engage members of the public in scenario planning, pedestrian and bicycle planning and design, and regional/local transportation & land use governance and policy integration.

He is also an expert in climate action planning, smart growth planning and implementation, real estate development analysis, and the spatial/cognitive relationships between people and place.

With over three decades of professional experience, Dr. Bruce Appleyard is skilled as a project manager, and has a diverse background, from working as a Smart Growth Policy Analyst and Advocate in the Southeastern US, to working as an Urban Designer in the Northwest.

He holds a Doctorate (as well as a Masters and Bachelors) from the University of California, in the town of Berkeley where he grew up.

Dr. Appleyard’s complete CV can be downloaded here.