MULTIPLE WORLDS ON OAKLAND'S STREETS SOCIAL PRACTICE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

The daily practices of walking, bicycling, and bus‐riding constitute distinct forms of urban life, each with characteristic rhythms, concerns, and social interactions. This article presents four photo‐stories based on informant photography and photo‐elicitation with maps, historical photographs, and contemporary images. The stories depict the perspectives of a long‐time inner city resident, an elementary school crossing guard, a bicycle advocate, and a transit dependent senior citizen in Oakland, California. They illustrate the barriers to walking, bicycling, and bus‐riding faced by urban residents in an American freeway metropolis. Such obstacles are embedded in the design of the built environment and the predominance of automobile‐oriented living. These photo‐stories offer first‐person accounts of how transportation infrastructure mediates social positioning and marginality in daily life .