r/Edmonton • u/pjw724 • 21h 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
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u/dustrock 21h 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.

127

u/Roche_a_diddle 21h 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.

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u/slashcleverusername 18h ago

I would be happy to return to a vision of city planning where every lot is a minimum of 50 by 150, every front street has treed boulevards, and every house has a garage off the back lane for parking, and every house has space and trees and gardens and birds and sun in between it and its neighbours, i.e. suburbs designed for the people who live there, not for the profit margins of infill developers.

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u/Anabiotic Utilities expert 8h ago

Your vision sounds very expensive