Actually...Many Roads (Sidewalks?) Lead to Rome...

What are the top five things I can do to boost walkability?

I get asked a version of this question a LOT. Like, ALL. THE. TIME. 

I get it. It's the Twitter era (nope, not going there...). 140 characters or bust. People want easy answers, simple solutions, soundbite fixes - even when the problems are complex...especially when they're complex. Nuance? Details? Qualifiers? That's for academics (yeah, no kidding!). This is why articles like "4 ways to make a city more walkable" and "7 simple ways to make every city friendlier for pedestrians" and "walkability checklists" are such effective click-bait (and yes, why we used a similar title as the subject of this week's newsletter. Sorry!)

But can you really create a formula for walkability, livability, great places?

And isn't State of Place doing just that by quantifying what people love about places?

Walkability comes in many shapes and sizes. A solution that's right for one community may or may not be right for another one. Now, that's not to say that articles that provide lists of the top X ways to make a community walkable are not helpful. They're a nice primer on good urban design and as long as they're not taken as gospel, they're fun and harmless. BUT, the issue is that these generic "platitudes" are often not far from what cities are paying consulting firms tens of thousands of dollars to produce. If you compare the mostly top-down recommendations generated for say Des Moines or Buffalo or Salt Lake City - they often don't differ all that much from each other...Add or widen sidewalks. Remove at-grade parking. Narrow the roads. That's not to say that these things aren't indeed characteristics of good urban design. But really? All these communities, with such varying strengths and weaknesses, and remarkable differences in context, they all need the same ingredients to suddenly become great, walkable places? 

Just Get Me the Antidote, Now!

You'd never expect to have a doctor dispense the same Rx to ten patients who come in with symptoms of the classic cold. She would examine each patient's history: consider their age, sex, race, ethnicity, the severity of their symptoms, the presence of other symptoms or comorbidities, and what their insurance covers. She'd then offer a diagnosis and present a prescription or prognosis. Cities are just as complex - or more so - than humans. Cities deserve an equally bottom-up, contextual approach. There is NO formula or silver bullet for making places more walkable and livable. 

While State of Place offers a data-driven, evidence-based approach, our answer to: "what are the three top things I can do to make my neighborhood more walkable?" will never be prescriptive or formulaic. And so I apologize in advance for my frustrating, not quite conveniently compact (and yet below 140 character count ;)) response - it depends. 

To answer the questions we posed in the beginning:

There are no top 3 things, no top 10 things, no top whatever. 

There is no formula. 

And no, State of Place is demonstrably not a formula.

For one, you don't need all 290+ urban design features we measure to get a perfect score. And even then, the State of Place Index (the result of aggregating all of those 290+ features into a score from 0 to 100) is broken down into ten urban design dimensions - the State of Place Place Profile - which gives communities a diagnosis of their assets and needs. But Mariela, you said there were no top ten anything. True, but we do know, empirically (based on over 15+ years of research and meta-analyses of over 70 studies) that there are ten urban design dimensions that are tied to more physical activity and walking.

What Do YOU Want to Be (When You Grow Up)?

That said, which one of those features is most important for each community That's what depends! And indeed, that's what our software takes into account when generating urban design priorities for communities - well, why do you want to make your neighborhood more walkable (what objectives do you want to achieve), where are you starting from, what will it cost, and what ROI will different solutions produce? Not only will this type of contextual approach result in plan that is much more likely to succeed, it will identify the plan that's most cost-efficient, AND it will actually give you the ammunition (numbers) you need to get that plan approved (because you know those formulaic plans cities ended up paying so much for, yeah, they often end up collecting dust precisely because they lack a contextual, data-driven rationale for why they should be implemented to begin with). If you'd like your own, non-cookie cutter, data-driven, yet customized approach, that will also help your plans get approved and funded, faster and affordably, please reach out to us anytime!

Ok fine, if you're still itching for a top X list, you can take a look at our ten dimensions below!

State of Place Urban Design Dimensions

Featured
Form
Form

Form refers to streetscape continuity, including building setbacks, how the building meets the street, the siting of buildings, and the number and width of buildings. This is what we like to call the "hugability" of a street. If the form is off, a street can feel either aloof or suffocating. You know you’ve achieved the right proportions of setbacks, street width, and building height when it feels like the street is hugging you.

Density
Density

For density, we are measuring building compactness and height, not so much population density – this is particularly important in terms of making it feasible to have enough destinations to walk to within a reasonable walking distance. It can also influence the scale of city – is it for cars or people?

Connectivity
Connectivity

The relative ease of getting from one block to another and the presence of barriers to pedestrians or bicyclists within blocks. You’ve been there – if there wasn’t a fence, road, highway, insert barrier of choice between you and your neighborhood restaurant, you could totally walk there. But instead, what should be a 5-min walk takes 25min so you take the car instead. That's connectivity (or lack thereof).

Proximity
Proximity

The number of non-residential land uses there are to walk to - how many of one's daily needs, services, and amenities are present within a certain distance. (This is primarily what Walk Score measures).

Parks & Public Spaces
Parks & Public Spaces

The presence of hard and soft scape public spaces, as well as their quality and accessibility. These are often the soul and life of neighborhoods; they are the city's living rooms. Along with museums and monuments, these are the places you bring your friends and families to when they visit. 

Recreational Facilities
Recreational Facilities

We look at recreational facilities separately from parks and public spaces. These features get a bit more at recreational walking (as opposed to walking to get to a specific destination or for a purpose other than exercise). The literature found this to be an important determinant for physical activity, so we measure the presence of outdoor and indoor physical activity facilities as their own dimension.

Ped & Bike Amenities
Ped & Bike Amenities

Pedestrian and bike amenities refer to aspects of the built environment that make it comfortable or pleasant to be a pedestrian, including sidewalk presence and quality, seating, bike lane presence and type, street trees, etc. Along with form, these are the features that truly help distinguish car-focused neighborhoods from people-first places – they are the things that make you want to linger…

Traffic Safety
Traffic Safety

Traffic safety focuses on the quality and safety of the intersection as well as the presence of traffic calming features. These include the presence of curbcuts, crosswalk markings, traffic standards, and on-street parking. These are the features that help manage all of the mobile members of the public realm – people, strollers, bicyclists, scooters, cars, and buses.

Aesthetics
Aesthetics

Aesthetics goes beyond the visually pleasing; it also includes aspects of urban design that make places more dynamic and inviting. We look at the transparency of buildings, colors, outdoor dining, street trees, building maintenance, ground floor uses, etc. This is charm, character, the wow factor – the things you’ll most remember about places.

Personal Safety
Personal Safety

Finally, personal safety refers not to actual crime data but rather the aspects of the built environment that influence our perception of safety – these are called physical incivilities and include features like graffiti, litter, broken windows, abandoned buildings and lighting. These features actually influence walking rates more than the rates of crime incidents.

Mariela Alfonzo