This heat wave has me thinking about how there are some areas near me that are technically walkable but have no shade. And so for example when I took the bus to a doctors appointment once I had to walk about half a mile, which was fine, but it was completely unshaded and absolutely absolutely miserable. And then waiting waiting at the bus stop there was no shade.
In the last decade I have encountered walkable cities people pointing this stuff out.
But it’s kind of wild to me that people can assert that a sidewalk makes something walkable and yet even on much cooler days during other times of year I would not want to spend that much time in the direct sunlight at certain times of day.
somehow asking about shade still doesn’t seem to be part of the casual conversation about walking
@platypus i think theres a bit of an overton window issue where for so long the convos around walkabity have been like “hello i would like to be able to get from point a to point v without being hit by a car” that we’ve gotten really bad at considering walkability factors past that absolute bare minimum
anyway yes agreed! we need more trees and other plants on streets, and also ample (and equitable!) access to nice trails
@Satsuma @platypus trees are also good in the sense of providing a buffer between humans and fast-moving vehicles without compromising visibility; i keep telling satsu that i think Wilmington needs to tear up its streetside parking and replace it with a green zone