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Sell Walkability on Community

There are powerful community reasons to invest in walkability

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Abstract

ANY PLANNER WHO HAS SPENT TIME surveying a range of communities can tell you the difference between more traditional walkable neighborhoods and automotive sprawl: In walkable places, it is impossible to spend more than a few minutes sneaking around without being approached by an inquisitive resident. In a modern suburbia of cul-de-sacs and garage-fronted snout-houses, a planner can measure streets all day and not elicit a single interaction. Where nobody walks, nobody supervises the public realm, and nobody gets to know their neighbors.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Donald Appleyard, M. Sue Gerson, and Mark Lintell, Livable Streets (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981).

  2. 2.

    Howard Frumkin, Urban Sprawl and Public Health, 172. Also, Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival ofAmerican Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000).

  3. 3.

    Shannon H. Rogers et al., “Examining Walkability and Social Capital as Indicators of Quality of Life at the Municipal and Neighborhood Scales,” Journal of Applied Research in Quality of Life 6, no. 2 (2011): 2013.

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© 2018 Jeff Speck

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Speck, J. (2018). Sell Walkability on Community. In: Walkable City Rules. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-899-2_5

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