Project Pedestrian

Walkable cities The American Geographical Society published a story on the world’s most walkable cities, and the winner is Milan, Italy! Two cities Project Pedestrian has spent extensive time in, Lyon, Franc…

Delighted that Regina is more walkable than Saskatoon and Winnipeg, but there’s lots of room for improvement.

07.08.2025 19:56 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Project Pedestrian Playlist - Project Pedestrian - 88 items

It's a long weekend in much of Canada, and what better time to launch the playlist you didn't know you needed?

The Project Pedestrian playlist gives you 88 choice cuts about walking (OK, we know, sometimes they're using walking/strolling/shuffling as a metaphor).

tidal.com/playlist/e7a...

04.08.2025 15:14 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Wanderlust The American writer Rebecca Solnit’s 2001 Wanderlust: A History of Walking is an essential book for anyone interested in thinking about walking. “Where does it start? Muscles tense. One…

Rebecca Solnit’s “Wanderlust” is an essential book for anyone interested in thinking about walking. @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social

02.08.2025 18:17 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Pedestrians in Regina are required to push a “beg button” to get a green light.

In Toronto beg buttons have largely been replaced by automatic pedestrian green lights, which go green several seconds before vehicles get a green light to try and protect pedestrians from careless right hand turns.

31.07.2025 22:32 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Herzog & Chatwin In the winter of 1974, the German filmmaker Werner Herzog walked from Munich to Paris in the hope that this would prevent the death of his friend, the film historian Lotte Eisner, who was seriously…

Two artists whose work about walking are sources of inspiration for Project Pedestrian.

25.07.2025 17:28 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Each one of our issues wraps up with @shawnmicallef.bsky.social's flaneur column, where he shares the joy of exploration on foot. Anyone can do so, and in the Toronto Star he shares 6 tips - both practical and inspiring - for walking Toronto (gift link). www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

22.07.2025 19:39 — 👍 26    🔁 8    💬 0    📌 1

Enjoy your trip, emails can wait.

22.07.2025 18:37 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Shawn Micallef at a picnic table in Toronto’s Dufferin Grove Park.

The cover of the book Stroll by Shawn Micallef

A wide angle view of Mark Wihak and Shawn Micallef in Dufferin Grove.

A fish eye angle shot of Mark Wihak and Shawn Micallef walking along Bloor Street in Toronto.

It was such a pleasure to meet Shawn Micallef to talk about his book Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto, and a variety of walking related matters for Project Pedestrian.

Shawn and I also did a walk together in the neighbourhood around Dufferin Grove. @shawnmicallef.bsky.social

22.07.2025 14:03 — 👍 10    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0

Why Lyon? I began gathering footage for Project Pedestrian in Lyon, France and of the things that made me choose Lyon was the German film Die Reise nach Lyon (Blind Spot was its English title). Directed by C…

Started gathering footage for Project Pedestrian in Lyon. And here’s one of the reasons I chose Lyon.

05.06.2025 17:59 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Resumed shooting in a very different environment than Lyon. Scarborough, ON saw a lot of growth in the 1950s when the emphasis was on roads for cars and trucks. On the upside, there are numerous strip malls housing a wide range of independent businesses and lots of places to get delicious food.

28.05.2025 17:09 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Green pedestrian light with a figure of Karl Marx.

Red pedestrian light with a figure of Karl Marx.

The German city of Trier remembers its native son Karl Marx with a few transit signals near the street where he was born. Unlike the city of Regina where I live, pedestrians in Trier don’t need to press a “beg button” in order to get a green Karl, it’s a part of the regular cycle of lights.

04.05.2025 21:57 — 👍 9    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 0

Shawn Micallef: Vehicles have become weapons by design — and public space is in their crosshairs A culture like ours weaponizes vehicles — from the way they are designed to the way the roads they run on are designed.

Cars, trucks & SUVs have become driver weapons. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes in the way streets & vehicles are designed. We should admit that we are very much OK w a certain amount of death & life-changing injuries in order to not inconvenience driving. My column this week. Pls read n share.

04.05.2025 14:54 — 👍 242    🔁 88    💬 14    📌 16

An early influence on what is becoming Project Pedestrian is Bruce Chatwin’s 1987 book The Songlines, which made me think about walking as more than just a means to get from point a to point b. Nicholas Shakespeare writes about Chatwin and The Songlines: nicholasshakespeare.com/writing/bruc...

27.04.2025 23:44 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Why Walking Helps Us Think Since at least the time of Greek philosophers, many writers have discovered a deep, intuitive connection between walking, thinking, and writing.

Since at least the time of Greek philosophers, many writers have discovered a deep, intuitive connection between walking, thinking, and writing.

17.04.2025 23:36 — 👍 634    🔁 105    💬 28    📌 5

I didn't know much about Lyon before arriving, and in the first few days it became apparent what a good city this is to walk in.

Traboules are internal passageways that connect buildings and streets. It was seeing a traboule in the film "Reise nach Lyon" that got me interested in coming to Lyon.

17.04.2025 21:35 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0