Stephen B Wong

This is something: an article in the Journal of Pediatric Medicine makes the case that the rise in anxiety and depression in children and youth is linked to the severe (and relatively recent) curtailing of independence. Roaming, making choices, getting into a little trouble, it turns out, is a necessary part of growing up. When you take this away, children become unable to navigate the ebbs and flows of the real world. I made this argument in my TED talk a decade ago about the importance of walking to school - arguing that walking to school is not frivolous, but rather critical, to childhood. Another blow against cities designed for driving. “Our thesis is that a primary cause of the rise in mental disorders is a decline over decades in opportunities for children and teens to play, roam, and engage in other activities independent of direct oversight and control by adults.” jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476…

70% of households in Paris no longer own a car. Commuting overwhelmingly now takes place on transit and by bike. I recall cycling in Paris 20 years ago and we were persona non grata. We took our lives into our own hands. But not today - Mayor @Anne_Hidalgo is transforming the cost of urban living - household transportation costs have plummeted as folks have ditched their cars for bikes. Both air quality and the overall health of the population in the French capital has improved too. How did she do it? She rapidly built out infrastructure to increase transportation choice, instead of railroading everyone into a single occupancy vehicle. By providing safe and comprehensive cycling infrastructure, she transformed mobility choices. #WhatGreatMayorsDo theguardian.com/cities/2023/…

Cars profoundly disfigure cities. They result in all kinds of distortions when it comes to the use of land and distances between uses, creating a non-virtuous circle. Because of cars we design for cars and then…we need more cars. There is only one fix: and it’s a dense, walkable transit-oriented transformation of our cities and regions. fastcompany.com/90985159/car…