TRAM 🚋 — In Lyon, France a big lesson in mobility was long term modal integration. I spent nearly 4 hours in public transport going around the city, and walked about 7-8km through the city, not the malls . Residents here can basically go anywhere across a vast array of transport alternatives— which more or less drop them off in the same place. Routes are different, but the major locations and stations are about 2-3km apart, with a number of smaller stops in between. For the metro, underground rail, stops were further apart and this was excellent for the technology. Most importantly—every station has residence, retail, social and food within 1 minute and immediate eye distance. We already do some of these things here in SA, but our resource allocation does not induce the appropriate behavior at the moment. Transport has a lot to do with justice and how we as society perceive ourselves and our potential, much of what we have we’ve institutionally treated without gratitude. The pride and dignity found in these operators eyes was intriguing, but then you see a uniformed attendant sweeping the station floor between the stops—white shirt and tie.

#iphoneography #lyonfrance #designthinking #transportlanduse #urbanplanning #skyline #transport #mobility