Rebecca Solnit Wanderlust, A History of Walking — “In a sense the car has become a prosthetic..."

Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking “In a sense the car has become a prosthetic, and though prosthetics are...

Posted by The Sidewalk Ballet on Friday, November 27, 2015

From Business in Vancouver — City streets are being returned to pedestrians

Peter Ladner (pladner@biv.com) co-founder of Business in Vancouver. 

He is a former Vancouver city councillor and former fellow at the SFU Centre for Dialogue, author of The Urban Food Revolution.

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Something very odd happened when the City of Vancouver recently announced yet another bike lane reducing car capacity on the Burrard Bridge: nothing.

A small furor rose like an angry baby alligator from the swamp, then settled back into the mud. (“Absolutely ridiculous. The amount of bike traffic doesn’t warrant another bike lane,” snarled the most-liked comment under CBC’s story, even as daily bike trips across the bridge were topping 6,000.) The Vancouver Sun printed a widely circulated editorial effectively saying “no big deal.” The NPA stared menacingly and moved on. The Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association was in favour. Read more: More steps being taken to return city streets to pedestrians | Transportation | Business in Vancouver

From born to walk — Walking meetings

Walking is increasingly part of the program at urbanist conferences and wellness conferences, and it shares the stage with cycling and mass transit at active transportation and sustainability gatherings, but we obsessive walkers get really excited when there’s an event where walking, as Henry David Thoreau wrote in his 1862 essay “Walking,” is “itself the enterprise and adventure of the day.” Every Body Walk! will be hosting its second annual National Walking Summit in Washington, D.C., in late October, but the cream of the crop is arguably the annual Walk21 conference, to be held in Vienna from October 20 to 23. This year’s motto is “stepping ahead,” and the event is intended to promote “activities and innovations towards the future of our resilient cities and healthy living environments.” Read more: Walking meetings | born to walk

Walking: Mon - Sun 24/7: free @aurbanist

In place of a #parking sign, someone placed a #walking sign. Cool! #Roncesvalles #Toronto #pedestrian pic.twitter.com/JoRb2WNqgZ

— AntonioGomez-Palacio (@aurbanist) October 11, 2014

Some great walks in New York City

New York City is a walker's paradise. Follow us on some great walks around the city, and then tell us about your favorites.

Posted by The New York Times on Thursday, April 23, 2015

If you go walking in New York City...

If you go walking in New York City early enough in the morning, who knows, you might witness a scene like this one, which became the cover of The Times Magazine's Walking New York issue.

Posted by The New York Times on Thursday, April 23, 2015

From CityMetric — Stand up for pedestrians – the forgotten travellers

Image: Matt Cornock via Flickr.

Almost all of us walk somewhere every day of our lives. According to the UK’s most recent National Travel Survey 22 per cent of all trips are undertaken on foot – and walking continues to be the second-most important form of transport for all journeys after travel by car or van. When it comes to short trips of less than a mile, walking is totally dominant, accounting for over 78 per cent . One third of all trips less than five miles in length are also on foot. Read more: Stand up for pedestrians – the forgotten travellers | CityMetric

La Habana Vieja #streetoftheday

@jen_keesmaat @NathanNWE La Habana Vieja — pic.twitter.com/IuftjWKKiX
— TheSidewalkBallet (@1sidewalkballet) April 18, 2015

#Walkability — planning from the sky vs. designing on the ground

A great case for #Walkability in this video by @gracenjohnson http://t.co/YdcnHDvOU5 #pedshed

— NewUrbanismFilmFest (@NwUrbanFilmFest) April 16, 2015

Pedestrians and cyclists battle for the road in Toulouse

#Pedestrians and #cyclists battle for the road in #Toulouse, #France @KatelynHewett http://t.co/o071H402az

— Renée van Staveren (@GlobalSitePlans) April 3, 2015

From CityLab — "Simple and Universal Law Governing Pedestrian Behaviour"

Big city sidewalks can feel like an inexplicable dance of elbows and shopping bags and baby strollers and pigeons and texting. But a group of crowd scientists has whittled the chaos to its core and found that, far from unpredictable, foot traffic follows a mathematical formula elegant for its simplicity. From Shibuya Crossing to Times Square we're all performing invisible calculus: computing other people's speeds and trajectories and adjusting our own accordingly. More at: University of Minnesota Researchers Propose a "Simple and Universal Law Governing Pedestrian Behavior" - CityLab

Pedestrians First @Penalosa_G

Pedestrians First from Knight Foundation on Vimeo.

From Planetizen — Todd Litman: Time Traffic Engineers moved beyond Roadway Level of Service (LOS) rating system

Evaluating transportation system performance based only on roadway LOS biases planning to favor automobile-oriented improvements, such as wider roads with higher design speeds, to the detriment of other modes, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of increased automobile dependency and reduced travel options. There is good evidence that communities which improve walking, cycling and public transit experience shifts to those modes, indicating latent demand. Read more: Reform Transport Engineering: Expand Beyond Just Roadway Level of Service (LOS) Ratings | Planetizen: The Urban Planning, Design, and Development Network

From Mother Jones — Which Kills More Americans: Guns or Cars?

Post by Mother Jones.

NYC lowered speed limit to 25. Other cities should do it too.

Post by Project for Public Spaces.

From Project for Public Spaces — How to Restore Walking as a Way of Life

The bias in our national philosophy towards high speed mobility has long been a topic that PPS has advocated against. In addition to stifling Placemaking, forcing people into cars has contributed to a host of growing national problems. Most compelling of those problems is the incredible pedestrian carnage. Yet until recently public outcry was minimal and government investment in transportation paid only lip service to annual fatalities that amount to the equivalent of one major airplane crash each month. Read more: Project for Public Spaces | How to Restore Walking as a Way of Life

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Jeff Speck's Albuquerque New Mexico Downtown Walkability Analysis

Albuquerque, New Mexico Downtown Walkability Analysis. This project focuses on walkability and connectivity in downtown, with special attention to the area surrounding the Convention Center and Innovate ABQ site as well as the railroad track at Central Avenue. Jeff Speck's final report submitted Sept 2014 here. More from the City of Albuquerque's website here.

Americans Don't Walk Much And I Don't Blame Them — @Kaid_in_DC in @HuffPostGreen

This won’t be breaking news to most readers, but Americans don’t walk very much. Periodically, National Geographic publishes a 17-nation “Greendex” study on, among many other things, transit use and walking. In 2012 Americans came in dead last on both indices, and it wasn’t close.  

Read more: Americans Don't Walk Much, and I Don't Blame Them | F. Kaid Benfield

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Mayoral candidate @christianwolmar proposes pedestrianisation of Oxford Street @standardnews

London mayoral candidate @christianwolmar proposes pedestrianisation of Oxford Street: http://t.co/HhgpZYMtCY pic.twitter.com/KvnEUl3jca
— Carlton Reid (@carltonreid) September 12, 2014

SF Polk Streetscape Project Overview @walksf @FolksForPolk

Post by Walk San Francisco.