Walkable Communities

I walk to work.

I own a cafe on a corner of an intersection in the center of a Portland neighborhood. When I opened this business here, I lived in downtown Portland. I had a choice of how I got to work in the morning. I could take a bus, which took about 30 minutes, I could take a train, which took about the same amount of time. I could also drive, which took about 20 minutes (without heavy traffic) on surface streets, and about the same amount of time on the freeway network, longer if there was rush-hour traffic, and accident, or a stall. I have since moved into the neighborhood with my cafe, my commute being reduced to three minutes on foot.

Before automobiles became the standard mode of transportation, cites had to be dense and zoned uses (commercial, industrial, residential) had to be accessible through the modes which were available (walking, subways, streetcars, animals, etc). Prominent pre-1950 cities (NYC, Chicago, Boston, SF) tend to be denser than cities that rose to prominence after the automobile became the standard mode of transportation (LA, San Jose, Phoenix). In many older cities, the first suburban areas were based around streetcar access. Known as streetcar suburbs, they followed the development pattern of smaller, older cities with a retail strip along the streetcar line, and relatively dense single-family housing surrounding the commercial strip.

Here are a couple of images. The first one is Downtown San Jose, CA. The second one is Manhattan.

Clearly, the Manhattan street scene is bustling with interesting historical architecture, street level shops, and most importantly, people. By contrast, San Jose features soulless glass box modern buildings, wide streets and plazas, massive setbacks and no pedestrians.

So, what makes cities walkable?

First, they must be designed in a pedestrian scale. This means that blocks are small (Portland's 200-foot blocks seem like the ideal size), streets are narrow (2 lanes, unidirectional), and there is a buffer between sidewalk and street. This is usually accomplished through on-street parking. Also, the presence of street trees for shade makes pedestrian travel more appealing in summer months.

Second, there needs to be access. This includes access between zoned uses and access to transportation modes (light rail, bus lines, subways, and bicycle and road networks). The classic American grid makes streets easily navigable, but variations to the grid add interest to monotonous street networks. Either way, there must not be impediments to foot travel (walls, fences, viaducts, etc) within a walkable city.

Third is perceived personal safety. Other pedestrians on the streets provides a sense of safety in numbers, and eyes-on-the-street (which ties in with the fourth concept of walkability), meaning that storefronts and apartment windows facing the street self police activities on the streets. Buffer zones between the street and sidewalk and slow movement of traffic, as well as safe street crossings also contribute to a feeling of safety.

Fourth is design. Blank, monolithic walls butted against sidewalks provides a feeling of lifelessness on streets. Street level retail and restaurants, accessible directly from the sidewalk creates a sense of excitement and activity. Large set-backs, plazas in front of buildings, and parking lots between sidewalk and retail diminish the pedestrian scale. Modern glass structures with blank walls at street level, underground parking entrances, and lack of street-level retail create a sense of blandness, while historic buildings give charm and character to the city.

The fifth concept is amenity. Most people are not going to walk around an abandoned downtown without purpose. There needs to be a reason to stroll about the city. A concentration of retail, food, and entertainment options is needed to make cities viable places to visit. Along with this, there must also be a mix of zoning or combined zoning. The center of the city should not be an exclusively commercial zone. Having residential areas within the center city will enhance the liveliness of the center and provide more of an opportunity for people to meet their daily needs without dependance on automobiles.

Suburban areas and cities that grew largely after WW2 were centered around automobiles. They were not designed on a pedestrian scale. The next post will focus on how suburban and postwar development patterns have led to the degradation of the traditional concept of urban design.