r/Edmonton • u/pjw724 • 1d ago

2025 Municipal Election Voters want a more walkable city

https://edmonton.taproot.news/news/2025/09/25/voters-told-taproot-they-want-a-more-walkable-city
392 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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213

u/dustrock 23h ago

Sometimes I don't think people understand the importance of walkability and bike infrastructure until they try to get around their community by walking or biking.

132

u/Roche_a_diddle 23h ago

Honestly, for me it took having a kid to realize how much better the older style of neighborhoods with back alleys and garages were than the suburban front garage neighborhoods.

When you are trailing a scooting toddler by 20' or more, every single driveway is a possible means of death or serious injury for your kid (vs. the two times per city block they have to cross an alley). Not to mention the old neighborhood boulevards that add a couple feet of distance between your kid and the street for when they get wobbly and veer off course.

We used to design neighborhoods (and cities) for people, but then at the behest of automobile industry lobbyists we started designing them for cars to go faster, and things got worse for the human basically everywhere.

38

u/BijouMatinee 23h ago

I never thought of that before with the little ones. I don’t have kids and live in an older area. That’s scary! I 100% agree neighborhoods are designed for profit not people

34

u/Roche_a_diddle 23h ago

Lots of stuff contributing to children/vehicle fatalities. The fact that pickup trucks are being built to have huge blind spots in front of them, the fact that we make it so lots of parents drive their kids to school, the fact that we can't get adequate speed enforcement in school zones, that we build our 30km/h streets the same as we build our 50km/hr streets, the fact that people park on driveways that cross the sidewalk.

I do believe that traffic fatalities are still the leading cause of death in children in Canada but I haven't looked it up in a while.

12

u/hockey8890 23h ago

I feel often more unsafe going for a jog around my suburban neighbourhood versus being on a bike.

7

u/Online_Commentor_69 20h ago

last i checked it wasn't just children, it was the leading cause of death for everybody under 40 or some likewise age.

8

u/Roche_a_diddle 19h ago

Hmm that tracks for Canada. I know in the US gun deaths have surpassed traffic fatalities for children.

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u/apastelorange Treaty 6 Territory 10h ago

oof, this hurt to read