Unit 5, Listening 2, Creating a More Walkable Calgary


Creating a More Walkable Calgary

Doug Dirks:  While many of us jump in the car when we need groceries or take our kids to school, but if you take the time to walk, chances are the streets and neighborhoods will look a lot different. An international conference called Walk 21 is underway in Calgary looking at how walking can transform cities. Shin-pei Tsay is the executive director of the Gehl Institute in New York. She’s speaking tomorrow and joins me now in our studio. Hello.

Tsay:              Hi, thanks for having me.

Dirks:             Now your, uh, lecture’s called “Life at five kilometers an hour.” What do you think life looks like at 5K?

Tsay:              Um, well I think it’s something, it’s, it’s much more dependent on the human experience . . . using your senses. Um . . . It’s about making space, uh, to see your neighbors, to have space for your kids to play. It’s, uh . . . even though it’s a smaller pace[1], it’s rich and filled with a lot of experiences.

Dirks:             And of course you live in New York City which is very walkable, so [laughter] how about that? Depending how the city has evolved and is set up, uh, what what role does that play?

Tsay:              Yeah, I think that walking can happen anywhere. It doesn’t matter, uh, what kind of history the city might have had . . . cities always change. . . . And you know New York, uh, North America is going through a renaissance[2] of finding the ways of putting walking back in their cities.

Dirks:             And how are they doing that?

Tsay:              A lot of different ways. Um. People are recreating trails out of abandoned rail[3]. They are thinking about their sidewalk differently. Thinking about streets as part of public spaces. You know, we used to only think about parks and those kinds of squares, and now we think about the street and sidewalks.

Dirks:             When most North American cities were designed or are designed, are pedestrians, were they often an afterthought?

Tsay:              Well, historically not in the very beginning, but after World War II, it was really very common. We were building our cities based on the technology of the time—the car—um, we were amazing engineers. We developed and found all sorts of solutions for highways and . . .

Dirks:             Right.

Tsay:              . . . and we really built the city around the car—storing our car, moving around by car—and so, yeah, we designed our city, we designed the pedestrian out of the city.

Dirks:             And, of course, here in Calgary, we had so much land available, and everybody wanted their own little plot of land, so we have all this urban sprawl. So what do we miss when we drive everywhere?

Tsay:              Well, you’re in your own little bubble[4] when you’re driving everywhere, and you don’t get the chance to maybe get to know a neighbor, run into the same person here and there. Um, maybe you don’t even get to smell what it’s like outside or just take in some fresh air. Um, actually you are . . . will experience some loneliness and social isolation because of . . .

Dirks:             Um-hmm.

Tsay:              . . . spending time privately and without others.

Dirks:             There’s been a lot of talk here in Calgary about increasing densification[5] . . .

Tsay:              Hmm.

Dirks:             . . . and, you know, dividing lots, and going higher and wider, and uh, you know, mixed development[6], so what about the architectural part of this equation? And, and the will to do it politically?

Tsay:              Yeah, it’s two huge challenges . . .

Dirks:             Right.

Tsay:              Ha-ha. Well, uh, arch . . . for . . . on the design side, there’s a huge opportunity if that is the direction the city is going in, but it’s also easy to get it wrong. I think often when we’re building towers, we neglect to think about the ground level and how people experience space at the ground, um, so that’s really something to think about. That’s . . . a lot of our work is focused on trying to understand how people interact with those kinds of spaces. And political will, I think that, you know, more and more there’s evidence that shows that when cities have the appearance at that ground level of being cognizant of[7] how people experience things, that mayors . . . it, it has a direct impact on how well they think the mayor is performing, for example.

Dirks:             And what about the impact of sidewalks? Because when you go to cities like New York, or Boston, where I was recently, in the inner city, you see these wide expanses[8] which encourage walking and interaction. How about that?

Tsay:              Sidewalks are a huge key, um, they, you know. They’re sort of . . . they’re the connecting, uh, infrastructure for cities, for walking particularly. And often also not thought of when people think about big plans, um, how really the main thing that they forget to look at is how they connect from place to place . . .

Dirks:             Um . . .

Tsay:              You might have a distinctive sidewalk in front of a fancy building, but it doesn’t really take you anywhere.

Dirks:             You’re the executive director of the Gehl Institute. What does your organization do?

Tsay:              We’re a research and advocacy organization. . . . We focus on making public life, which is the social interactions in public space, everyday life, the quality of everyday life, and civic life, part of design policy and governance.

Dirks:             Have you had a chance to explore Calgary? I know the weather’s not great but . . .

Tsay:              I got a chance to walk around a little bit downtown. It was really cool. I saw Stephen’s Avenue . . .

Dirks:             Right.

Tsay:              . . . really fun. So many people outside.

Dirks:             And what are your first impressions then? Do you see hope for us?

Tsay:              Well, for sure, just . . . uh, you know, there’s great historic buildings, historic fabric that can be built upon. Obviously, some decisions were made with big infrastructure, the highway ramps . . .

Dirks:             Mm-hmm. True.

Tsay:              The observation tower, the parking garages, but it sounds like, it seems like there are a lot of pride and that’s really is what it takes, and civic pride, an idea that we’re all in this together.

Dirks:             Based on your experience and research, uh, which cities in North America, maybe around the world, have done a good job of retrofitting their cities, perhaps, in recent years to make them more walkable?

Tsay:              To be honest, I think a lot of the cities that have developed since World War II had to retrofit even when they’re amazing and excellent today. So Copenhagen was filled with cars, uh, in the 60s,

Dirks:             Right . . .

Tsay:              and Amsterdam was filled with cars in the 60s, and now they’re known as walkable, bikeable places. . . . Melbourne more recently has gone through a transformation[9], and it’s one of the most walkable cities in the world but was once, just like Calgary actually. It reminded me a lot of Calgary.

Dirks:             Oh, so there’s hope for all of us.

Tsay:              Definitely.

Dirks:             Thanks for coming in.

Tsay:              Sure, thank you so much.

Dirks:             Tsay is the executive director of the Gehl Institute in New York. She’s speaking at a conference called Walk 21 Calgary. It’s on this week until September 22nd.


[1] pace: noun the speed at which someone or something walks, runs, or moves

[2] renaissance: noun a period of renewed interest in something

[3] abandoned rail: noun pieces of railroad track no longer in use

[4] in one’s own little bubble: idiom in your own self-contained space

[5] densification: noun the process of becoming more crowded with people

[6] mixed development: noun having businesses, restaurants, housing in the same area

[7] be cognizant of: phrase be aware of

[8] expanse: noun a wide open area of land

[9] transformation: noun a complete change in something

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