Stockholm Correspondent Doru Oprisan

Introducing Stockholm Correspondent Doru Oprisan!

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 grateful to welcome Doru as a Stockholm Correspondent to our growing network of individuals who are passionate walkability advocates.

WHO

I am a bit of a weirdo in the urban mobility crowd, as I don’t have a classic background in urban planning, architecture, or related fields. Instead, I’ve been connected to these issues in three different ways: first, as a radio journalist, talking for years about all kinds of social issues, and increasingly in recent years about urban mobility and sustainability aspects. Second, as a person who loves nature, walking, and cycling, but was stuck in a city completely overrun by cars, where every single journey outside was an infuriating experience. And lastly, as a photographer who found it impossible to photograph anything in that city without cars being part of the frame.

Walkability interests me because I lived in a city where walking hand in hand with someone is impossible in many places, because of the cars that have taken up the sidewalks almost completely; a city where mothers have to push their strollers on the street, in traffic, because the sidewalks are full of parked cars.

Doru Oprisan

WHERE

I recently moved from Bucharest, Romania to Stockholm, Sweden and I will be a correspondent for the latter. I bring with me first-hand knowledge about the extreme damage cars can inflict on a city and at the same time, I have a fresh perspective of the place that I live in now. I appreciate everything from bike lanes to public transport by boat, to illuminated forest trails far outside the city, and so on, in a way that a local wouldn’t be able to, while also being aware of how all of it could look if we would listen to drivers.

There are plenty of issues in Stockholm as well, and I believe I have a heightened sense of the long-term harmful potential of some of them. The main issue here is that Stockholm has been for decades a car-centric city in a car-centric country, and only recently it began developing a serious cycling network, so there is a lot of infrastructure designed just for the automobile, and, of course, people are quite attached to their cars. Fortunately, they also love nature and outdoor activities, so there’s hope for positive change.

WHY WALKABILITY

Walkability interests me because I lived in a city where walking hand in hand with someone is impossible in many places, because of the cars that have taken up the sidewalks almost completely; a city where mothers have to push their strollers on the street, in traffic, because the sidewalks are full of parked cars. I hate how drivers feel so entitled to occupy spaces that don’t belong to them. Unfair situations trigger me pretty quickly.

I appreciate everything from bike lanes to public transport by boat, to illuminated forest trails far outside the city…

Doru Oprisan

I am interested to see how people in this network are doing their part in creating better cities while finding my own way of getting more involved and help in. I look forward to sharing my own perspective via photo essays and some observations from Stockholm, also having in mind my experiences from Bucharest.

Learn more about the Global Walkability Correspondents Network here