When you think of the most walkable cities in America, buzzing metropolises such as Washington, D.C., New York City and Boston probably come to mind. But even the city of Mount Hope, W. Va., a tiny Appalachian town with a population of approximately 1,500, has feet hitting the street.
And that’s thanks to Walk [Your City] (WYC), an online tool that allows anyone to create their own signs to promote walking and biking in their communities. For example, you can make a sign that says downtown’s only 32 minutes away on foot or one that says that a beautiful mural is only a 5 minute bike ride away. TreeHugger notes that WYC’s signs (which cost about $25 each) also include a QR code that provides walking directions and also keeps track of who is using them.
Mount Hope plastered these signs around a 2-mile stretch in their downtown in July 2013, and it’s already left a positive impact. Mayor Michael Martin tells WYC that the signs remind residents that it is not too far to walk to their destinations, and they also help change minds about the safety and acceptance of walking. (Check out the video below.)
MORE: Could Los Angeles Become The Next Pedestrian-Friendly City?
Sure, it’s easy to jump into your car for a quick trip to the convenience store, but as WYC reminds us on their website, a whole 41 percent of our daily car trips require less than 20 minutes of walking. Sometimes it just takes a small reminder that walking somewhere over driving is a lot better for your health (and for the environment too).
The WYC project, since it started in Raleigh, N.C. in 2012, has grown to more than 45 states, six continents, and 38 countries.
You can create your own walking sign at walkyourcity.org/signbuilder.
[ph][ph]
Tag: walkable cities
Could Los Angeles Become The Next Pedestrian-Friendly City?
Survival in Los Angeles has long hinged on owning a car and enduring its punishing traffic, but a new report suggests the sprawling city has potential to become America’s next walkable urban area.
As we reported earlier this week, coalition of real estate developers and investors partnered with SmartGrowth America (a non-profit that focuses on developing and sustaining great urban neighborhoods) and the George Washington University School of Business to analyze the number of walkable neighborhoods in the country’s 30 largest urban areas and look at the potential for growth.
Though L.A. came in at 18th (just below Columbus, Ohio and Kansas City), researchers suggest its future could move it toward the top of the list.
How’s that possible, you might be asking?
Currently, the report finds that only about 16 percent of L.A.’s office and retail space is walkable, compared to three times that amount in Washington, D.C. But 35 percent of that pedestrian-friendly space exists in the city’s suburbs, which means L.A. and its surrounding communities are ripe for growth.
These walkable areas are in-demand for office and retail development, which is driving up rent costs, according to Chris Leinberger, a real-estate professor at George Washington who led the study.
“This is a pretty significant change in how we invest, how we build the country,” Leinberger said. “There will be demand for tens of millions of square feet of additional walkable urban development.”
Additionally, the city has invested more than $40 billion in developing public transit over the next decade — more than any other city across the nation — with eight new commuter, light and heavy rail lines already open. The city has also begun construction on five new rail lines while suburban cities like Pasadena and Santa Monica continue to develop plans for a more public transit-friendly community, Fast Company adds.
“That future—of a walkable, transit-friendly Los Angeles—is being built right now,” the report said. “It will allow people to drive everywhere they want, assuming they can put up with the traffic, and provide the option of walkable urbanism for those who want it.”
Despite the investment, L.A. still must clear the hurdles of circumventing zoning and regulatory policies in some of these communities, as well as find tenants who can afford the soaring costs of rent.
Challenges aside, as the report points out, achieving the futuristic transit system depicted in last year’s movie “Her” is not too far from reality.
MORE: How Can Two Cities Develop the Area Between Them?
More College Graduates Moving Into Cities
For decades, college graduates in America tended to buy houses in the suburbs even if they worked in the city. But that’s changing. According to a new study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, American inner cities are now better educated than their surrounding suburbs—a finding that holds true across the country, from D.C. to Chicago to Houston to Portland. In 1980, most college graduates lived 10 to 25 miles away from cities, and now the majority of them live within 15 miles of city centers. This trend is fueling the resurgence of cities across America, cutting down on long commutes, which can help the environment at the same time as it revitalizes urban areas.