CHAPTER 01 / 03
A journey is a whole
Imagine a route with a wide pavement at the beginning, a difficult break in the middle, and a comfortable square at the end. A photograph showing only the start and finish could conceal the journey’s decisive moment. The scale at which we assess design extends beyond a single well-made section.
WHO’s 2025 toolkit on walking and cycling policies aims to support transport and everyday mobility for people of different ages and abilities. [1] Such an ambition requires us to consider connections beyond individual well-designed places.
CHAPTER 02 / 03
From parts to connections
A gap left outside a photograph of a city can change an entire journey. Connection is therefore the measure proposed here: how does a route continue from a stop to a home, or from a home to essential services? Can someone use it without needing another person’s assistance?
The same solution cannot be applied everywhere. Slope, climate, existing buildings and patterns of use affect design. But taking local conditions into account differs from treating a break as invisible. One very well-made section does not remove access difficulties in another.
CHAPTER 03 / 03
Where to look
Looking at pavements this way opens a more concrete discussion than declaring a whole city perfect or rejecting it entirely. Where exactly does the difficulty begin? For whom is it difficult? Is the alternative route genuinely usable? Answers require observation on the ground and users’ experiences; a map alone may be insufficient.
Should we judge the quality of a route by its most impressive part, or by whether a journey can be sustained? A city’s everyday fairness sometimes becomes visible in precisely that short distance between two good sections.
First published: 2026-09-26