91视频

I’ve been traveling over the last month and a half, and it’s amazing how the experience broadens your views about what makes cities and towns great places to live. As I have mentioned before, 鈥渨alkability鈥� has become the shorthand term for a range of features that help define the quality of a place. In the next few weeks I’m going to talk about some of these features and use examples from my travels, as well as from Portland, to illustrate how they affect our lives.

But first, what are the features and benefits of walkability? The primary features can be categorized as infrastructure, land use and design. The elements of these three categories can be more simply understood as the ways people move around (e.g., sidewalks, paths, public squares, parks, etc.), their destinations (homes, stores, workplaces, entertainment venues, etc.) and how these elements are combined to make the experience of walking efficient, safe and pleasant. This happens through careful building placement, access and scale, and the design of the adjacent 鈥減ublic realm,鈥� primarily public rights-of-way and other public property.

The benefits of making a place walkable are, of course, the key selling points for making this a prominent part of planning for our cities and towns. The first is health. It has been well-documented through numerous studies (see activelivingresearch.org) that being able to walk more and sit less is very beneficial to individual and community health. Easy access to stores and places of work and play are also a great benefit, which also means less reliance on automobiles, increased transit efficiency and easier bike access.

The environmental benefits are extensive 鈥� reduced climate change and reduced individual exposure to pollutants being the most obvious. And finally the social benefits are very important 鈥� higher-quality living environments for low-income people, and more opportunity for social interaction with neighbors.