Welcome to Greenways (start here)
Paths to a better everyday
This Substack explores a simple but far-reaching idea: that we could dramatically improve everyday life by building a national network of Greenways — fast, green, beautiful, car-free corridors connecting towns and cities to the countryside and a car free countryside network.
Greenways are not public footpaths. They are not painted cycle lanes squeezed onto hostile roads, or leftover strips of land treated as an afterthought. They are human-scale infrastructure, designed to be used daily. Places to walk, cycle, move, pause, meet, and spend time without needing to buy anything, own much, or get in a car. Places that make ordinary life calmer, healthier, and richer by default. They are designed to be affordable, cost effective, stimulate the economy and provide a springboard for broader change.
Beauty matters here, it’s designed in from the start, people should love them, they are a new way to move through the world. Beauty also leads to function, people care for, use, and return to places that bring them joy. A Greenway should feel closer in spirit to a great canal path, promenade, or civic square than to a transport corridor. Something you choose because it feels good to be there, not because you are being forced out of a car.
But Greenways and this substack, is also a lens, not a single proposal.
They open up much bigger questions. About the role of the countryside in our everyday lives. About how access to nature and working with nature can help us thrive in a post-AI world. About the idea of public luxury — shared systems so good they expand freedom and experience for everyone, while reducing dependence on private consumption. About health, biodiversity, land use, and local economies. About how we rebuild a sense of shared civic life without retreating from modernity or pretending technology can be uninvented. About being proud of the place we live in again.
This a bold vision, to be delivered by a long-horizon project. If the concept becomes a reality it will be the work of a generation, but what a legacy we would be building for our children! This substack is a long-horizon project too, I’m not interested in being popular on social media or overwhelming readers with posts every few days. Essays will appear when there’s something worth saying, typically every few weeks and they’re written to stand alone, age well and be discussed. Think less “newsletter”, more slowly assembled body of ideas and discussion around those ideas.
No doubt at this point you are thinking, this all sounds nice but, it’s too hard, will take too long, cost too much etc, so I suggest reading this essay.
If you still think it’s too hard take a look at this essay, that describes right now, opportunities to create close to a hundreds of miles of greenways, almost as a side effect of major infrastructure projects:
If you’re new here, a good place to start is the first essay, link below, which lays out the core problem and the opportunity Greenways represent. Everything else builds outward from there.
You don’t need to agree with everything here. Curiosity is enough.
Like all of my other work, this substack is free access, but you can pay to subscribe if you can afford it. You won’t get access to anything different, but you will get the satisfaction that you supported me in developing and communicating these ideas.
That's a fabulous idea. I truly hope it takes off.
Ramblers came up with a similar simple concept of joining villages by footpaths. This is a lovely idea to enable us to get outside and walk or cycle distances without the danger and fumes of vehicles. As I get older I don’t feel safe cycling on the busy roads anymore and try to find quiet lanes where possible.