Category Archives: Pedestrian infrastructure

Chicago gets a “slow street,” sort of

Overcrowded sidewalks—a bad idea in a time of social distancing—have led many American cities to start a “slow streets” program, in which pedestrians and cyclists are encouraged to use the roadways of certain streets. Chicago came to this movement rather … Continue reading

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Pedestrian life in Chicago during the Coronavirus Pandemic

There have been hundreds of newspaper stories describing the emptiness of American cities during the Coronavirus Pandemic. This view doesn’t jibe with what I’ve observed at all. I’ll gladly admit that my experience during six weeks of “lockdown” (ever since March … Continue reading

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Miami Beach Walk comes close to being finished

I recently spent a week in Miami Beach, where I was delighted to discover that, since my last visit there two years ago, what is now known at Miami Beach Walk had been more or less completed. This is a … Continue reading

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Doha tries to become more “sustainable”

I spent the third week of January in Doha, Qatar. I’d been there only once before, on a one-day trip from Dubai in 2010. On the earlier trip, I’d been extremely impressed by the Corniche—and wasn’t much taken by anything … Continue reading

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Singapore’s Coast-to-Coast Trail

I’ve written about Singapore’s “park connectors” before. These are paths for pedestrians and cyclists that are generally separate from the city’s conventional sidewalks. The park connectors often follow Singapore’s coasts or its abundant watercourses. Sometimes they pass through parkland as … Continue reading

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Bordeaux pushes back—a little—against the automobile

I recently spent nearly a week in Bordeaux, a city I had previously been in only briefly. I was particularly interested in looking at all the ways that Bordeaux has been attempting to push back against the hegemony of the … Continue reading

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Using OpenStreetMap to map urban pedestrian facilities

Most of the maps on this site were created at least in part with GIS data from OpenStreetMap (OSM). OSM (for those who do not know) consists of GIS data—that is geographic data in a format usable by computer mapping … Continue reading

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Facilities for pedestrians and cyclists in central Moscow

Moscow, as I pointed out in an earlier post, is quite a good city for pedestrians. There are high-quality sidewalks nearly everywhere, and there are lots of people using them. The enormously varied and generally attractive built environment guarantees that … Continue reading

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Tokyo’s extraordinarily long recreational paths

Like Japan’s other coastal urban areas, the Tokyo region is crossed by several large rivers, among which the most important are the Ara (Arakawa 荒川), the Edo (Edogawa 江戸川), and the Tone (Tonegawa 利根川) east of the city and the … Continue reading

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The path along the Kamo River in Kyoto

Anyone who likes cities to be lively and full of people at all hours would appreciate cities in Japan. There are large numbers of pedestrians and cyclists not only in the central business districts but also in many of the … Continue reading

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