„We like walking and we need it as well,“ confessed pedestrians and cyclists participating in a happening organized by the Prague Mothers organisation in cooperation with the organization Krocan in the Klicov forest in Vysocany, Prague. The happening aimed to highlight walking as an alternative for outdoor movement as well as for short distance transport in the city. „Walking has many advantages. Besides being good for body and soul, it also saves you money for tickets - or for the gym,“ Jarmila Johnova from Prague Mothers says.
Families with childrens, who have visited the Klicov forest despite light rain, are fans of walking and of the park itself. As the answers to following three questions proved, both walking and park are interconnected and supplement each other.
Is walking important for you? Why so?
It turned out that most children and adults walk because they enjoy the movement for various reasons: “So that I’m not lazy,” a small girl said. “Because I am a sportsman,” claimed proudly one of the boys. “You get to know people and your surroundings,” the youth wrote. The adults found different reasons, such as that it’s relaxing for them, calming them down, they do it for health or against stress, because they consider it important for their life, or simply because they enjoy it.
What is acceptable “walking distance” for you?
“Our pedestrians” state that the time between 15 minutes to 4 hours and distance of 1 to 5 km is OK for them. It’s worth noting that most of the “inner-city” streets in Prague are shorter than 5 km. Therefore, it would be possible to walk down those streets at least time to time, only if…
What would make walking in the city more pleasant for you?
The trick is that the pedestrians are missing something. Most of them agreed that in order for the walks down the streets to be more pleasant, they don’t want to be disturbed, among others by “cars and noise”. What would they appreciate? “More green areas, cleaner sidewalks, fresh air and fewer barriers.” “If the cars made less smoke, if there was no poo on the sidewalk,” children said openly. Pepik misses several things on the street: “Ice cream, pool and trees.”
To improve pedestrian paths and sidewalks is the mission of the Chodci sobe website (Pedestrians for Themselves). At this website, powered by the Prague Mothers organisation, Prague pedestrians can identify the problems they face. “We found out that citizens don’t believe in effectiveness of this tool, as they do not have the best experience with public administration,” Johnova from the Prague Mothers says. “Thanks to the website, approximately 800 complaints were made by Prague citizens, 120 of which we managed to solve.” We tried to persuade visitors of the Klicov forest not to give up on cooperation with local government and public administration and give it a second chance. “When the citizen wants nothing, he gets nothing,” Johnova says.
The pedestrian happening in the Klicov forest was a part of the Festival of Trees organized annually by the organisation Krocan and visited by many Vysocany inhabitants. The event with the character of an intimate neighbourhood festivity includes fire, roasting and home-made cakes. The visitors took part in a “battle game” within which they fulfilled various tasks. Besides questions with pedestrian topic, they also guessed how long it takes for various artificial materials to fall apart in nature, got to know and recognise types of trees.
Na konec si všichni chodci vystřihli z odrazového materiálu svou stopu, již v Klíčovském parku nechali zářit do noci. „Chtěli jsme tak zviditelnit své přesvědčení, že každý, kdo po městě chodí, zanechá v jeho krajině svůj otisk,“ vysvětluje Dana Balcarová z o.s. Krocan.
At the end of the event, all the participants cut out a shape of their foot out from a reflecting material and left it to shine into the night in the Klicov Park. “We wanted to visualise our belief that everybody walking down the town leaves an imprint,“ Dana Balcarova from the Krocan explains.
Photo by the Prague Mothers
Families with childrens, who have visited the Klicov forest despite light rain, are fans of walking and of the park itself. As the answers to following three questions proved, both walking and park are interconnected and supplement each other.
Is walking important for you? Why so?
It turned out that most children and adults walk because they enjoy the movement for various reasons: “So that I’m not lazy,” a small girl said. “Because I am a sportsman,” claimed proudly one of the boys. “You get to know people and your surroundings,” the youth wrote. The adults found different reasons, such as that it’s relaxing for them, calming them down, they do it for health or against stress, because they consider it important for their life, or simply because they enjoy it.
What is acceptable “walking distance” for you?
“Our pedestrians” state that the time between 15 minutes to 4 hours and distance of 1 to 5 km is OK for them. It’s worth noting that most of the “inner-city” streets in Prague are shorter than 5 km. Therefore, it would be possible to walk down those streets at least time to time, only if…
What would make walking in the city more pleasant for you?
The trick is that the pedestrians are missing something. Most of them agreed that in order for the walks down the streets to be more pleasant, they don’t want to be disturbed, among others by “cars and noise”. What would they appreciate? “More green areas, cleaner sidewalks, fresh air and fewer barriers.” “If the cars made less smoke, if there was no poo on the sidewalk,” children said openly. Pepik misses several things on the street: “Ice cream, pool and trees.”
To improve pedestrian paths and sidewalks is the mission of the Chodci sobe website (Pedestrians for Themselves). At this website, powered by the Prague Mothers organisation, Prague pedestrians can identify the problems they face. “We found out that citizens don’t believe in effectiveness of this tool, as they do not have the best experience with public administration,” Johnova from the Prague Mothers says. “Thanks to the website, approximately 800 complaints were made by Prague citizens, 120 of which we managed to solve.” We tried to persuade visitors of the Klicov forest not to give up on cooperation with local government and public administration and give it a second chance. “When the citizen wants nothing, he gets nothing,” Johnova says.
The pedestrian happening in the Klicov forest was a part of the Festival of Trees organized annually by the organisation Krocan and visited by many Vysocany inhabitants. The event with the character of an intimate neighbourhood festivity includes fire, roasting and home-made cakes. The visitors took part in a “battle game” within which they fulfilled various tasks. Besides questions with pedestrian topic, they also guessed how long it takes for various artificial materials to fall apart in nature, got to know and recognise types of trees.
Na konec si všichni chodci vystřihli z odrazového materiálu svou stopu, již v Klíčovském parku nechali zářit do noci. „Chtěli jsme tak zviditelnit své přesvědčení, že každý, kdo po městě chodí, zanechá v jeho krajině svůj otisk,“ vysvětluje Dana Balcarová z o.s. Krocan.
At the end of the event, all the participants cut out a shape of their foot out from a reflecting material and left it to shine into the night in the Klicov Park. “We wanted to visualise our belief that everybody walking down the town leaves an imprint,“ Dana Balcarova from the Krocan explains.
Photo by the Prague Mothers
RSS Feed
