Upping Our Cities’ Walk Score | Why Walkability Matters

In Ray Bradbury’s classic novel Fahrenheit 451, there is a teenage girl named Clarisse McClellan who likes to walk while everyone else drives around in their big, important cars.  Actually, they don’t just drive around; they zoom, as fast as 100 mph—so fast that no one has time to take notice of their surroundings anymore.  Consequently, billboards were stretched as long as 200 feet along the highway so that motorists can still see the advertisements.  Yes, Ray Bradbury’s book on the grim, impersonal future is all about censorship, but it also tells about the dangers of our fast-paced life.

New York, one of the most walkable cities in the U.S.

Of course, now we know that speed doesn’t necessarily equate to progress.  Speed is good, but when speed means overdependence on automobiles, that can’t be good.  Which brings us to the Clarisses of this world who would rather walk and enjoy the scenery rather than succumb to the cult of speed.

What’s Your City’s Walk Score? 

Walkability plays an important role in a city’s sustainability.  When everything that people need is within walking distance, there’s simply no need to depend on transportation.  Which is good—walking means no unnecessary carbon emissions, and at the same time, it encourages good health.  One of the most surprising/not so surprising findings back in 2011 is that sitting can actually be dangerous to one’s health.  The following year, 2012, thus became the year of the “walking meetings”—Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg reportedly are fans of this new paradigm.  But it’s not just walking meetings—it’s walking in general that’s in the forefront these days.

Walking is certainly empowering—and not just in the sense that we need to enjoy our walks as much as we can while our knees are still good.  Walking is empowering because it doesn’t make distinctions between gender or class.  Walking is for all.  When a city provides, facilitates, and encourages mobility, not just for those who have cars but even for those who simply choose to walk—then that city truly empowers its citizens.   (Sidebar: the top ten walkable cities in the United States)

A city’s walkabilty isn’t just about providing trees and greenery along the sidewalk.

What we need is an urban design whose streetscape convinces people to leave their cars at home and take to walking instead.  If we want to change that car-dependent mentality into car-less freedom of mobility, then we have to design our spaces in such a way that encourages that.  After all, it’s these little but crucial details that influences how people interact with the built spaces and environment.

We need to give incentives to those who choose to walk, while imposing taxes to those who still insist on cars.  That said, we also should protect the safety and rights-of-way of pedestrians.   As Julie Campoli notes in her book Made for Walking, comfort, privacy, variety, and a sense of spaciousness are elements that every city planner should consider to boost walkability.   

 Fast-paced versus slow movement

Our sidewalks, pedestrian lanes, overpasses, and footpaths do more than just connect streets to each other.  Ultimately, they connect all of us together.  We often complain about crowds, but this bustling crowd is what makes us feel alive in the cities we live in, for all the social interactions it gives us.

City walking can be fun and healthy again. (Image from eloquentscience.com)

For our parents and grandparents, walking was a way of life, a slow movement from point A to B that made them relish the journey itself as much as the destination.  Meanwhile, the young generation is making a statement in their refusal to own cars—car ownership among young people has dropped in recent years—while they rely instead on the real-time connectedness of the Internet.  It’s still the fast-paced life, yes, but without the blatant disregard for nature, and without the excess carbon emission.

Now, if we could only turn every city walkable for all the Clarisse McClellans of this world.