Walkability - the new name of the game for US cities

Walkability – US realtors want more, because punters want more of it. According to thisarticle in today’s Huffington Post. A wake-up call for politicians, policy makers, urban planners and transport planners.

Walkability Workshop

Thanks to David Brindley, the Health Promotion Specialist from the Public Health Team at Brighton & Hove Hove City Council for hosting an interesting and informative workshop on walkability, held at Hove Town Hall. The KESUE workshop was run by researchers from Queens University Belfast, who shared information from a study looking at ways to improve urban walkability. One major issue that the researchers addressed: existing route survey data uses the centre line of roads, not footways and paths so this had to be measured and mapped – walkability is about where people actually walk, rather than deriving it from maps based on where vehicles go (a familiar challenge to walkers who use Google maps).

Some other things that came up:

• Mobility issues are becoming more significant for an ageing population.
• Walking networks need to be winter-proof
• The costs of diversions

I’ve included a couple of key slides. The rest are available here.
Hat tip to Andrew Stuck of Rethinking Cities for his note on the workshop.

Making Brighton and Hove A Walkable City

At a well-attended public meeting organised by Brighton and Hove Living Streets, we listened and debated as the transport titans of Brighton and Hove City Council - Councillors Ian Davey, Gill Mitchell and Geoffrey Theobald - shared their views on how Brighton and Hove could become a walkable city.*
The councillors agreed that more could be done, and will be done, to improve the city for pedestrians, and the audience joined in a lively debate on what matters most to pedestrians, and how walking in the city could be improved.
Councillors and attendees came up with over 40 practical suggestions and ideas on how Brighton and Hove could become a walkable city, ranging from ambitious schemes like Valley Gardens to issues like 20mph speed limits, pavement parking, street lighting and dog poo. There was a call for more roads like New Road, and a welcome for planned improvements to the Lewes Road.
Living Streets Brighton and Hove plans to hold a follow-up workshop in the New Year to take these ideas forward. Email for details: livingstreetsbandh@gmail.com.
* A walkable city is where people select walking as their preferred choice of travel. Walkability is the extent to which walking is readily available as a safe, connected, accessible and pleasant activity. Walkable Cities have many health, environmental, and economic benefits. Factors influencing walkability include the presence or absence and quality of footpaths, pavements or other pedestrian right-of-ways, traffic and road conditions, land use patterns, building accessibility, and safety. 

Making Brighton and Hove A Walkable City: A Living Streets Public Meeting

Living Streets Brighton and Hove is hosting a public meeting on "Making Brighton and Hove A Walkable City." A ‘walkable’ city is a city where people select walking as their preferred choice of travel for health and to relax, and one where walking is readily available as a safe, connected, accessible and pleasant activity. The meeting is at 7.30pm on Monday 28th November in the Function Room, The Lord Nelson Inn, 36 Trafalgar Street, BN1 4ED (close to Brighton Station). Confirmed speakers are:

• Cllr Ian Davey: Cabinet Member for Transport & Public Realm, Deputy Convenor of the Green Group, Deputy Leader (Non-Executive) of Brighton & Hove City Council
• Cllr Gill Mitchell: Leader of the Labour & Co-operative Group
• Cllr. Geoffrey Theobald: Leader, Conservative Group
• Stephen Young, Chair, Brighton and Hove Living Streets

If you know anybody who might be interested, please send them a link to this page – if you plan to attend, it would help to gauge numbers if you dropped an email to livingstreetsbandh@gmail.com. If you aren’t able to attend the meeting, but would like to keep in touch with Living Streets Brighton and Hove Group, you can send an email with “Update” in the header to the same email address.