Tag Archives: walkability

stupid advice for 20 year olds

Here is some really stupid advice for 20-somethings, making the rounds as a viral email apparently:

People who are saving in their 20s are people who don’t set their sights high. They’ve already dropped out of the game and settled for the minor leagues.

Your 20s are not the time to save; they’re the time to gamble. $200 a month isn’t going to make the dent that a $60,000 pay raise will after spending all those nights out networking.

When you’re 40, you’re not going to look back on your 20s and be grateful for the few thousand you saved. You’re going to be full of regret.

You’ll regret the experiences you didn’t take, the people you didn’t meet and the fun you didn’t have because you were too worried about a future that came and went.

Well, I just turned 40, so let me think back to my 20s. I was a particularly clueless 20-something in many ways, but somehow I built a career, saved some money, and had a lot of fun too. There were big expenses and small expenses. The big expenses were housing and transportation. I controlled the big expenses by living in small, cheap places and having a small, cheap car (and later, no car). That left me plenty of money to save, and plenty of pocket change to have a little fun. I am glad I had fun – I have no regrets, other than maybe having a little too much fun and getting behind the wheel once or twice when I shouldn’t have. I certainly don’t regret the “few thousand” I saved back then, which gives me and my family some piece of mind 20 years later. So that’s the advice I would give 20-somethings, if they ever thought they needed my advice – pick a profession, build a career, save, live in a small place, go car-free if you can, make some friends and have some fun. When you turn 40 you will like where you are.

cars are over in the UK

Most Americans haven’t caught on yet, but the tide has turned against widespread car ownership. Here’s an article in the Guardian about the tide turning in the UK:

London, which has pioneered congestion charging and has a well-integrated system of public transport, has led the move away from cars over the past decade, during which time 9% of car commuters have switched to other forms of transport. “People in London have a lot of options and there’s been huge growth across all modes,” says Isabel Dedring, the American-born deputy mayor for transport in the capital. “There’s been a massive increase in investment in public transport…”

Dedring says London has always been progressive in terms of public transport – its narrow, twisting roads were never conducive to the automotive domination that occurred in many US and European cities in the 1960s and 70s, when the car was king. But from the turn of the millennium, there has been a concerted attempt to encourage switching to other modes of transport, and the past decade has seen a 30% reduction in traffic in central London.

“Traffic levels have gone down massively,” says Dedring, “partly because of the congestion charge, but also because we are taking away space from private vehicles and giving it to buses through bus lanes and to people through public realm [developments].” And now to cyclists, too, with the planned “cycle superhighways” and cycle-friendly neighbourhoods being trialled in three London boroughs.

 

walkability matters – duh

For people still looking for an answer to the question “does walkability matter?”, here is some more solid evidence from Cities to add to the mountain.

In this study, researchers examined 170 neighborhoods in a medium-sized city to see whether walkability influences neighborhood sustainability. Until 2008, there had not been a reliable measure of the social, health, and economic impact of walkable neighborhoods. This dramatically changed when scholars were able to quantify walkability with tools such as Walkscore™; which measures how accessible daily living activities are by foot. The researchers investigated how walkability impacts the quality and sustainability of a neighborhood. They developed models that evaluated the correlation between an area’s Walkscore™ and four broad measures of urban sustainability: neighborhood housing valuation; foreclosures; and crime. Our analysis shows a positive impact not only on neighborhood housing valuation but also on neighborhood crime and foreclosure. These results provide policy opportunities for planners and citizen groups to pursue strategies to encourage the development of more walkable and sustainable neighborhoods.

I know I’m a broken record, but getting around under our own muscle power for most trips most of the time is the key to (in no particular order):

  • reducing carbon emissions
  • reducing air pollution from vehicle emissions, especially particulates which cause asthma and heart disease – this will add quality years to all our lives
  • solving drunk driving
  • saving lots and lots of money that we used to spend on cars
  • saving enormous amounts of space in cities that used to be used for car maneuvering and parking – space that can now be used for relaxing, recreating, habitat, housing, economic or commercial activity
  • creating space for people – yes, you can increase density and reduce crowding at the same time
  • increasing physical health through more physical activity, decreasing obesity, diabetes and heart disease, adding years to peoples’ lives
  • improving psychological health through physical activity
  • increasing social interaction
  • increasing business activity and profits
  • creating an ecosystem of innovative, creative people, businesses, nonprofit and government agencies