A Human-Scaled Journey: Finding our way in a society built for cars, a comic by Sylvia Odhner
The Shopping Center Disconnect
October 30th, 2023






Comic Text
I live in a suburb. There are a few shopping centers I can easily walk to from where I live. The streets next to them have sidewalks, and there are walkways connecting the stores together... but there are no walkways connecting the sidewalks to the stores. I’m glad this street has a sidewalk, but where is it supposed to lead to? Is it just for recreation?
Person walking a dog: Nothing like a nice stroll along this loud, fast, busy street.
It’s like whoever designed this place never thought about the fact that people might walk there.
(The narrator cuts through the bushes to get to the parking lot)
Person in the parking lot: Uh, why are you in the bushes?
Me: Good question.

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Comics
Revisiting Independence
The Walk Light
Cars and Independence
The Shopping Center Disconnect
A Culture of Positive Change

About
A Human-Scaled Journey is a nonfiction comic I created to document my experience learning about sustainable and walkable infrastucture and related ideas. It will include a combination of informative comics and journal-style comics, as well as collaborative comics showing other people's experiences and expertise.