Amazing! Here we thought, that Gehl Architects experience in India was singular when it comes to the way in which people feel forced to walk in the streets rather than on the sidewalks and thus adding to a totally chaotic traffic situation. But follow David Byrne, wearing a helmet cam, on his bicycle trip around 42nd Street in New York City. And compare with our footage from Chennai in India: It is the same! People use the streets for walking rather than the sidewalks. Here it is not because of the poor condition of the sidewalk, but because of pedestrian congestion due to the bad match between the scale of the sidewalk and the amount of people passing along. And notice how this is a point that the good David Byrne is missing. He seems to blame the pedestrians for it and in this case comes out as a not-so-friendly cyclist.
But he is a friendly cyclist. And testimony to this is his brilliant 2009 book, Bicycle Diaries, where he tracks bicycle experiences from cities around the world. Recommendable, entertaining and engaging.
