Pedestrian Stories : Recovering Sustainable Urban Mobility

Pooley, Colin (2020) Pedestrian Stories : Recovering Sustainable Urban Mobility. In: A U-Turn to the Future : Sustainable Urban Mobility since 1850. Explorations in Mobility . Berghahn Books, New York. ISBN 9781789205596

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Abstract

For most of human history walking has been the principal form of transport for many journeys and it remains the most environmentally and socially sustainable way of travelling. This chapter uses data drawn from a range of qualitative sources to demonstrate how travelers’ attitudes to walking for everyday journeys have changed over time, and to examine the reasons for these changes. It is suggested that three factors have been especially significant: perceptions of normality, attitudes to risk and perceptions of busyness. I argue that the re-establishment of past attitudes towards walking could help to produce much more sustainable urban mobility.