What makes a city a great place to live? One (of many) answers to this question is the degree to which the city encourages modes of travel other than by automobile. At least that is what Jeff Speck argues in his book, Walkable City.

Books on city planning are typically not very high on my reading list. However, I am increasingly curious about what goes into making a city truly flourish. Some answers are fairly obvious- good schools, a strong economy, vibrant arts community etc. But, what if there was something else? Something that was largely unseen- but rather felt?

A city’s “walkability” is one of those underlying factors that can influence some of the more traditional measurements of a city’s health.

Speck outlines what cities can do to improve the health of their walkability. He breaks the book into 4 sections:

• The Useful Walk
• The Safe Walk
• The Comfortable Walk
• The Interesting Walk

In these sections, he covers everything from how a city should handle the question of parking to the placement of benches (it’s actually more interesting than it sounds ?) Most of the time the answers are not what you would expect.

“Long gone are the days when automobiles expanded possibility and choice for the majority of Americans. Now, thanks to its ever-increasing demands for space, speed, and time, the car has reshaped our landscape and lifestyles around its own needs. It is an instrument of freedom that has enslaved us.”

“all the fancy economic development strategies, such as developing a biomedical cluster, an aerospace cluster, or whatever the current economic development ‘flavor of the month’ might be, do not hold a candle to the power of a great walkable urban place.”

“Widening a city’s streets in the name of safety is like distributing handguns to deter crime.”

My Three Takeaways

Induced Demand

Imagine for a moment that there is a street in your city that is constantly jammed with cars. How do you go about easing the congestion? Add more lanes, right?

Apparently not.

This thinking illustrates a concept Speck calls induced demand. The 2 lane road that is constantly jammed with traffic will become a 4 lane road that is constantly jammed with traffic if it is widened. Research shows that wider streets just invite more cars to use it.

Speck argues that the solution to a traffic congested street is to put it on a “road diet” by making it narrower, not wider. Drivers will learn to use alternate routes thereby dispersing the volume over more area.

Traffic Studies are Crap

If you have ever sat in a city commission or planning and zoning meeting you will know that the first answer to any question related to traffic is to commission a study. Seems wise, right? Not according to the author.

Now, he isn’t against research. Quite the contrary. His argument is that most traffic studies are crap because they are conducted by engineers who have a vested interest in showing the need for more roads. Because there are multiple variables in any traffic study it is too easy to put your finger on the scale to show a need that may not be there.

Speck and his team showed how simply adjusting a couple variables in several traffic studies showed that in fact there was a need for less spending on roads. But, if the fox is guarding the hen house those findings would never be shared.

Street Triage

So, if you are convinced that making your city more walkable will improve the overall quality of life for the residents, where do you start? Does every corner of your city need to meet every walkability criteria? No, not necessarily.

This is a perfect example of “Don’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good.” Speck says to triage the streets in your city. Start in your downtown area and determine which sections are already pretty walkable and invest money and energy to make them better. If streets are graded A, B, C; start with the A streets to make them excellent and work your way down. Many cities that are currently thought of as highly walkable get that reputation even though they really only have 2 or 3 really walkable sections. (Think Charleston, SC.)

The cities that are most frequently rated as highly desirable to live in are imminently walkable. They have made intentional decisions in the design of their city to reduce traffic, and encourage walking, biking, and mass transit in the heart of the city and beyond.

Bartow (my hometown) has some very walkable streets but still has a way to go. I spent the last week riding my bike to work and other errands (Mostly cause my car is dead and we are still shopping for a new one) but I found that it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it might be. Even in the August heat.