If you’re the type who likes to lace up your shoes and get from point A to point B by using the good old-fashioned power of your legs and feet, check out Canada’s most walkable cities according to Walkscore’s 2014 ratings.
It’s a charmed feature of family life that the oldest and youngest often find common cause. In league against the conservatism of parents, grandparents and grandkids might push for dessert before dinner or agree on the harmlessness of playing outside in the rain.
It seems that the two cohorts have also found themselves in a natural alliance on urban planning. Both the old and the young, according to surveys, want to live where they can walk, use transit, and enjoy public space.
A Vancouver Sun article reports on a new study, led by UBC professor Larry Frank, focussing on residents of Metro Vancouver. The study has provided more evidence that pedestrian-friendly communities are much healthier than car-dependent ones.
The study found people who live in pedestrian-friendly neighbourhoods walk five times a week for transportation compared with one or two times per week for those in auto-oriented neighbourhoods.
Paul Tranter’s talk was on the “hurry virus.” He presented a compelling argument for walking to be considered in the same vein as the slow food movement, as a measurement of scale and of activity.
Daniel Sauter from Switzerland was back with the metrics he is reviewing in establishing the best way to measure and survey walking.