Here at Lambeth Living Streets, we love Rotterdam.

Not because it's the second largest city in the Netherlands, or because part of Jackie Chan's 1998 film Who am I? is set there.

Nope, it's because one of the only cities with a plan focused on our fav mode of transport: walking

Rotterdam has a vision -- that by 2025 pedestrians will be king. In this future, walking will be the default way of getting around for absolutely everybody.

Want to know how they plan to get there? Well, strap yourselves in for a THREAD.

First things first -- what is a pedestrian?

Not the type to be satisfied with simply googling "what is a pedestrian" and going with whatever Merriam-Webster has to say, they have their own definition.

A pedestrian in Rotterdam is anyone who uses their feet, and/or the cities pavements and footpaths, to get around.

That includes folks who use wheelchairs, mobility scooters and mobility aids.

Walking happens so instinctively that we hardly give it any thought. Almost everyone walks — from the front door to the car, ot walk the dog around the block, or walk to the local shops.

That's why it's so important for it to, in the words of the Black Eyed Peas, Be Nice

But what does being nice even mean?! Don't worry, Rotterdam figured out that one too.

They surveyed folks who walk and asked them "Where do you love to walk?". Then they mapped those locations to see what they had in common ().

Here's what they found.

Nice places to walk generally have three things in common.

1. They have *actual* space to walk. There's room to stretch your legs and let your mind wander without worrying you'll bump into someone.

2. They're green! Spaces people in Rotterdam loved walking were made up of parks, canals and tree-lined streets. The more nature, the better.

3. There is minimal disturbance from cars and other motor vehicles, meaning you can enjoy your stroll without the nuisance of being bombarded by noise and air pollution and fearing for your life

So taking these three things together, Rotterdam-ens? Rotterdam-ites? It doesn't matter.

Folk from Rotterdam looked at this information and looked at maps and talked to experts and made a vision for where the city should be by 2025.

Imagine, if you will...

The year is 2025, and it's time for the school run in Rotterdam.

But what's this? Everyone is walking! Probably because the streets around schools are closed to traffic between 8 and 8.45am every day, and are filled with greenery and benches to make it a nice place to linger.

Folks who use mobility aids like canes or wheelchairs can move about the city unimpeded — on pavements that are free of obstructions like bins or bollards.

Those who do own cars keep them in a parking lot on the edge of the neighbourhood, there for when they need to run errands outside of the city.

Otherwise, they walk, cycle or take public transport -- not because they have to, but because its nicer, faster and cheaper.

And because there's so few cars around, kids can move around the city independently again. No longer worried about asthma or being hit by a car, their biggest concern now is deciding which playground to hang out in that afternoon.

But it's not just the kids having all the fun, in the evenings, women run through the well-lit parks on their own at nighttime, waving to the other familiar joggers in their path, never once feeling frightened or unsafe in such a popular spot.

Does this sound like the kind of future you want for your neighbourhood? For Lambeth? For London?

Feeling pretty envious of Rotterdam right now?

Are you imagining them all walking on their nice streets with their smug faces enjoying life and being happy and healthy?

Well what if we told you that it was in your power to be that smug too?

Because if you're not going to fight to make your neighbourhood more walkable, then who will?

First things first -- take a look at a map of your neighbourhood. Copy the Dutch and mark out all the places you LOVE walking and mark out all the places you HATE walking too.

Chances are (because science ()) that your conclusions will be pretty similar to those in Rotterdam -- the places you like to walk will be clean, green, un-cluttered and traffic-free.

The places you hate walking are likely to be the opposite.

Once you've got your nerdy little map with all of your places marked out, it's time to think about where you like to spend your time.

Where do you go? The park? The shops? The school? The coffee shop? The restaurant? The hospital? The cinema?

Draw yourself a walking route

Make sure that route takes in as many of the places and the paths you love as possible.

But, invariably, this route is likely to include a bunch of places you hate walking on too -- because you wouldn't be walking somewhere you hate if you had an alternative.

So what to do about those hated routes? Fix them.

Hate them because they're cluttered? Lobby your council to remove that clutter.

Hate them because they lack greenery? Plant some! Or pester your council to until they do.

Hate them because there's just too much traffic? Lobby your council for a low traffic neighbourhood, or a segregated cycle lane to make some extra space between pedestrians and the cars.

And once you've done this for the neighbourhood you live in, then partner up with someone who lives in the next neighbourhood over and encourage them to do the same.

Join your walking routes up and see how they connect. It's the lockdown jigsaw puzzle with real world impact.

Soon enough, you'll have more walking routes than you can throw a stick at (though why you would want to is a mystery for another day).

And then you can teach those smug Rotterdam-ians(?) a thing or two.

Want to learn more about their approach? ()

You can read the report in full here: https://www.rotterdam.nl/vrije-tijd/lopen/