Urbanism in London (from a first time visiting for a week)!
🧵 to be updated throughout the week!
1. Paying for transit (buses, tubes) via mobile pay without the need for a separate app is clutchy 🧾
Some bus shelters face away from the street... Maybe this is to prevent splashing on riders during wet months
3. Instead of massive parking lots next to stadiums you find housing and communities. I can very easily walk up to Stamford Bridge's entrance and I love it.
4. Super simple heads up (more like heads down) signs to help you ID where traffic is coming from.
Didn't stop my instincts to still look the wrong way first tho 😬
More urbanism!
5. Streets have signs that name the street (Holland Park), the neighborhood (borough of Kensington and Chelsea), and postcode (W11) which gives you ideas where it is relative to central London!
6. In addition to driving on the left, folks and signs indicate you keep to the left when walking as opposed to the right in the US.
This isn't a hard rule and it's left my tangoing with a few folks on streets 🕺🏾
7. Some transit stations are a bit complex with several lines and directions but the way finding makes it a bit easier to navigate!
8. More housing near stadiums -- here we have housing right next to the Emirates Stadium!
9. On the same block as no. 8, sidewalks are wide enough to include two rows of trees.
Trees in cities are important bc the reduce the impact of the urban heat island effect!
10. London tries to minimize cars in high traffic areas via congestion pricing. If you drive through certain zones during peak times, you'll be charged £15!
11. You usually have to pass through an island to cross a street however the "on ramp/off ramp" (circled below) are usually offset each other.
This allows/encourages you to pay a bit more attention to oncoming traffic before you continue your journey!
#urbanism #london #active
12. Bikes have their own lanes THROUGH intersections making it so much more comfortable to continue your trip!
Making left turns in the US on bikes especially on busy roads is so stressful so infrastructure like this would make things much better!
#bikelane #protected #mobility
Trip is finally over so I'm ending the thread now. The foundation of London's infrastructure is it's incredible mobility system that connects the whole city. While it's not perfect, it has raised my standard for what things could look like even in the US 🚄🛤️
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