On a (thankfully) rainy morning today here in Warsaw, I went on a walk for some neighborhood errands and also some morning movement with my son after dropping my daughter off at school.
As we navigated the puddles and went about our errands, I was transported to my childhood and the summer vacations I would often take with my father to his home city Malmö.
I usually refer to those summer holidays when I share about my walkability story as those early experiences are seminal for my whole value system of deeply valuing the ability to walk and use public transit in my daily life.

Coming from our car-dependent lifestyles in the USA to an environment where we could rely on our feet and public transportation to move around the suburbs where we stayed with family as well as to and from the city was, I realized at some point as an adult, quietly thrilling and so special to me at that time, as a child.
At Pedestrian Space I operate at what I view as the juicy intersection of media, advocacy and research to explore and document diverse best practices and barriers to walkability as well as other aspects of urban resilience. In my work across media, advocacy and research, the central thesis is that walkability is foundational to sustainable urbanism.

While I value being connected to so many likeminded peers who not only ‘get it’ with walkability but are also working in all the myriad ways we need to promote & develop more walkable towns and cities, it is incredibly important for me to move ‘beyond the silo’ and connect with people who have never even heard of walkability and haven’t devoted much time at all to considering the value of public transportation for their community (though some of them might revel in a totally walkable lifestyle while on holiday themselves).

Storytelling is for me a direct path to connecting with people & busting out of that silo. Part of the change we need in our communities is about consciousness & no amount of data is going to change that. It begins with conversations, awareness, creating space to unpack experiences and also to realize that another way is possible.
