Author Archives: Christopher Winters

Pedestrian life in Abu Dhabi

I spent a few days in Abu Dhabi in early March. I had been there once before, but only for a couple of hours on a very hot day in 2010. This was my first extended stay in the city. … Continue reading

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The “park connectors” of Punggol and Sengkang, Singapore

I wrote about Singapore’s “park connectors” in an earlier post. Park connectors are paths for pedestrians and cyclists that now provide access to much of Singapore. They have been built quite self-consciously to promote Singapore’s goal of becoming a “car-lite” … Continue reading

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Smoking restrictions on Orchard Road, Singapore

Orchard Road is Singapore’s main shopping street and one of its top tourist destinations. It’s probably fair to say it’s one of the most successful commercial areas anywhere. A recent survey rated Orchard Road the best shopping street in the world. Orchard … Continue reading

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Change in population by “race” and Hispanic status, Chicago area, 2010-2013/2017

The Census Bureau released the 2013/2017 American Community Survey (ACS) tract-level data last month. I’ve used these data to map tract-level changes in population by “race” and Hispanic status between 2010 and 2013/2017 for the Chicago area. These maps are … Continue reading

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Dubai becomes a little more walkable

Dubai is known as a very car-oriented place. Exhibit number one is Sheikh Zayed Road, a 16-to-24-lane limited-access highway that extends through nearly the whole length of Dubai’s post-1990s neighborhoods including those containing most of the city’s famous skyscrapers. Pedestrian … Continue reading

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New streetcar lines in St. Louis and Milwaukee

Two Midwestern cities—St. Louis and Milwaukee—both acquired new streetcar lines in November, and I went and rode them last week. The lines are comparable in size. Both are miniscule given that they’re in urban areas that are dozens of kilometers across. … Continue reading

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“Transit villages” in Hong Kong that predate the use of the term “transit village”

Hong Kong has four quite distinct urban rail systems: [1] the MTR (Mass Transit Railway), which consists of approximately 231 km of modern urban rail lines that run throughout the special administrative region; it incorporates the formerly separate lines of … Continue reading

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Was Chicago still building “too much” in 2017?

I put up posts in 2016 and 2017 in which I pointed out that, given Chicago’s continued population losses, there was an enormous amount of building in the Chicago urban area, or at least an enormous amount of building-permit filing. … Continue reading

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Lyon’s Confluence

A simplistic view of post-World-War-II French urban transportation planning would identify two very different phases. In the 1950s and 1960s, and well into the 1970s, the government largely devoted itself to catering to the automobile. Limited-access highways were built to connect French … Continue reading

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Schuylkill Banks makes Center City even better

Philadelphia’s Center City (which I recently visited for the first time in more than a decade) is one of the United States’ finest pedestrian spaces. It’s possible to walk comfortably just about anywhere within its roughly twelve square kilometers, and, when you … Continue reading

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