Project Pedestrian

A year to the day I started gathering footage.

En route to Lyon, I spent a few days in Paris and began to explore a thread connected to Walter Benjamin's work on the arcades and flâneurs.

Constructed in the 19th century, they're still good places to wander through.

Right of Way? Angie Schmitt’s Right of Way looks at the ways in which pedestrian deaths are not really accidents, but the result of ignoring pedestrian safety when we design our cities, roads and vehicles.…

Angie Schmitt’s book "Right of Way" looks at the ways in which pedestrian deaths are not really accidents, but the result of ignoring pedestrian safety when we design our cities, roads and vehicles.

Pedestrian fatalities in the U.S. increased a shocking 80% between 2009 – 2023!

I was very sorry to learn that Toronto's Patrician Grill will be closing its doors in May, 2026.

Part of the pleasure of urban walking is being able to stop in places like the Patrician. I'm glad I was able to stop in there last June.

LORINC: The post-snowstorm sidewalk obstacle course - Spacing Toronto Does the City of Toronto see its network of sidewalks as transportation infrastructure? Officially, the answer is yes. Transportation services, the sprawling department tasked with planning, maintaini...

Another city that doesn’t view maintaining the infrastructure of pedestrians as a priority.

spacing.ca/toronto/2026...

Winter sidewalks There’s an extra challenge for pedestrians living in cities with winter weather that lasts for months of below-zero temperatures and snow. While municipalities can’t prevent cold weathe…

Walking in cities during the winter months can be hazardous to your health if cities don't make pedestrian safety a priority.

projectpedestrian.com/2026/02/06/w...

Time to night ski. Main streets must be portaged 👣 but alleyways and side streets have a good base.

How wide is your sidewalk? A city’s approach to sidewalks has a huge impact on the experiences of its pedestrians. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the National Research Council published Sidewalk Design, …

How wide is your sidewalk?

Useful, safe, comfortable, and interesting Three books with similar titles that look at how urban planning impacts our experiences as pedestrians. Mary Soderstrom’s The Walkable City (2008) takes us through Paris, New York, Toronto, N…

Three books (with similar titles) that look at how urban planning impacts out experiences as pedestrians.

projectpedestrian.com/2026/01/06/w...

On this date 130 years ago, these two held the first public screening of motion pictures.

The everyday activity that can reveal your brain's age The speed at which you walk can reveal profound insights into your brain's rate of ageing – with slower walkers having smaller brains and fundamental differences in crucial structures.

I’m walking as fast as I can…

Dickens’s night walks In my late teens and early twenties I read a lot of Charles Dickens. In Peter Ackroyd’s (unabridged) biography Dickens (1990), I learned more about the man behind the writing. An aspect of hi…

In my late teens I read a lot of Charles Dickens. In Peter Ackroyd’s biography Dickens, I learned more about the man behind the writing. An aspect of his life that really fascinated me was the long nocturnal walks he would take to try and deal with insomnia.

projectpedestrian.com/2025/12/23/d...

Writers On Walks BBC Radio 3 has collected a series of its program The Essay into the audio book Writers on Walks. 22 contributors, “an array of novelists, poets, journalists and biographers chart the varied …

BBC Radio 3 has put together the audio book Writers On Walks featuring 22 contributors.

"Here are treks taken at daybreak and after dark; in winter and in spring; in the footsteps of the past; and - in the case of Robert Macfarlane - along the ridges of the South Downs."

Well cleared sidewalks outside Ace

As always, my local Ace has impeccably cleared sidewalks (including around their bike parking).

What business in your neighborhood clears sidewalks best?

KEN WILSON Books by Ken Wilson

My author’s website is now live!

kenwilsonwriter.ca

Thanks to Brent Pylot for all his hard work on it!

Iain Sinclair’s London Iain Sinclair has spent decades roaming the British capital on foot and excavating the city’s psychogeography in books such as London Orbital, where he follows the route of the M25 motorway, …

The prolific walker and writer Iain Sinclair is the focus of today's post. You'll find links to Sinclair related books, interviews and videos via the link below.

Excerpt of a walk with city planner Laura Pfeifer in the Regina neighbourhood she grew up in: Argyle Park.

With a Master's Degree in Urban Planning from McGill University and experience working for the City of Toronto, Laura returned to Regina a few years ago and works for the City of Regina.

Pedestrian Pride The Pedestrian Pride Project is based in Columbus, Missouri, USA, a city with a population around 130,000. “Founded by community advocate and walking commuter McKenzie Ortiz, Pedestrian Pride…

The Pedestrian Pride Project is based in Columbus, Missouri, USA, a city with a population around 130,000.

You'll find links via the link.

My present is finally on my office wall!

Read. Reading. Will Read. Books on walking. @therealkenwilson.bsky.social @shawnmicallef.bsky.social @laurenelkin.bsky.social @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social @coachhousebooks.bsky.social @mitpress.bsky.social @wolsakandwynn.bsky.social

Robert Macfarlane: The Old Ways | London Review Bookshop Britain is criss-crossed by a network of ancient pathways – drovers' roads, ridgeways, green lanes and holloways – that have, from ancient times, been used for trade,…

Robert Macfarlane has walked in places I never will. He described his book “The Old Ways” (2012) as being about, “the relationship between paths, walking and imagination”. He talks about “The Old Ways” in this @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk podcast. @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social

Short excerpt of a walk I did with Tasha Alexson through Regina’s downtown. We checked out a mural devoted to local restaurateur Robert Gardikiotis who worked hard to try and make Regina’s downtown a vibrant destination in the face of bad decisions by major property owners and City Councils.

Me wearing a pedestrian beg button costume

Decided to scare pedestrians for Halloween!!

Oooooo!! Beg to cross the 8 lane stroad!!! Spooky! 👻👻

Phone zombies, drifters, speed bumps Lauren Elkin, whose book Flâneuse: Women Walk the City is profiled on the Resources page, contributed a radio essay to the BBC on the types of pedestrians one encounters on urban sidewalks: “…

Lauren Elkin, whose book “Flâneuse: Women Walk the City” is profiled on the Resources page of the “Project Pedestrian” website, contributed a radio essay to the BBC on the types of pedestrians one encounters on urban sidewalks. @laurenelkin.bsky.social

Excerpt of a walk with Shawn Micallef along Bloor Street in Toronto.

@shawnmicallef.bsky.social is the author of “Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto” and a regular contributor to Spacing magazine and the Toronto Star. @coachhousebooks.bsky.social @spacing.bsky.social @thestar.com

Goodbye to Japan 1,500 kilometers through a landscape of desire.

"Longing. Nostalgia. Wanting. Aching. Thirst. A walker who comes from far away becomes a safe receptacle for such inconvenient emotions. We listen without judgment. We carry your secrets away."

Read Paul's latest dispatch from the trail in Japan: outofedenwalk.nationalgeographic.org/goodbye-to-j...

Live Radio | CBC Listen Radio One and CBC Music

Paul will join CBC Radio’s The Current with Matt Galloway this Thursday, Oct 23rd to discuss the latest steps in the Out of Eden Walk, a 38,000-kilometer journey across the world in the footsteps of our ancestors.

🎧 Listen to the conversation live on Thurs at 8:30 am EDT: www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...

How walking changes the way we see the world CBC Radio Saskatchewan’s Blue Sky devoted an episode to walking: “Ken Wilson spent days walking the car-centric bypass highway around Regina. He wrote about his experience in a new book…

CBC Radio Saskatchewan's Blue Sky devoted an episode to walking.

Photo courtesy of the Buffalo People Arts Institute.

You can listen to it via the link.

In the footsteps of Celine and Jesse There are films that place walking at the heart of the story. Two favourites that feature characters on foot are Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise (1995), in which the main characters Celine…

There are films that place walking at the heart of the story. Two favourites that feature characters on foot are Richard Linklater’s "Before Sunrise" (1995) and "Before Sunset" (2004).

These films beautifully evoke the pleasures of walking and talking.

PODCAST: Spacing Radio 90, Bless this urban mess - Spacing Toronto Change in cities is often slow, when using official channels. There is a desire to achieve the perfect plan, one that balances everyone’s needs an preferences. But sometimes you need to get down and d...

Check out our latest podcast where we get into the nitty gritty of “messy urbanism.” Plus, how some Toronto laneways are getting a glowup: spacing.ca/toronto/2025...

Walking Connects Us · Blog Post · 49th Shelf A recommended reading list by the author of Walking the Bypass: Notes on Place by the Side of the Road (University of Regina Press).

My 49th Shelf post, a list of 11 Canadian books about walking, is up: 49thshelf.com/Blog/2025/10...