Tunnels, footbridges, escalators, urban cable cars, pathways - passages are essential links, with the potential to generate distinctive urban environments. They require little investment and should be an integral part of all big urban projects, helping to repair the fractures produced by fast transit infrastructures and the urban zoning practices of the recent past. Designing and building passages is a way to act quickly and to lay the foundations for larger scale transformat ons: international analyses and examples.