A common trope across multiple mediums and genres is roofhopping (WARNING! Tv Tropes), where individuals are seen rapidly running and jumping between buildings as a form of travel. For the setting, consider Generic City, a sprawling metropolitan area. On the same block, buildings are 10–24 ft (~3...
No, there's no way a normal human being could jump 10 - 24 feet unless the target building is a story or two below where they are jumping, and then only if they have a running start and know how to land and roll without tearing their ACLs on landing (or worse). But in this scenario, unless you start on a skyscraper, you're going to be at ground level in one or two jumps. Most films and shows that depict this do so in older cities/cities without car access on alley ways, so the buildings are often less than 7 or 8 feet apart.
Also, for reference, the animal with the longest jump length is the kangaroo, at around 25 feet. The human standing jump record is less than half that.
There's not much I can add that other answers haven't already covered. I will say it isn't faster, but in a chase, you can get around things that walkers can't--they have to go around or they can't scale a wall the same way. It takes a person who knows the city well or has scoped the area for there to be a real advantage.
Sometimes it works and there's no traffic to slow you down as there may be on the street/sidewalk below- but if you fall short, it can take a LOT longer. Here's one recent example from CNN- about a minute into the video, it shows the buildings have no apparent gap at ground level, but a growing gap going up that a guy tried to jump the top of to impress a date. He failed and got wedged in between the buildings. Rescuers had to bust through a wall to get him out.
There is no such thing as "Generic City". NYC is fundamentally different to Munich. In Munich Roofhopping has a 0% success rate. We don't have flat roofs (except on very high skyscrapers and sometimes one story garages), we have proper roads every 50 meters (two lanes + sidewalk) and there are no (none, ever. Forbidden by law) cables or similar structures between buildings that could hold a human. I strongly suggest limiting this to "American style metropolitan city".
@AngeloFuchs You are correct. I decided to give my imaginary city a generic name, hence: Generic City, I then gave a brief description of my city so that (hopefully) everyone would be able to envision what I was talking about. Upon looking at images of Munich and other large German cities, wow, you are very correct. Roofhopping would not work there at all. I think that has to do with how old European cities were not generally planned out. Rather than "American style metropolitan city", I think it is "metropolitan city, post urban planning".
@AngeloFuchs For example, see Oslo, Norway; Beijing, China; Melbourne, Australia; etc. The entirety of these cities my not be as described above, but from looking at maps and images, it seems that at least newer districts are with apartment and office buildings.
@Pants In this comment I will use "plausible" as compared to NYC. Oslo: Not plausible (building distance on average higher then NYC). Beijing: Plausible. Melbourne: Sloped roofs, but besides that its an american style city. Even modern (e.G. "planned") European city parts (Paris, Berlin, London, etc.) don't feature hoppable roofs - or buildings that look like what you would consider a city. Come over and have a look, its beautiful but not very parkourable usually. Compare: Düren, NRW. 98% destruction in 1945, has been rebuild from scratch. No hoppable roofs (but very ugly '50s style buildings)
@AngeloFuchs I'm from a "city" of 10,000 people in the middle of the US where, in the summer, the corn is the tallest thing around for miles. I initially had NYC in mind for this question, but the brief research I did (looking at pretty pictures) for your and others' comments has given me a big case of wanderlust. I had not realized how prevalent sloped roofs and older (gorgeous) architecture still were is major cities around the world. Ask for one thing, wind up learning a whole lot of something else. Danke.
@Tophandour Actually, "mediums" is becoming an accepted pulral form for medium when it is referring multiple communication channels (print, digital, video, etc) to differentiate it from "media" when it is used at a collective noun (the media as in the press). For more reading and examples, here is a link.
Food for thought, even if not enough to build an answer around it probably: how likely in your setting (slash in general) is it that your character can improvise a paraglider out of...whatever... and use it to get quickly from [taller] roof A to [lower] roof B?
Discussion on question by Pants: Is r…
Discussion on question by Pants: Is r…