Walkability: now more than ever
How has your relationship with your car(s) changed during this COVID-19 lockdown? If you were within walking distance of a grocery store, would your car even leave the garage? Have you been walking to get your groceries when you normally drive just because you’re so desperate to move a little?
During this time it has become apparent just how much we don’t need our cars. Oil prices are at record lows. The air quality in our cities hasn’t been this clean in 100 years.
On this 50th Earth Day, let’s take a minute to think about what our post-COVID life could be like. If we live in walkable locations, could we do most of our daily shopping without a car? If we live near kids’ schools, could we stop the pickup/dropoff madness? If our favorite local restaurant, park, hardware store, ice cream shop, and hair salon were all within a 10 minute walk, how much really would we need to drive?
This disruption lays bare how much excess infrastructure we have. Think about how much land is dedicated to roads that are unused, parking lots that are empty, office parks that are underutilized.
If we could recycle those land uses and reimagine our housing patterns to be closer to our daily needs we would be happier, safer, healthier, and more economically resilient.
This isn’t just conjecture, it is proven with data.
If you want a great read while we are mostly at home, while we have this opportunity to pause and reflect and dream our future, I suggest you read:
Or if you want the cliff notes, watch his TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/jeff_speck_4_ways_to_make_a_city_more_walkable