Introducing our Vancouver, BC-based correspondent Isabel Garcia !
Here at Pedestrian Space we recently launched a Global Walkability Correspondents Network, as a way to build solidarity among walkability advocates around the world and continue to create media on sustainable mobility and urbanism.
We are so happy and fortunate to have Vancouver-based Isabel on board as our Metro Vancouver area Correspondent. Read on for some of her thoughts as we launch this network.
The main issue of the region is that in the last several decades it has been developed in a car-centric way. Now, this is intrinsic in the culture and it is difficult to switch to more sustainable mobility behaviour.
Isabel Garcia
WHO
I used to be an airport engineer in Spain. Now I am a full-time mom and part-time walkable city advocate. I have always believed and promoted safe and comfortable environments for people to move.
WHERE
I live on the unceded ancestral lands of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) Nations, now known as Vancouver, BC, Canada. The main issue of the region is that in the last several decades it has been developed in a car-centric way. Now, this is intrinsic in the culture and it is difficult to switch to more sustainable mobility behaviour.
The need to depend on a vehicle on a daily basis adds a stress, cost and ability factor that shouldn’t be imposed on everyone. Regular walking brings better physical and mental health. Also, it’s probably one gentle way to tackle the climate crisis we are living.
Isabel Garcia
WHY WALKABILITY
We all “walk”. Walking/rolling, described as the most simple form of movement that we are able to perform, should allow us to have a daily routine independently and freely. The need to depend on a vehicle on a daily basis adds a stress, cost and ability factor that shouldn’t be imposed on everyone. Regular walking brings better physical and mental health. Also, it’s probably one gentle way to tackle the climate crisis we are living.
Isabel is an airport engineer and an advocate for walking and public transit as an accessible, healthy means of getting around without relying on personal automobile ownership. She promotes safe and comfortable environments for people to move.
Learn more about the Global Walkability Correspondents Network here