Five years ago this month, Sweden’s capital implemented a plan called The Walkable City.
And they’ve been doing a pretty good job following up.
The entire idea is centralized behind the idea of communal health. Think everything from safety to exercise and you’ll quickly understand what the Swedes are up to.
Blessed with a large medieval downtown (that existed before cars), pedestrian only streets weren’t hard to come by. Add in the fact that only taxi drivers and local residents with a special permit are allowed to drive, and a ‘congestion charge’ for anyone looking to drive into the centre and you can imagine how peaceful a day spent in the capital could be.
Oh, sorry, forget to mention it costs roughly $950 USD a month to own a car – which makes the choice to take the shoelace express a hell of a lot easier. Hence why only about 1/3 of locals in their 20s even have a driver’s license.
Add an aggressive cycling culture that’s continually taking over car lanes and parking spaces and you soon see that Stockholm’s latest idea, Vision Zero (a goal that would see no traffic related deaths whatsoever), might actually one day be possible.
Check out the video below to see more of what this beautiful city is up to. And tell us in the comments what your city could be doing to improve its own pedestrian experience.
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