People Friendly Cities - What Are They?

Since the industrial revolution began, people have been moving from rural areas to the cities, most often seeking employment opportunities and the chance for a better life. This trend is continuing today, and in fact, the United Nations sets the global urban population at 55%, and other researchers believe it's even higher. Experts expect this movement to continue for the foreseeable future.

The UN's 11th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) is to "make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable." We believe that to accomplish this goal, cities need to focus on being People Friendly, that is, places where people want to be - where they can live, work, play, thrive and be happy.

What attributes make a city People Friendly? Many factors contribute but we believe that these Principles of People Friendly Cities define it very well!

• Pleasing and Efficient Physical Form, including charming and appealing streetscapes, shops within walking distance of home, and distinctive architecture. We share examples from Spain, South Florida and Shanghai below.

   
   
  

• Mobility Options that provide people a full range of transport options to get where they want to go, including safe pedestrian areas (below left), buses with some in dedicated busways (right below), . . .

   
  

  Trams and streetcars (left below) and even bike taxis for short trips (right below), and

   
  

  Efficient Metro systems (left below) and High Speed trains for intercity travel (right below).

   
  

• Natural World Connections to Parks, Open Space, Gardens, Historical and Archaeological Sites, Recreational Areas or even a preserved piece of prairie, all within easy reach of city dwellers. We share examples from Hong Kong and Mumbai (top row) and Calgary (bottom row).

   
   
  

How do cities become places that people want to be?
Many factors contribute, but we believe that there are three groups of people who are key in making this transition happen;

- Urban Planners and Designers
- Developers
- Home seekers - commuters, students, employers and employees - that's us!

Let's consider us first.
Our choices about where to live and work and how we travel from place to place have a tremendous impact on city design.
Click here to read more.

What about Urban Planners and Designers?
Planning and design is a visionary process that helps us figure out what the future should look like. After all, if we don't choose where we want to go, we probably won't get there!
Click here to read more.

What about Developers?
Developers, public and private, make the designs and plans come to life. They make the investments and build our cities.
Click here to read more.

Our Search Begins and Continues Today
In 2000, we decided to embark on a search for People Friendly Cities, first traveling in a truck and trailer around the USA. Then, in 2006, we embarked on our first big international journey - around the world - and we have been exploring the planet ever since! During these years, we consider ourselves more than fortunate to have explored many places, experienced amazing, enlightening, mind expanding, eye opening, challenging, and instructive events, scenes, and situations. We have met wonderful people and experienced deep cultural understanding of so many places in this world. We have continuously done our best to share stories of these experiences with plenty of images.
Click here to go to the list of our travels.

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