Quote:
Originally Posted by muppet
London mess - don't go without the satnav
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Most people in the US IMO really are not pedestrians, nor, have most Americans ever been a pedestrian. We are people that tend to take the car to go somewhere to walk in a park or in national forests. Most urban pedestrians feel like they have no choice but to walk.
Walking not only involves going from point A to point B, but also looking at all types of eye candy and having the absolute freedom to stop, shop, sit on a bench, try a new short cut, smell the air, and, watch out for cars, trucks, and buses.
Walking a grid, except in NYC, Toronto, and to a lesser extent old downtown LA and downtown Chicago*, is incredibly boring and becomes a seemingly endless series of cross walks and straight line sidewalks.
Buildings form walls on each side of the street which extend mercilessly to the end of line of site. You tend not to look in front of you except to avoid other pedestrians or to cross streets. Instead, you tend to look side to side. Visual candy if even present, is concentrated at intersections with cars, buses, and, stoplights.
Oh yes, you have to watch for bikes.
*Great architectural, and, street level eye candy trumps street layout.