Quotes About Walkability

The General Theory of Walkability explains how, to be favored, a walk has to satisfy four main conditions: it must be useful, safe, comfortable, and interesting.

Yet all these gadgets cumulatively contribute only a fraction of what we save by living in a walkable neighborhood. It turns out that trading all of your incandescent lightbulbs for energy savers conserves as much carbon per year as living in a walkable neighborhood does each week. Why, then, is the vast majority of the national conversation on sustainability about the former and not the latter?

We can have the kind of city we want. We can tell the car where to go and how fast. We can be a place not just for driving through, but for arriving at.

Finally, in their quest to become more sustainable, cities need to remember that, for the typical pedestrian, the most mundane storefront is still more interesting than the most luxuriant landscape.

There is currently more sprawl covering American soil than was ever intended by its inventors. While there are some people who truly enjoy living in this environment, there are many others who would prefer to walk to school, bicycle to work, or simply spend less time in the car.

Deep walkability describes a city that is built in such a way that you can move from one area to another on foot, on bicycle, on transit and have an experience that remains a pleasant one, that you feel you are welcome not just in the neighborhood but moving between neighborhoods.

Some environmentalists already are proponents of urban compactness. Sierra Club's magazine reports that in Vancouver, "Mayor Sam Sullivan's EcoDensity program includes zoning changes to allow 'secondary suites,' or in-law apartments; triplexes; and narrow streets with houses that abut property lines." Peter Calthorpe's "walkability" has become a real estate selling point, with walkable neighborhoods able to charge premium prices.

The farther away the parking, the livelier the street.

Local and state governments can help civil society by building towns and cities in ways more conducive to neighborliness and community building. Walkability is a big thing. Mixing residential and commercial development would create real neighborhoods where people can walk to the corner store for a gallon of milk and run into their neighbors. It could allow for "third places" like neighborhood pubs, barbershops, and sandwich shops.