WALKABILITY GEOG 346: Day 14. Barcelona – One of the Most Walkable Cities in the World

WALKABILITY

GEOG 346: Day 14

Barcelona – One of the Most Walkable Citiesin the World

Housekeeping Items

Geography is looking for volunteers next week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) to talk to Grade 10s about their experience taking Geography courses between 11 and noon in Building 355, Room 211 (the Activity Lounge). Anyone interested?

Do I have everyone’s outlines?The next three Tuesdays (after Reading Week) we

will be out on field trip every Tuesday, so show at or before 10 a.m. and, if you’re a tour leader, talk to me about bringing a gift for those who assist us.

Any reactions to Daniel Pearce and the last field trip?

Housekeeping Items

There is a second workshop available to students in preparation for VIU CREATE. The next one focuses on giving Oral Presentations and is free. It is this Friday in building 305, room 444, from 10:00a.m. to 12:00p.m.

The deadline for submitting a proposal for a poster or research presentation for CREATE! is Thursday, March 6th. Go to CREATE.

Condon, Chapter 4

Two factors, central to smart growth, that determine a city’s (and its inhabitants’) ecological footprint are its density and the degree to which land uses are mixed and within walkable proximity.

In the past, most traditional cities were moderately dense and very walkable. It is only within the last sixty years that this pattern began to be transformed in favour of a single-use, automobile-dependent paradigm.

Condon, Chapter 4

While urban form is not the only factor, it contributes to the fact that – if all the world’s people’s were to live a North American lifestyle – it would require up to six additional planets to sustain us.

Partly in response to this, and in recognition of what we have lost, planners, architects and plain old citizens have been advocating a “back to the future” approach, one form of this being TOD – transit-oriented development (for Canadian examples, see: http://www.cmhc.ca/en/inpr/su/sucopl/sucopl_007.cfm).

Pictures That You Forwarded…

Pictures That Students Forwarded

Positive example taken along Groveland Drive in the north end of Nanaimo (close to Lantzville); sidewalks on both sides of street, ample lighting, safe neighbourhood

Pictures That Students Forwarded

Pictures That Students Forwarded…

Pictures That You Forwarded…








Las Ramblas in Barcelona

Walkscore, as mentioned, reflects the amenities available on foot within a given

area

Walk Score is a website that provides a numerical ranking or score for any address based on the “walkability” of the surroundings and neighborhood. Walk Score also provides a public transit rating called Transit Score and a commute report with drive, transit, bike, and walk times. Walk Score currently supports the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

The Essentials of Walkability

Most people are willing to walk 5 minutes – ¼ mile or 400 metres – to get to transit or services, maybe 10 if the environment is particularly stimulating. In these circumstances, walking is easier than driving.

This radius is called a “pedestrian shed.”

In Vancouver’s streetcar neighbourhoods, 22% of house-holds don’t own cars and those that do use their cars 30% less. Less than 50% use single-occupancy vehicles (SOVs) to get to work.

In Surrey and Delta it’s 5% without. 52% of households have 2 or more vehicles.

Interconnecting pedestrian sheds

Condon is also a big fan of smaller schools (3 acre, as opposed to 40 acre) that kids can walk to. He notes that the principal at his son’s school knows the names of all 400 pupils!


The following video with Jeff Speck is useful: www.ted.com/talks/jeff_speck_the_walkable_city.html.

Jeff is the co-author of a number of books with Andres Duany and others on new urbanism and smart growth.

Another influential author in this field is Peter Calthorpe who developed the concept of transit-oriented development (TOD).

While Condon is not opposed to the urban node concept, he also argues – in keeping with his observations about streetcar cities and neighbourhoods – that linear strips are of equal importance to walkability and quality of life.

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ractod/3953863528/.


TOD potentially combines node and linearity.And with streetcar arterials, people can hop on and

off buses in the course of doing their errands – what he calls trip-chaining.

To make linear transit viable and desirable, it has been found that frequency times of every 7 minutes is desirable, similar to what we heard from Daniel.

To support frequent transit one needs density. In New York, nearly 60% of commuters ride transit. In Phoenix it is just over 3%. As Condon notes 30 units per gross acre can support heavy rail, though this is not the option he tends to favour (streetcars and trams have GHG and financial advantages in his view).

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WALKABILITY GEOG 346: Day 14. Barcelona – One of the Most Walkable Cities in the World