I had a delightful conversation not long ago with a reporter from Calgary. He was working on a series about walking and walkable communities. Of course a good part of our conversation was about the built environment and how it influences walking, in particular active transportation.
We know that mixed-use neighbourhoods, with residential, businesses and services, encourage walking.
We also know that street connectivity also increases walkability (i.e. how easy is it to get from point A to point B). For example, the traditional grid system street layout often proves to be more walkable than the cul-de-sac and lolly-pop layouts.
However, when we focus on just these two items when discussing the built environment we tend to get a bit negative about finding solutions. Tearing down and re-building communities are just not an option. My reporter asked the perfect question to help look for different solutions.
“What should be done in the neighbourhoods that are classified as not very walkable to make or improve the walkability? What a fantastic question.
This means we need to look beyond street connectivity and mixed use and explore some other options.
Providing a safe place to walk.
- Pedestrians need a place to walk. If there are not any sidewalks this really deters walking. So what should we do in a neighbourhood that has no sidewalks? First, the city or town council needs to be approached and convinced to address this issue in the future planning for that neighbourhood. However, this could take many years. An example of an interim solution is to actually dedicate a portion of the road for pedestrians. Using road paint can help make this clear.
- Consider extending your sidewalks so they are wider. Wide sidewalks encourage walking and at the same time may help to slow traffic.
- Consider adding barriers in between the pedestrians and the vehicles, this could be green space, trees and plants, park benches.
- Keep sidewalks well lit at night.
Here are some examples and other ideas about sidewalks and walkways.
Look at ways to slow or calm traffic.
- Speed bumps, chockers, mini circles, or even gateways into your community are a few examples.
- Check out this website for images and explanations of many great ways to calm traffic.
- Pushing for lower speed limit in your neighbourhood .
Crosswalks that are safer and put pedestrians first
- Make crosswalks as visible as possible to vehicles. Use of lights, signs and paint can help with this.
- Ensure crosswalks are visible in both day and at night.
- Make it easier to cross by adding curb extension (this decreases the area a pedestrian has to actually cross on the road.
- Check out this page for some fantastic examples.
Of course some of these ideas need the city or town to be involved, which can take time. Plus some of these ideas may still be costly.
However, inexpensive and time efficient solutions also do exist; it just means putting on the creativity thinking cap.
One example of an inexpensive solution was creating curb extensions with gigantic flower planters and some road paint. The community placed 2 gigantic planters a couple feet out from each side of the crosswalk. They then painted cross walking lines. It was aesthetically pleasing, and it worked.
Have you seen some neat ways communities have helped make their neighbourhood more walkable?
What about winter? How can we keep our neighbourhoods walkable in our cold and snowy Canadian winters?
I would love to hear your suggestions or thoughts.
