Imagining the future of transportation. A blog by Matt Pinder.
After living car-free in downtown Toronto and Ottawa, I thought I could continue my car-free journey in the suburbs. For nine months, it worked fine, but eventually my wife and I caved.
A community is not simply car-dependent or not. Understanding the various levels of car-dependency can help us create more resilient and multimodal communities.
Hospitals are major destinations with unique travel demands. In our auto-centric world, the default assumption is that most people will drive there and that cycling is just not possible. But evidence locally and abroad shows that hospitals can be major cycling destinations – we just need to include the right ingredients.
Street design is not neutral: every subtle design detail reflects a community’s values, and comparing designs across communities reveals how those values differ.
Ottawa’s South Keys Centre is an unremarkable place, with a golden opportunity to become remarkable, setting an example for sustainable suburbs across the continent.
As language in general evolves to become more respectful, there is a lingering term in the roadway engineering profession that…
Continuous sidewalks centre the pedestrian experience in street design. No longer are pedestrians interrupted at every block to look both ways; instead the onus is shifted onto the motorists who become guests in pedestrian space.
