Let's Plan on Walking
by Hannah Twaddell

Cities and towns are increasingly recognizing that walkability plays a key role in achieving broader economic and social goals, such revitalizing urban centers, creating a sense of place in suburbs, and reclaiming the attractiveness of small towns. Transportation planner Hannah Twaddell reports on the growing interest in walkable communities.

collection of articles

for instructions on downloading

Attractively designed, pedestrian-oriented commercial arteries are one component of a community’s "quality of life," an important factor in economic health.What image of the community do each of these commercial roadways convey? credits: above left, Dan Burden; above right; Wayne Senville

Read beginning of article:

In Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, British everyman Arthur Dent first sees alien visitor Ford Prefect standing, inexplicably, in the middle of a busy street with his hand outstretched toward an onrushing VW Beetle. After Arthur pushes the fellow out of harm's way, he learns Ford was trying to befriend the car. The newcomer had decided these ubiquitous metal creatures must be our planet's dominant life form.

Well, in a sense he was right. Our cars are very much a part of us now. But while we now enjoy a level of mobility unprecedented in human history, our growing dependence upon our cars has created some challenging problems. Seniors become trapped in their homes as their ability to drive diminishes. Children can't get anywhere by themselves, and their parents are stressed to the limit with the complicated job of chauffeuring them everywhere. Traffic congestion spoils once-peaceful rural roadways, renders major arterials hopelessly inefficient, and spews noxious gas into our air.

We can't afford the money or land area to keep expanding our roadways. And, given all the negative consequences of more traffic, many communities are recognizing that we must create alternatives to driving in order to sustain -- or restore -- our quality of life. But efforts to invigorate alternatives like public transit often fail because so many of the places we try to serve are so far apart, and difficult to navigate without a car.

One key part of any approach to reducing people's need to drive lies in pulling our far-flung destinations closer together and designing safe ways to access them on foot. In other words, we need to create walkable communities.

What is a Walkable Community?

When asked to picture a walkable community, many folks remember a neighborhood, town square, or city block where people of all ages enjoyed being outside. It featured streets along which people could comfortably walk and talk, buildings they could easily see and enter on foot, and a variety of folks out and about.

Before the advent of the automobile, when towns were built along rail lines and rivers, it would have been unthinkable to lay out a place that couldn't be navigated on foot. Since the mid-20th century, however, it's been unthinkable to develop a place where you can't drive. In order to make room for bigger roads and parking lots, we often sacrifice the elements that make a community walkable. We have to think about design in a whole new way if we want to accommodate pedestrians as well as drivers.

The following list from the 1994 "Walk Boston" plan is a good summary of are the basic elements planners need to consider in order to shape walkable places: