Friction Budgets Meet Bike Sheds: A Regional Planner's Readiness Check
You know the scene. A public meeting on a mixed-use corridor. Forty minutes on bench color, two minutes on the parking requirement that could kill the whole project. That's bike-shedding—the tendency to spend disproportionate energy on trivial details. And underneath it, there's often a quieter issue: the friction budget. Residents and staff only have so much patience for process. Every extra form, every delay, every redundant review chips away at that budget. When it's gone, even good proposals get blocked. This piece is a readiness check for planners who suspect those two forces are colliding in their own work. It's not theory. It's a field guide, built from the messy reality of zoning board agendas, environmental review timelines, and stakeholder fatigue. Let's dig in.