Slow Cities

Paul is an Honorary Associate Professor of Geography in the School of Science at UNSW Canberra, Australia, where his research focuses on two critical and related issues for modern cities: children’s well-being and the dominance of speed and mobility in urban planning and society. His research demonstrates that child-friendly modes (walking, cycling and public transport) are also the modes that (paradoxically) reduce time pressure for urban residents. He co-authored Children and Their Urban Environment: Changing Worlds (Routledge, 2011), and co-edited Risk, Protection, Provision and Policy, Volume 12 in Geographies of Children and Young People (Springer, 2017). Rodney Tolley has researched and written in the field of active, sustainable transport for over 40 years. He was Reader in Geography at Staffordshire University in the UK until 2004, and is now the Conference Director of Walk21, a global partnership of walking researchers and practitioners. He is the Founding Director of Rodney Tolley Walks and is an experienced international speaker and consultant. He makes time to walk every day.

Part 1: Speed1. Introduction: changing cultures of speed 2. The benefits of speed for individuals: real or illusory?3. The benefits of speed for economy and society: Challenging the dominant narrative4. The ‘slow paradox’: how speed steals our time

Part 2: Health5. Keeping the doctor away: Promoting human health through slower travel6. Advancing environmental health in future ‘slow cities7. Slower, richer, fairer: better economic health in ‘slow cities’

Part 3: Strategies8. Hit the brakes: slowing existing motorised traffic9. Slow modes, slow design, slow spaces: new goals for traffic management and planning10. A new vision for the city: transforming behaviours, values and cultures11. Conclusion: re-imagining the city for a healthier future