{"id":467,"date":"2006-01-17T12:39:06","date_gmt":"2006-01-17T16:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=467"},"modified":"2013-01-21T14:44:04","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T19:44:04","slug":"birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham pedestrians and Public Space"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com\/wiki\/images\/thumb\/a\/a4\/325px-Birmingham_(UK)_skyline_-_Centenary_Square_700.jpg\" alt=\" \" \/><\/p>\n<p>The city of Birmingham, formerly a car-centric industrial city, has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.opendemocracy.net\/ecology-urbanisation\/article_469.jsp\">tranformed its central core<\/a> into a pedestrian-friendly neighbourhood of pleasing public spaces. Ben Plowden, Director of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.livingstreets.org.uk\/\">Pedestrians Association<\/a> in England (imagine a nation-wide association of walkers!), writes about this transformation in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.opendemocracy.net\/ecology-urbanisation\/issue.jsp\">opendemocracy.net&#8217;s urban forum<\/a>. This forum also includes interesting articles and a lively debate on urban planning and architecture from some of Britain&#8217;s leading commentators on these issues.<\/p>\n<p>Check out as well the article &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.opendemocracy.net\/debates\/article.jsp?id=4&#038;debateId=129&#038;articleId=458\">How you travel is who you are<\/a>&#8220;, which muses on the way in which people&#8217;s notions of status discourage walking as a form of transportation. It also points out that our system spends vastly more on subsidizing long journeys than on enabling short ones, and asks, why? It&#8217;s a very good point:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>An interesting philosophical question [is] why traffic planners invariably attribute greater importance to long journeys than shorter ones &#8212; which they most certainly do. The sheer amount of money spent per user-journey on motorway and air infrastructure, is, I suspect, rather more than that spent per user-journey on city streets, pavements [sidewalks], minor roads, or cycle-paths.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The city of Birmingham, formerly a car-centric industrial city, has tranformed its central core into a pedestrian-friendly neighbourhood of pleasing public spaces. Ben Plowden, Director of the Pedestrians Association in England (imagine a nation-wide association of walkers!), writes about this transformation in opendemocracy.net&#8217;s urban forum. This forum also includes interesting articles and a lively debate<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Birmingham pedestrians and Public Space&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4006,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,6],"tags":[1381,1380,1379,1382,353,21,1383,12,849,464],"class_list":["post-467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-urban-design","category-walking","tag-air-infrastructure","tag-ben-plowden","tag-birmingham","tag-car-centric-industrial-city","tag-director","tag-other-cities","tag-pedestrians-association-in-england","tag-planning","tag-transportation","tag-united-kingdom"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Birmingham pedestrians and Public Space - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Birmingham pedestrians and Public Space - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The city of Birmingham, formerly a car-centric industrial city, has tranformed its central core into a pedestrian-friendly neighbourhood of pleasing public spaces. Ben Plowden, Director of the Pedestrians Association in England (imagine a nation-wide association of walkers!), writes about this transformation in opendemocracy.net&#8217;s urban forum. This forum also includes interesting articles and a lively debateContinue reading &quot;Birmingham pedestrians and Public Space&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-01-17T16:39:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-21T19:44:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com\/wiki\/images\/thumb\/a\/a4\/325px-Birmingham_(UK)_skyline_-_Centenary_Square_700.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dylan Reid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dylan Reid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/\",\"name\":\"Birmingham pedestrians and Public Space - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com\/wiki\/images\/thumb\/a\/a4\/325px-Birmingham_(UK)_skyline_-_Centenary_Square_700.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2006-01-17T16:39:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-21T19:44:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/5db677dc17e5329d01b88dfb319d259b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com\/wiki\/images\/thumb\/a\/a4\/325px-Birmingham_(UK)_skyline_-_Centenary_Square_700.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com\/wiki\/images\/thumb\/a\/a4\/325px-Birmingham_(UK)_skyline_-_Centenary_Square_700.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Birmingham pedestrians and Public Space\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/5db677dc17e5329d01b88dfb319d259b\",\"name\":\"Dylan Reid\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/196165a3da8aa047d1d3816d24de1d3a?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/196165a3da8aa047d1d3816d24de1d3a?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dylan Reid\"},\"description\":\"Dylan Reid is a senior editor at Spacing Magazine. He has also written articles for NOW magazine and the uTOpia books. He was co-chair of the Toronto Pedestrian Committee 2007-2010, was one of the founders of the Toronto Coalition (now Centre) for Active Transportation, and is a co-founder of Walk Toronto. Dylan is also a Fellow at the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at the University of Toronto.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.spacing.ca\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/dylan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Birmingham pedestrians and Public Space - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Birmingham pedestrians and Public Space - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"The city of Birmingham, formerly a car-centric industrial city, has tranformed its central core into a pedestrian-friendly neighbourhood of pleasing public spaces. Ben Plowden, Director of the Pedestrians Association in England (imagine a nation-wide association of walkers!), writes about this transformation in opendemocracy.net&#8217;s urban forum. This forum also includes interesting articles and a lively debateContinue reading \"Birmingham pedestrians and Public Space\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2006-01-17T16:39:06+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-01-21T19:44:04+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com\/wiki\/images\/thumb\/a\/a4\/325px-Birmingham_(UK)_skyline_-_Centenary_Square_700.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Dylan Reid","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dylan Reid","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/","name":"Birmingham pedestrians and Public Space - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com\/wiki\/images\/thumb\/a\/a4\/325px-Birmingham_(UK)_skyline_-_Centenary_Square_700.jpg","datePublished":"2006-01-17T16:39:06+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-21T19:44:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/5db677dc17e5329d01b88dfb319d259b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com\/wiki\/images\/thumb\/a\/a4\/325px-Birmingham_(UK)_skyline_-_Centenary_Square_700.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com\/wiki\/images\/thumb\/a\/a4\/325px-Birmingham_(UK)_skyline_-_Centenary_Square_700.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/01\/17\/birmingham-pedestrians-and-public-space\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Birmingham pedestrians and Public Space"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/5db677dc17e5329d01b88dfb319d259b","name":"Dylan Reid","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/196165a3da8aa047d1d3816d24de1d3a?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/196165a3da8aa047d1d3816d24de1d3a?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Dylan Reid"},"description":"Dylan Reid is a senior editor at Spacing Magazine. He has also written articles for NOW magazine and the uTOpia books. He was co-chair of the Toronto Pedestrian Committee 2007-2010, was one of the founders of the Toronto Coalition (now Centre) for Active Transportation, and is a co-founder of Walk Toronto. Dylan is also a Fellow at the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at the University of Toronto.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.spacing.ca\/"],"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/dylan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4006"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38661,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions\/38661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}