About book Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step At A Time (2012)
This is a book about how to make cities walkable, but also about so much more. Because the walkable city is a vibrant city, with a better economy and healthier, happier citizens. There are many things that go into what makes a city walkable that I never would have considered before: block lengths, the width and design of streets, the number and type of trees, the appearance and size of store fronts, etc. I also learned a lot about safety from this book: one surprising fact being that the less safe a street or intersection appears, the more carefully everyone drives. I wish that all mayors, architects, engineers and city planners would read this book. It's incredible the little things that we don't think about which would make our cities so much more appealing. Even as a suburban resident, some of the information in this book still applies to my situation. Some aspects that specifically stick out to me are trees, onstreet parking, mixed use neighborhoods, efficient offstreet parking, narrow streets, building frontage, building facades, and focusing on key streets. All of these are relevant, even in suburban cities. Clearly though, walk-ability will almost always be superior in a downtown type environment. This is a good read for any urban planner, engineer, city government person, or anyone with an interest in cities or transportation.
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Every city and town planner/public official needs to follow the advice laid out in this book.
—gammagua
Fantastically spot-on. Every city should hire Jeff Speck to make their city more livable.
—Jake
