December 4, 2018
As we wrap up another year here at Strong Towns, we’re going to use the next two weeks to highlight some of the best content we published in 2018. We want to make sure these great pieces come to your attention—whether you missed them the first time around, discover something new in them on a second read, or think of somebody you’d love to share them with.
Our goal is to change the conversation about growth, development, and community prosperity in every city and town in North America. That means giving you, the members of the Strong Towns movement, the tools to have better conversations with your friends, colleagues, and local officials about what makes for a productive place.
One key attribute that financially productive and resilient places tend to have in common is walkability. Walkable places are places that are built to the human scale: where a person on foot feels not only safe, but comfortable and inclined to linger. These are the places where life happens, and it shows when you #DoTheMath: walkable places foster more economic activity and deliver a better return on investment, square foot for square foot, than places designed around motor vehicles.
Back in January, Rachel Quednau, who served as Strong Towns’s content manager until August of 2018 (Hi Rachel! We miss you!), wrote what may be the definitive Strong Towns guide to the benefits of walkability. It’s chock-full of links to data, and clear comparative maps and illustrations, but it’s also written in an accessible style to convince the skeptics in your community. You don’t want to miss this one. And you probably know someone who could stand to read it, so pass it along!
What is the value of a street where people can walk safely? Why build streets that are constructed with the needs of people in mind, not just the needs of cars?
“Again and again, when we look at streets oriented toward people we find that they are more economically productive than any other style of development.”
Many people concerned with pedestrian safety and "walkability" care about these issues because they feel that walking is good exercise or that walkable places are more attractive or that walking is better for the environment than driving.
These are all valid arguments and may convince some of those reading this article that walkability is important. But what I want to talk about today isn’t an argument based on values or aesthetics. It’s an argument based on pure dollars and cents — one that should convince people with a myriad of values and political leanings that people-oriented places must be a priority if we want our communities to be economically prosperous.
Again and again, when we look at streets oriented toward people — that is, streets where walking is safe and enjoyable, that people are drawn to visit on foot, and where fast and extensive car traffic is not the #1 priority — we find that they are more economically productive than any other style of development. This is particularly true when we compare people-oriented places to car-oriented places—think of that stretch of your town that effectively does everything possible to discourage walking and biking, including a street with multiple wide lanes to ensure fast car movement, acres of parking, and minimal (if any) sidewalks, bike lanes and crosswalks.
Walkable streets, on the other hand, encourage business activity, generate greater tax revenue per acre and offer a higher return on investment than auto-oriented streets.
People-oriented Streets Encourage Business Activity
Streets where walking is safe and easy are streets where businesses usually thrive. A number of studies have confirmed this over the last several years.
For instance, in a 2011 report for Australia’s Heart Foundation, Dr. Rodney Tolley concludes:
Streetscape enhancements add value to an area and are associated with higher rents and the attraction of new businesses. In addition there is good evidence to show that improving walking and cycling environments raises private property values by significant amounts.
Indeed, in 2009, our friend Joe Cortright conducted a study that revealed: “In the typical market, an additional one point increase in Walk Score was associated with between a $500 and $3,000 increase in home values.” (Walk Score is an online system that ranks how walk-friendly a particular location is.)
Furthermore, a pivotal report by Elizabeth Bent and Krute Singha of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority uncovered that “travelers using [transit or walking] spend more per month than those traveling by car.” Interestingly, while the amount that transit users and walkers spent at area businesses on each trip was less than the average car driver’s spending, the transit users and walkers made more trips per month, which added up to higher spending overall.
In truth, you don’t really need a study to tell you these things. Visit the most thriving commercial district in any city — the one full of shops and restaurants and people — and I would bet that it’s an area where walking is prioritized.
A walkable street ensures that people can safely cross from a clothing store to a coffee shop and spend money at both. It means that people who live in the neighborhood can grab groceries and other necessities easily, so they’ll probably visit nearby establishments more often. Perhaps most importantly, a walkable street is one in which many businesses occupy the bulk of the land, meaning that dozens of destinations can be accessed in a matter of minutes on foot, and that every inch of land is put to economically productive use — not squandered in empty parking lots or unnecessary landscaping.
