Where the sidewalk ends.

Jane Jacobs is a name that is part of the toolkit of every North American urban planner. The woman who was known for her bold advocacy of short blocks, mixed use communities, and the importance of sidewalks. She stated that sidewalks served three purposes: safety, human contact and assimilation of children. Like Jacobs, the City of Edmonton I advocates the importance of walkable communities and seeks to achieve it in the City.

Walkable Edmonton is an initiative from the City of Edmonton in the Canadian province of Alberta, that seeks to encourage walkability in Edmonton communities and promote pedestrian mode of transport. A key project of the initiative is the  ‘Communities on Foot Map series’ that is composed of a number of Community Walking Maps. The creation of Community Walking Maps follows the belief that people will be more likely to take to the sidewalks if they are given a pedestrian walking guide to their community.

Mill Creek Community Walking Map

The maps themselves are produced by workshops that engage community volunteers to identify walking routes to be created into maps to be disseminated to the community. Routes are of varying difficulty and length, the distance of each route is conveniently provided through a colour coded legend. Points of interest (i.e. cafes, convenience stores, schools etc) have been placed on each map as well.

To learn more about the Communities on Foot map series, click here.

Sana Razvi, Planning Intern, VERTICES, LLC.