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Pedestrians have long been neglected by urban travel policies. Functional urbanism would be the first cause. The article proposes another explanation that better accounts for this disinterest and then for the recent attractiveness for walking, at least in the densely populated areas of large cities. The “all-car”, as we say in French, defined as the priority given to the car in all circumstances, relegated pedestrians to residual spaces and limited their movements. But this paradigm is now in crisis because of the negative externalities it generates. Also, in recent years, a new paradigm has emerged, based on the principle of “streets for all”. It puts the pedestrian at the top of the transport modes hierarchy and considers the other modes as simple relays of the pedestrian. Urban transport policies are now seeking to improve walking in cities, re-qualifying public spaces and dealing with severance effect of transport infrastructures.