Searching the World for People Friendly Cities Initially, our study of People Friendliness was limited to the environs of the Middle Rio Grande Region of New Mexico. As we worked, it quickly became clear that there were many lessons to be learned from other cities, both in the US and around the world. With this in mind, we embarked on a mission to learn about as many cities as we could. In 2006, we enlarged the project to include stories of our findings on this website. Below is a table listing our travels by geographic area. Below that is a summary of our travels in chronological order. In either section, we invite you to follow the link to whichever part of the world is of interest to you. We add our stories as we travel, so check back every now and then. Notice of the latest additions will be mentioned on the opening page of our website with links directly to those stories.

Click here to return to our PioneerWest homepage.

Our Search in Chronological Order

In 2003, we chose to extend our research from New Mexico to Europe, with a trip to Greece.

In 2004, we visited the Netherlands, Germany and France.

In 2005, our research took us to the American cities of Phoenix and Tucson Arizona; Denver, Colorado; Salt Lake City, Utah; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle, Washington. We observed the contrasts between suburban and urban living, the tendency of the built environment to spread laterally across the landscape rather than vertically, and for transportation systems to be more accommodating to the automobile than to pedestrian, bicycle or transit travel.

Beginning in 2006, we were able to travel for longer periods of time, beginning with a Spring trip around the world, which included an extended visit to India, a stop in Thailand and Cambodia, and a lenghtly visit to China.
Click here to read the stories of these travels.

From Fall of 2006 to early March 2007, we traveled to the US Midwest, Southeast, Florida and Gulf Coast.
Click here to read our log of this trip.

In the summer of 2007 we returned to Europe, to experience urban living, continue our research and add to our knowledge of the European Union as well.
Click here to follow these adventures.

In early 2008 we decided to try the un-heard-of - visiting Los Angeles using only our feet, the buses and rail transit (and no car) to get around.
Click here to read how successful we were.

In June 2008, we returned to Europe, to again experience urban living.
Click here to follow these adventures.

In December 2008, we headed south to Mexico, both to enjoy the warmer weather and to learn how 'People Friendly' Mexico City and the other larger Mexican cities are.
Click here to read about our findings.

Spring of 2009 took us back to India, a place we had planned to revisit since our earlier trip in 2006.
Click here to read about the new places we visited.

Summer of 2009 took us again to Europe to experience more of their form of urban living that we had begun to enjoy in 2008.
Click here to read about the new places we discovered and one we enjoyed last year.

As 2010 emerged, our travels initially took us south - to Central and South America and its vibrant cities and tropical jungles and rainforests.
Click here to read about these new and different places.

Summer of 2010 took us to Turkey, a place long our list, and then back to Europe.
Click here to read about this amazing country and our further travels in Europe.

Click here to return to our PioneerWest homepage.