Background

We are all pedestrians; any trip by any means includes at least a small distance covered on foot at the beginning and end of each journey. Walking is the basic urban transportation mode that has allowed settlements and cities to operate for thousands of years. It is still very much with us, but its role has been eroded with the introduction of mechanical means of transportation, drastically so in American communities, with the dominant presence of the private automobile in the last half century.

The principal transportation mode in the developing world, even in large cities, is still walking because of constraints on the resources needed to operate extensive transit systems. People cover long distances on foot every day and expend human energy that they can scarcely spare. Walking under those conditions is an unavoidable chore that consumes productive capability. In North America and Western Europe, the attitude and policies are just the opposite: walking is efficient, healthful, and natural. We should do more of it-almost everybody agrees-and some of the current trends should be reversed. Ironically, among the most popular exercise machines in health clubs and in homes are treadmills that simulate walking, which could be otherwise accomplished with a transport purpose on the street.

Admittedly, because of the size of contemporary metropolitan areas, with origin and destination points far apart, the need to save time consumed in routine travel, and the desire for basic comfort and avoidance of severe weather conditions, walking as a transportation mode has...