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Comment by TulliusCicero | Hacker News Reader

To me it seems like a simple case of supply and demand. Of course, you can't easily increase the supply of historic super-walkable towns, but you could design and create a modern super-walkable town if you wanted to, and had the resources. Could even make it cute, probably, with the right design regulations.

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You're right in the sense that the supply can't actually increase, but I have to say that Central + Southern Europe (but Italy in particular) has so many of these kinds of cute, walkable, quiet-but-fun towns that if you want a lovely trip where you're not arse-to-elbow with other tourists you're spoiled for choice.

Europe is full of historic walkable towns, mostly the smaller / less central ones because capitals and important cities have been heavily changed aftere cars took over. But many still have at least a walkable central part. Last weekend I spent in Banska Stiavnica, a former important mining town in central Slovakia, and that is an example of such a town, as would be the centre of Cordoba in Spain, which was very important and then ceased to be, and so on. So the issue is, I think, more of marketing: the popular walkable destinations are overcrowded, but there are many like it, maybe without all those palaces but still beautiful and much much more quiet.

Can't speak for other countries, but the actual reason why smaller towns have more of their historic heritage intact in Germany is that the larger/more important ones were sadly bombed to bits during WW2. Of course, after the war, the open spaces created by bombardment were used to enable "car-friendly" cities, but that was a secondary effect...

My parents/ancestors small town in Germany wasn't bombed (except a few accidents) but after the war they decide to destroy many of the charming ancient buildings and replace them with 70's style ugly. It still has some character, but you have to look harder.

Yes, more pedestrian and bike friendly, routing the cars away from the center. Some cities in the Netherlands making efforts towards this.

The author (tourist) writes about over-tourism: a challenge is how to turn those new walkable town centers into new tourist destinations to offload current hot spots?

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