Step Away from the Vehicle (And Take Back the Journey)

Walkability’s greatest gifts to health are most accessible when we encounter one another in the flesh. In pedestrian-friendly environments, others amenitize space. On the highway, they encumber it.

1 minute read

December 1, 2016, 6:00 AM PST

By Hazel Borys


"Leading into the Thanksgiving weekend, a video of holiday traffic on Los Angeles’ 405 Freeway hit the Twitterverse. Kinda hypnotizing, but probably not as fun to experience if you were in one of the cars 'stuck in traffic.' (Smart Growth transportation planners couldn’t resist tweeting one of their favorite jabs: 'If you find yourself in this situation, you’re not stuck in traffic. You ARE the traffic.')"

"Most of us have been the traffic at one time or another, crawling along in a slow-moving line, ruing the route we chose and cursing the billboard that creeps into view: 'If you lived here, you’d be home now.'”

Ben Brown talks about the difference in energy when we are queuing up in our cars, versus on foot with our neighbors. And how the urban context matters.

Image credit: Ben Brown CreativeCommons Sharealike License

Tuesday, November 29, 2016 in PlaceShakers

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