Walkable Cities

In the past few months, we have explored various planning topics in relation to how cities are shaping themselves in the post-Covid world. Adding on the topics we have covered, in this issue, we will be focusing on one of the hottest planning topics in recent years – Walkability. Cities around the world are heading towards becoming a more walkable city. Being walkable does not only mean that we can enjoy our surrounding environment more, it also means that we are encouraged to walk more, exercise more, and thereby becoming healthier. Let’s have a look at some inspiring videos on walkability as we “walk into 2021”!

Let’s begin with a brief introduction of the term “walkability”. The importance of walkability is being highlighted in this video:

The next video introduces the idea of using “superblocks” in the city, which is an urban design concept intended to minimise car usage in the city centre. This design concept has been robustly tested out in Barcelona:

Following the above videos, the video below outlines some of principles and theories behind building a walkable environment. More so, it explores the psychological aspect of walkability:

A recent initiative of “a 15-minute city” has been embarked around the world. The movement has an aim to make everything we need within a few minutes out of our front doors. Council Global Cities fellow Samuel Kling illustrates the making of a “15-minute city” using the recent plans announced by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo:

Speaker: Samuel Kling, Global Cities Fellow and ASLS/Mellon Public Fellow Chicago Council on Global Affairs

In the next video, let’s have a listen to a city planner from the United States - Jeff Speck, who is an established advocate of walkability. In this video, the speaker proposes four planning principles for building walkable cities. The presentation offers concrete and relevant examples of how to design and turn our streets to more walkable ones:

Speaker: Jeff Speck, City Planner, Urban Designer and Author from The United States