Friday 1 March 2013

Timing a walk as incentive


The excellent blog Polis reports on how the city of Pontevedra in northwest Spain has become a leader in walker-friendly urban policy over the past 15 years. One particular innovation of interest to neighbourhoods is their mapping of walking times between places:
To further improve walkability, Pontevedra's city council produced a map that visualizes the distances and travel times between key places on foot at an average speed of five kilometers per hour. Known as Metrominuto, the map has color-coded lines that resemble those of a subway guide. The pink line from Peregrina Square shows that it takes about 14 minutes to walk from there to the train and bus stations. Free parking areas are marked to encourage visitors to leave their cars outside the city center. According to the map, someone who parks in the free lot near the police station can get to Peregrina Square in less than eight minutes via Santiago Bridge. Metrominuto reminds residents and visitors that many automobile trips can be made in a more convenient, environmentally friendly and healthy way by walking.

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