In Praise of Walking by Shane O'Mara

Author:Shane O'Mara
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781473549913
Publisher: Random House

*

What gives our cities their vitality, attraction, upsides and downsides? How do walkable cities acquire their sociable character? What is it about cities that attracts people to live in them, despite their downsides? There is a density of social interaction afforded by crowding people into compact urban spaces. Cities do change you – and you won’t even know it. The life you have, the way you think about the future and the past will change if you are living in the city. Greater competition for resources subtly alters our behaviour in ways that we are hardly aware of, even the pace at which we walk. People leave the city to enjoy a slower pace of life, and go to the city in order to be stimulated by it.

I have often walked the towns and cities of Italy and have always been struck by that wonderful tradition of the passeggiata – the sociable, evening stroll along the streets, greeting and chatting with neighbours and friends. This habit of walking the city sums up everything good about urban walking and shows how entirely achievable this is as a daily activity, if only our cities were built for it. I offer the acronym EASE to assist our city designers. To enable the passeggiata, our cities should be easy (to walk); accessible (to all); safe (for everyone); and enjoyable (for all). The steps to make and remake our cities walkable are straightforward. We just need to take them.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.