Placemaking and Travel: The City Is Where the People Choose to Go

This chapter explains the ways in which our travel motivations are directly related to how we build and plan our settlements, and to a sense of place. The authors show how travel, place, and human connectivity are intimately connected with physical, cultural and psychological perspectives. Thus, if the public realm is to work well to incorporate function, beauty, safety, a sense of belonging and also encourage sustainable travel there is a need to build good places and good journeys which meet these needs. The chapter also provides case studies of good examples which emphasise the methods, skills and challenges involved in achieving this outcome. The authors argue that it is essential that we plan for the ‘long-now’, fully considering the needs of the future in order to make good places and good journeys for all.