Friday afternoon traffic in Kraków (our new home region).
Surely, this could be a scene from a number of any cities globally.
Barring a total planetary catastrophe that would severely impact humans ability to use cars, the reality is that people will continue to drive and planning in many places will unfortunately often cater to the needs of vehicle users.
Kraków has been truly surprising to us in terms of the level of traffic congestion but also well developed pedestrian infrastructure and a robust public transit system in the city (both of which seem to also be receiving continuous investment and improvement).
The reality in this, as well as many other metropolitan regions, multi-dimensional and even perhaps even at times seemingly contradictory.
Our focus at pedestrianspace.org is on walkability and its central role in sustainable urbanism.
The broader part of this focus necessarily includes discussion on individual mobility choices, societal trends in mobility preference as well as municipal action and political will to transform systems to more sustainable models.
We look forward to expanding the dialogue, including into areas that might be difficult or tense, with regards to modal shift and mobility choice. We view this as one of the greatest challenges not only of this decade & potentially century but also as one of the greatest challenges for humankind.
-Annika, Founder & Editor at Pedestrian Space