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The walkability recipe

The walkability recipe

Walkability is used a lot these days by planners and urbanists to describe how friendly a place is for walking. We used to take walking for granted — it is, after all, the original form of human transportation. But as I’ve pointed out in previous columns, in the mid-20th Century, Americans started driving everywhere. Kids no longer walked to school; they rode the bus. Adults no longer walked to work or to the store; they drove their cars. The design of our cities became increasingly hostile to walking.

That trend is slowly turning around. Planners and urbanists are now designing places to be walking-friendly and advocating for changes to government policies that have favored the automobile over the pedestrian for decades. Thus walkability is now at the forefront of contemporary urban thinking. To me there are three main ingredients for a place to be considered walkable.

Pedestrian Infrastructure: Quality paved sidewalks, curb ramps, crosswalks, streetlights, trees, benches, and other pedestrian amenities are important. A good pedestrian infrastructure provides an environment that allows people to feel safe and comfortable, and the space to get to where they are going. But having a beautiful wide sidewalk alone is not enough. What if that sidewalk runs alongside a bunch of vacant buildings or empty lots? That leads us to the next ingredient.

Interesting Uses: People like to walk where there is a mix of interesting things to see and do. People love to walk where there are stores that sell cool stuff, busy restaurants with outdoor seating, buildings with expressive architecture, or any kind of place that offers something people find engaging. Studies have shown that people are willing to walk longer distances if there are interesting things to look at along the way. However, what if all those interesting uses are separated from the sidewalk by lawns or (gasp!) surface parking lots? There’s still one more ingredient to go.

Urban Form: The buildings with all those interesting uses need to be right up against the sidewalk. This is the classic “Main Street” urban form, where the doors, storefront windows, expressive architecture and restaurant patio tables edge the sidewalk. This urban form arrangement also frames the street and makes it feel more intimate and comfortable, like an outdoor room. A Main Street urban form also usually results in slower driving, thus making the environment even more safe and pleasant for pedestrians.

So where does a person typically find places where these three walkability ingredients exist? Certainly not all downtown streets are a walker’s paradise. Sidewalks might be too narrow or missing altogether, or the buildings have long blank walls along the sidewalk, or there’s no building at all but an ugly parking lot. Generally, however, it is in older urban areas developed before the mid-20th Century that contain more walkable areas, and are a major reason why people are flocking back to the city from the suburbs because they desire to live and work in a place where they can enjoy a walkable lifestyle.

Which would you rather walk along: Wynkoop Street or Colorado Boulevard?

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