As the crow flies

I am working a transit project at work. As we have looked at the station areas we have drawn 1/8 mile and 1/4 mile circles to see the walkable areas. This is all well and good, nearly any plan dealing with pedestrians will have a big colored circle to show the places people can walk. But it only tells part of the story, or rather, it omits some important information.

1/4 mile for a crow is different than a 1/4 mile for a person. So we started drawing lines, routes pedestrians would actually use. Once the 1/4 and 1/8 mile lines were drawn an new picture emerged - 30%-40% of the structures within the radii were not actually accessible by foot. A large portion of a residential subdivision fell with in the 1/4 mile circle. When the pedestrian route test was applied none of the subdivision was reachable, some of the houses were nearly a 3/4 mile walk from the proposed station.

I wrote a paper a few semesters ago analyzing the walkability of my neighborhood. I saw the same phenomenon. The nearest elementary school is about 1/2 mile from my house, as the crow flies. But because of development patterns the pedestrian route becomes nearly 2 miles. A simple system of walkways would solve the problem, but I doubt many of the home owners would be too excited to give away some of their property so others could walk [you know, because people walking = crime, or so say the NIMBYs].

Granted, homes in my neighborhood range from early 1900s bungalows to my 1960s condos to recent monster homes on two lots, and that kind of developmental hodgepodge is difficult to coordinate. Difficult, not impossible though.

Most cities have thorough transportation master plans, for cars. Integrating pedestrian circulation would not be much more difficult. I am glad to say that I am seeing this beginning to happen in both new development and retro fitting established areas.

Seeing the built environment through the eyes of the pedestrian is the first step to making our communities more pedestrian friendly.