Introduction: historical perspectives on pedestrians and the city

Walking is a neglected topic in the history of transport and mobility in cities. The four essays in this special section demonstrate the importance of travel on foot in nineteenth- and twentieth-century cities in four different countries, and reveal the ways in which pedestrian mobility has persisted despite the development of a car-dominated society. Together they provide important new evidence on a neglected topic and hopefully pave the way for further research on this theme.