Today, August 8, marks World Pedestrian Day. The date is famous for the iconic photo of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road in 1969. It is now 2020—more than fifty years later—and we still face immense challenges as pedestrians in our cities. How many times have you faced the hazard of crossing the street? Or had to navigate narrow, poorly lit sidewalks?
Pedestrian mobility is about how people move through collective and urban spaces in their various contexts. These are short, long, fast, or slow trips that occur every day, at all hours, everywhere. It is no wonder that the refrain “we are all pedestrians” is chanted in unison by organizations advocating for walking: being a pedestrian unites us. A study by the National Association of Public Transport (2017) estimates that 40% of Brazilians commute exclusively on foot—meaning there are approximately 130 million pedestrians moving through Brazil's streets.
