Sergio Luke

As the cliché (correctly) states, “every journey by public transit also includes a journey by foot”. But it is a truism that is all too easy to overlook, or even dismiss. This is frequently evidenced by the lack of dedicated, high-quality information for the pedestrian as they travel to, from, and between other modes of transit. The ‘Legible Cities’ movement is targeted, in large part, squarely at this information gap. Marquee wayfinding schemes such as Legible London and WalkNYC are often held up as exemplars of the ‘Legible’ wayfinding art, but even they have seen surprisingly little development or tangible innovation since the establishment of core principles more than a decade ago. And of course, in that period, the reliance on “wayfinding by mobile device” has seen exponential growth. So mapping for this oft-ignored transit mode continues to face challenges. This talk will explore the various factors that complicate effective mapping at the pedestrian scale, issues ranging from design to governance, and propose positive steps we can all take to push things forward. The ultimate goal should be to realise mapping’s key role in emboldening the pedestrian as they navigate their network, whether that network be one of public transit, the urban streetscape, or - more likely - a combination of both.