ABSTRACT
In Chapter 2, we look at walking from different perspectives and from the points of view of different groups of pedestrians. We emphasise the pros and cons of walking under different circumstances for different groups. More than 50% of people worldwide live in urban environments. There, a large proportion of trips can/could be covered by walking. Ten to twenty percent of all car trips in the EU are shorter than 1 km. Walking generates low costs. Providing infrastructure for walking is cheap, while pedestrian-friendly infrastructure usually boosts the local economy on the micro level. Walking has many positive effects, as has been described in Chapter 1. Nevertheless, the portion of walks is not increasing worldwide; on the contrary. Children walk to school autonomously less and less. They are brought by car. Thus, they do not get physical exercise, nor do they learn to cope with the traffic environment in a safe way. At the same time, older pedestrians are over-represented in fatal crashes. One conclusion: The preconditions for walking in today's public space are far from being good enough for walkers. This is especially the case as far as children and older persons are concerned.
