Over at Grist, they’ve just published a list of top 10 walking cities the world over.

Australian cities often makes lists of ‘most liveable’ and most naturally beautiful cities in the world. However, when it came to walkability, we didn’t make the cut, and I’m not the tiniest bit surprised.

I have recently returned home to Sydney after two years in the UK, and the first things that struck me about Sydney were:

- the sheer number of large roads and freeways

- the congestion in Sydney and associated pollution and travelling times (even on public transport or a bike)

- the waiting times for pedestrians at traffic lights

- the frequent feeling that you’re walking down the side of a freeway. Even on a walkway that is heavily trafficked by pedestrians, you feel like the place is meant for cars, and you’re not meant to be there.

I remember feeling this when I visited Canberra a number of years ago. A city obviously designed when cars were the the future, it’s a minefield as a pedestrian tourist.  Everything is so spaced out that, in a one or two day visit, it’s almost impossible to see much unless you’re using a car (or have a chauffeur as I assume alot of important visitors to Canberra do).  When visiting the War Memorial I was told that buses back to the city only ran once every two hours on a Sunday.

And there was a pervasive sense that pedestrians were the aliens in spaces that were built for vehicles.

Compare this to cities in Europe where whole districts have single-lane roads or no roads at all for vehicles, instead dedicated bike lanes and walking paths. Providing beautiful spaces to walk and enjoy a city are obvious priorities for some planners, and the pay-offs are enormous.

I really do dream of a Sydney where the only sound you could hear was a whizz of spokes or the clop of heels, rather than the constant drone of 4 lanes of traffic. I know not everyone is going to be an advocate for tearing down all the freeways in Sydney to put in bike lanes, despite the strong economic arguments for doing so, but everyone uses their feet and it is true that a great walking city makes for a really great city.

So what’s being done about this?

At a recent ‘City Talks’ evening discussing the Walsh Bay precinct there was  a strong feeling that transport was letting this area (and the whole of Sydney) down. There was a even a feeling that roads that cut through pedestrian passsageways had created a practical and psychological barrier between Walsh Bay and the rest of the city. The number of jibes about public transport directed at Clover Moore became a joke by the end of the night.

The study of ‘Walkonomics‘ has been delved into in great deal in the UK. There are so many benefits to improving walkability. It helps against social isolation, obesity and health problems, economics and tourism, and is simply about making places more beautiful, usable and human-friendly.

Clover Moore enlisted urban expert Jan Gehl to improve Sydney’s reputation on this front. His recommendations have been worked into the City of Sydney’s plans to make Sydney ‘green, global, connected’ by 2020.

The guidelines for Sydney 2030 are great, but I can’t help but feel that there’s a parallel and contradictory drive which is seeing ever bigger roads going up all around us in Sydney. There are extreme levels of hostility towards cyclists, and I often don’t always feel safe, or more importantly happy and comfortable, as a pedestrian in the city.

The city must plan not just for the and any future, but  for a desirable future that steps forward. It currently feels like there is an unchecked drive into an old-fashioned, car-crazy place.

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About the author

Sally Hill
Sally is into sustainability and digital media. She set up Sustahood in 2011 to advance creative and transformational thinking about sustainability in Australia. Find her on twitter @sallyrhill.

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