Footfalls

08-09-670 AN:A LA UNE 2
i
14/02/14
11:57
Page 8
Walking away. (REUTERS/SUZANNE PLUNKETT )
Footfalls
THE ECONOMIST
Footfalls
Bruits de pas
unlike contrairement à / outer extérieur, de la
périphérie, (le) plus éloigné / borough arrondissement urbain, commune / curved incurvé,
courbe / grid quadrillage, plan hippodamien
/ to welcome accueillir avec bienveillance, ici
convenir à / idle oisif, désoeuvré / wanderer
voyageur, promeneur / commuter personne
effectuant la navette entre son habitation en
son lieu de travail, banlieusard / alike indifféremment, sans distinction / teeming grouillant de monde, bondé / underground
carriage rame de métro / to squeeze on to
s’entasser dans / tube métro.
2. to increase augmenter / to sample sonder, interroger.
3. amount ici temps et fréquence (de marche)
/ decade décennie / pedestrian piéton / to
launch lancer, inaugurer / task force groupe
de travail, groupe d’experts, commission
d’études / to spruce up redonner de l’éclat, ici
rénover, réaménager / pavement trottoir.
ondon is a city made for walking. Unlike, for instance, Los Angeles its centre
is easily accessible on foot. Outer boroughs are no more than an hour or two
away. Its curved streets, in contrast to the
rigid grid of New York, welcome idle wanderers and busy commuters alike. But despite traffic queues and teeming underground carriages most prefer to drive or to
squeeze on to the Tube to get around the city.
This is starting to change.
L
These boots are made…
2. Between 2001 and 2011 the number
of trips made daily on foot in London increased by 12%. Nearly a third of the Londoners sampled made a continuous walk of
30 minutes once a week between 2010 and
2011 to get from place to place, rather than
for exercise. Each day 6.2m walks are made
across the city.
3. And both rich and poor walk a similar
amount. In areas such as Kensington and
Chelsea 11% walk for at least 30 minutes five
times a week or more. In Tower Hamlets 12%
of residents do. One of the largest changes
in the city over the past decade is the number of pedestrians, says Michèle Dix of Transport for London (TfL), which runs the city’s
transport networks. On July 10th TfL
launched the Roads Task Force, with plans
to spruce up pavements.
4. Several reasons account for the walking
boom. The number of Londoners increased
by 12% from 7.3m in 2001 to 8.2m in 2011,
and Tube trains are broiling and overcrowded. But other factors also encourage
pedestrians.
Look right, look left
5. In 2004 Ken Livingstone, then mayor
of London, vowed to make London a “walkable city”. Some of his plans were carried on
by Boris Johnson, the current mayor. These
include a scheme to create clearly-marked
maps for use across the city. Of 33 boroughs
08-09-670 AN:A LA UNE 2
14/02/14
11:57
Page 9
in London 22 now have the distinctive yellow-branded signs on their streets. All TfLowned property (such as Tube stations and
bicycle-hire points) is covered by the scheme.
This deters tourists from popping on the
Tube to travel one stop from Covent Garden
to Leicester Square, a distance of 0.3m
(0.5km) says Tony Armstrong of Living
Streets, a charity for pedestrians.
6. Streets are also becoming more pedestrian-friendly. Exhibition Road in South Kensington was redeveloped in 2011. Pavement
curbs were removed and tarmac replaced by
granite bricks. Fewer cars now go down the
road, which stretches from Hyde Park to the
museums and restaurants around the station, encouraging swarms of pedestrians. In
June plans to develop a walkway by the
Thames in Vauxhall were announced, turning a neglected part of London into something resembling the High Line in New York
(which transformed a disused railway track
into a lively public garden).
Several reasons account for
the walking boom.
7. Londoners may also be more aware of the
advantages of walking. Health campaigns like
the NHS’s “Live Well” emphasise that walking is the easiest form of exercise. Rubber
wristband pedometers, such as “FitBit” and
“FuelBand”, are also increasingly popular.
Meanwhile, elsewhere
8. But the capital is bucking the national
trend. Although in 2011 walking was up
across the country, it has seen an overall decline of 27% in Britain since 1995. This is
partly caused by fewer children walking to
school. And while rural rambles are still popular, fewer people are walking to their weekly
grocery shop. Many more are shopping online. Local authorities want to change this.
9. Pedestrians spend an average of £373 a
month, compared with £226 for drivers, according to data from TfL. Ailing high streets
and town centres need to win back walkers. Learning from London’s incentives
would be a start. ●
4. to account for expliquer / boom essor,
expansion, explosion / broiling étouffant (to
broil griller) / overcrowded bondé.
5. to vow promettre, jurer, s’engager à / walkable piétonnier / current actuel / scheme projet, plan, programme / map plan /
yellow-branded d’un jaune caractéristique /
sign panneau, pancarte / hire location / to
deter décourager, dissuader / to pop on sauter,
monter dans / charity organisation caritative.
6. pedestrian-friendly respectueux des piétons, aménagé pour les piétons / to redevelop réaménager / curb bordure (de trottoir) /
to remove enlever, supprimer / tarmac macadam / to replace remplacer / to stretch s’étendre / swarm essaim, ici multitude, foule /
walkway chemin pédestre / disused désaffecté, abandonné / railway track voie de chemin de fer / lively animé, fréquenté.
7. aware averti, informé / NHS = National
Health Service système de santé public britannique / to emphasise insister sur, souligner (le fait que) / rubber (en) caoutchouc
/ wristband bracelet / pedometer podomètre
/ increasingly de plus en plus.
8. meanwhile entre temps, pendant ce temps
/ to buck the trend aller à l’encontre de la
tendance générale / overall global, général /
decline diminution, baisse / ramble randonnée, longue marche / grocery shop épicerie
/ average moyenne / ailing souffrant, ici en
difficulté (économique) / high street artère
principale, par ext. commerces du centre ville
/ incentive mesure d’incitation.
LEGIBLE LONDON
legible lisible / range variété / route itinéraire.
Legible London
Based on extensive research, the easy-touse system presents information in a range
of ways, including on maps and signs, to
help people find their way. It’s also integrated with other transport modes so
when people are leaving the Underground, for example, they can quickly identify the route to their destination.
Les Londoniens se mettent à la
marche grâce à Terry Palmer et ses
collègues de Walkit. Ecoutez
l’Advanced pour apprendre comment
ils vont vous faire marcher !