What if we designed our city to be safe and easy to get around for 8-year-olds and for 80-year-olds alike? As I begin the year in which I turn 80 at least I can identify with one end of that scale. The premise for an 8-80 city is that if everything we do in our cities is great for an 8-year-old and an 80-year-old, then it will be better for all people.
So what does this mean?
Examining the city experience from the perspective of the 8-year-old and the 80-year-old helps us understand what’s working in our cities and what needs to be improved.
Imagine yourself as an 80-year-old who may longer drive and you live in a neighbourhood like many of us in Cornwall, where your home and the places you need to go are far apart and difficult to get to without a car. Since the end of World War II our city has been built around cars instead of people. It’s hard to be independent, to feel safe, to get exercise, to meet your friends and neighbours, that is — to live and enjoy your life without a vehicle. Much to the detriment of our health and well-being, we have literally engineered physical activity out of our lives.
Now imagine yourself as an 8-year-old. You want the independence to walk or ride your bike to school, to your friend’s house or the corner store. It’s hard for you to get around on foot or by bike because our roads prioritize cars over pedestrians. We have painted on bike lanes but parents are reluctant to give their kids independence because the bike lanes are close to fast-moving vehicles. We see cars lined up at schools dropping kids off because parents don’t think it’s safe for their kids to walk or bike to school if they don’t take the bus.
Over the last 20 years Cornwall has been building bike lanes, sidewalks and recreational paths as well as a public transit system, which is great but we still need to do more for 8 and 80-year-olds to make it safe and pleasant to carry out their daily routine – this is called “Functional Active Transportation.” The car still dominates and the speed limit in the city is still too high and most people drive above the speed limit. Even in a bike lane marked by road paint, you will still feel very vulnerable. There are also many areas where bike lanes and sidewalks simply end abruptly, dumping you back into fast-moving traffic.
Providing safe, accessible and enjoyable places to walk and bike as part of their daily lives helps our population to be physically active. A safe, connected network of physically separated bike lanes and sidewalks, integrated with the public transit system, will help keep people safe from car traffic. As we build more housing, let’s also start creating more neighbourhoods where shops, schools, offices and services are planned around people walking, biking and public transit, not only around driving and parking cars.
We have a Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan for Cornwall but it’s 15 years old and needs updating to new standards but it’s every citizen’s responsibility to ask for or an 8-80 city where we can all thrive and that also contributes to our necessary and urgent climate action.
For information see transitioncornwall.com and 880cities.org
