Building runnable cities means building sustainable cities

Gil Penalosa thinks that running is the best way to get to know a city, and building runnable cities goes hand in hand with building cities that are healthy for everyone.

Penalosa was the commissioner of parks, sport and recreation in Bogata, Colombia, before becoming the executive director of 8-80 Cities, a non-profit in Toronto with a goal of making cities more enjoyable for everyone. The name derives from how they look at urban planning. Building a city for those who are eight-years-old and 80-years-old means they will also work for everyone else.

“When I get to a city, one of the first things I do is go for a run in that city,” says Penalosa. He explains that, in a car, you can’t see anything and are often stuck in traffic. If you’re in a city for three days and each day you run 10K on a different route, you’ve already seen more of it than most visitors, even before the rest of your activities there.

“You see high income and low income, parks and downtown, you don’t need to put a bike on a plane or a team of people.”

An example the enthusiastic planner uses as a failed opportunity in Canada is Mississauga. Not too long ago, Mississauga was a city of 200,000 poised for huge growth. Rather than building a city of smaller communities with parks and creeks, fit for cycling, running and sustainable growth, Mississauga became a 750,000 resident city built around vehicle commuting and highways.

In Toronto, according to Penalosa, a pedestrian is hit by a vehicle nearly once every three hours. He suggests limiting vehicle speed to 30 km/h anywhere that people live. This would decrease vehicle accidents, and also drastically reduces the chance of death when accidents do occur. Chance of death quadruples when vehicles are moving 50 km/h compared to 30 km/h. A city with lower traffic speeds in areas that people live is safer for runners and pedestrians.

But things won’t change if no one is interested in making them do so. Penalosa says the problems with building cities for everyone right now is political, but not in the sense many understand. Citizens need to be interested enough in politics for making safer, more livable communities. They need to send letters, go to community meetings and make phone calls if they want to have a city they can bike or run commute in, or if they want more green spaces. Politicians won’t make these parts of their platform if no one voices that they are interested.

“Running is a great thing you can do anywhere,” says Penalosa. “You can do it in Copenhagen or Mumbai, Melbourne in Australia. […] Running is a wonderful time where I can be with myself. I don’t have my computer, I don’t have my telephone. It’s just me, the city and everything that is around the city.