Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Walkable City


"Walking is a simple and a useful thing, and such a pleasure, too. It is what brings planeloads of Americans to Europe on holiday, including even some of the traffic engineers who make our own cities so inhospitable."  — Jeff Speck, Walkable City

 It would take far more than a single post to describe all the ideas in this book, thoughts about walkability from one of the nation's foremost experts on it, the city planner Jeff Speck. For now here are Speck's "Ten Steps of Walkability":
 Put cars in their place
Mix uses
Get parking right
Let transit work
Protect the pedestrian
Welcome bikes
Shape the spaces
Plant trees
Make friendly and unique spaces
Pick your winners

Speck mentions European cities throughout the book. Here are places where pedestrians rule, where public transit safely transports people to and from their destinations, where bikes are welcome and buildings create human-scaled places.

What all these features combine to create is a walkable environment, one people want to stroll through and be part of.  We need to value "moving under one’s own power at a relaxed pace through a public sphere that continually rewards the senses," Speck says. "We need a new normal in America, one that rewards walking."

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