One of the surprises about my recent holiday was the how interesting walking about the inner west is.
Walkability1 is one of those concepts that sounds simple, and that you don't notice, until there is a large change, and then suddenly you wonder how you didn't notice it before.
There is a lot of information about walkability. A brief video about what makes a city great. And more on urban planning.
Using this map I have been staying in a Red Zone. Not walkable. My holiday was in a Green Zone. Very walkable. The difference was eye opening. I'd become habituated to blandness.
Presently, an hour fast walk is about 6km. Most of that is along a busy road. Off that I'm passing cookie cutter style housing. The type were every front yard is manicured to the peer accepted level. There are a couple of cafes along the way near a train station, but otherwise shops are clustered inside a shopping center. Blank boxes, designed to trap you inside, where the layout is confusing and disorentating. Everything planned to encourage you to buy more.
It's not very interesting walking about the suburbs.
