[This content first appeared on LinkedIn on 22 January 2025]
In the news this week: Cool streets! Trump! Walkability!
What a difference a Monday in January makes. While President Trump has just withdrawn the US from the Paris Climate accord and intends to “drill, baby, drill”, there is still good news for environmentalists and those with a general interest in the ongoing survival of the human project from elsewhere in the world.
In Seoul, the Cheonggyecheon stream has been successfully released from its concrete prison beneath an elevated highway and turned into a highly loved and popular space for pedestrians and cyclists.
While we aren’t likely to see anything like this occurring in the US anytime soon, the Cheonggyecheon project was one of the first to start a trend of cities turning car dominated spaces into oases for walkers and wheelers. See also New York’s High Line, Utrecht’s city moat and the Paris Plages on the banks of the Seine.
As Jan Gehl has always said: you get what you invite. And these projects are certainly doing much to invite people on foot or bike back into the city centres.
In addition, the Seoul Institute has reported that the area around the stream is now 3.6oc cooler than surrounding streets and nitrogen dioxide levels have fallen by 35%. The stream supports 174 animal species and 492 plant species. Further, the Cheonggyecheon has been designed to handle 200-year flood events.
As Cheonggyecheon is seasonal, it unsurprisingly costs quite a bit of cheddar to keep it wet year-round. But the benefits to the environment, residents and visitors can’t be underestimated. You get what you invite.
So, let’s stick with the walkability theme for a moment.
In what feels like 27 years ago, ARUP published their ‘Cities Alive – Towards a walking world’ report. At the time, the report was picked up by Fast Company, who published a handy synopsis of the ’50 Reasons Why Everyone Should Want More Walkable Streets’ on their website in 2016.
My angle is street safety and the urbanism of Jane Jacobs – if people feel safe in a place, they’ll use it. Not all walkable environments achieve this, so let’s take a quick run through some of the benefits on offer if you can get it right:
- Eyes on the street – which I’ve commented on before…
- Crime reduction – e.g. 74% drop in one Kansas City neighbourhood when some streets went car-free on weekends…
- Universally accessible – not everyone can or wants to drive, enabling everyone to visit can only be good for diversity and safety
- Social interaction – trivial interaction with strangers creates a web of trust…
- Public transit – a pleasant, safe walk to the transit stop will… wait for it… encourage people to use public transport
These things are not complicated. This is Urban Design 101 for placemakers. We get what we invite.
#placemaking #cheonggyecheon #walkability #janejacobs #jangehl #ARUP #urbanism
