04 November 2009  Is Urban Mobility A Human Right?  Soft Traffic
The further development of Bubble Wrap Society seems to be in
full swing all over the world. The buzz about the bicycle over
the past 18 months or so has seemingly given rise to increased
buzz about bubble-wrapping the vulnerable traffic users like
pedestrians and cyclists. It's a kind of counter-attack, not
unlike the Audi advert we blogged about recently.  Tom
Vanderbilt, author of Traffic and the blog How We Drive has a
telling article in Slate about the current cause célèbre among
motorists and authorities - cracking down on jaywalking. In his
In Defence of Jaywalking Tom covers the new hype about these
foolish souls who dare to inconvienence motorists by crossing
streets where they're 'not supposed to' are under fire.  Which
brings us to the question. Is Urban Mobility a basic human
right? Do we not have the right to move about the urban
landscape as we see fit? It has been so for most of human
history, after all.  If the answer is yes to t