Walk more, drive less – It’s good for you

Much has been said about smart planning and the importance of pedestrian friendly streets. The pendulum may be swinging from car-centric toward people-centric communities.



Happy as a clam in my suburban home

Going back to the 1860s and 70s, Frederick Law Olmstead was promoting an idea of parks for a healthy access to sun and air. It was a revolutionary idea. A few decades back, suburbs were the big hype, claiming healthy, safe and affordable living! American dream finally came true. Levittown and Scarsdale were models for dream suburbs, advertising spread-out homes and private garages.

This is wrong, we are sick

Much has changed since then and even more will change within the decades to come. Public health officials and community planners are rethinking the importance of a motorized vehicle, stressing the need for pedestrian friendly communities, seeking a retrofit of existing suburban neighborhoods to encourage physical activity of their residents. More than ever an emphasis is given to the spread of obesity and chronic health issues linked to a sedentary way of living. Suburban residents walk less, bike less, and are overall less physically fit than their city counterparts.


The importance of cars within the suburban developments is immense. Neighborhoods lacking sidewalks and paths for pedestrians and bicycles could be proclaimed as a symbol for life within the suburbs. Cars are parked in the driveways, allowing for the convenience of driving anywhere at any time, often for a mile, reaching the destination with only a few feet of walking.

‘Walk less; it’s the right thing to do. (?)’

Los Angeles, a city of a million of cars, forces each adult to have a car. Children have to be driven to nearly every activity and remaining physically active becomes difficult. Suburbs of Memphis are just as car-needy. Remembering my move to Memphis eight years back, I used to walk, bike and take public transportation everywhere. My first experience living in Cordova was walking to the convenient store located about a quarter of a mile down the road. I was stopped by a police officer, who wondered if everything is fine, asking me if I need a ride since my car must have broken down. I was advised not to walk but drive next time.

Based on my experience, is it not surprising that walking is becoming unnatural. ‘A quarter of all trips taken by Americans are under a mile, but 75 percent of those trips are done by car. Only one-third of children who live less than a mile from school now walk to school’, as stated by Dr. William Dietz, a director of the Division of Nutrition and Physical activity for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Georgia Tech published a study about daily walking, which said that Americans and Canadians use their feet for far fewer trips than people in other developed countries. For a comparison, people in Italy walk 54 percent of their trips, people in Sweden 49 percent while Americans only about 10 percent. The dependence on vehicles has led to an elimination of 90 percent of historic American pedestrian connectivity. While passenger cars account for 12 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe, they account for up to 50 percent in some car-intensive areas in the United States.

No, not everyone’s soul is lost forever! New model found

While most zoning laws in the US still require two parking spaces per a residential unit, EPA is promoting car reduced communities. The Main Street model becomes more and more popular and focus is shifting toward retrofitting of existing neighborhoods, infill developments and downtown conversions. A larger percentage of Americans is looking for a car reduced or utopian car-free communities to live in; however, their options are limited. A more compact, pedestrian oriented neighborhood is becoming a model for the first decades of the 21st century. While the 1950s embraced living in the suburbs with no parks, sidewalks, retail centers within reach by foot or bike, the 2010 model promotes these features.

Quarry Village

Quarry Village in Oakland, CA is one of the utopian prototypes of living with no car dictatorship. Even though the ownership of a car is not forbidden, it is not celebrated. This is a planned community which is easily accessible via the Bay Area Transit System. The neighborhood is being developed between the Cal State Hayward and the Hayward BART station, within a short distance from the university. Originally a piece of land purchased for a freeway extension, the community will include housing units ranging from studios to six bedroom townhouses, with estimated prices starting at $160,000. (More information at http://quarryvillage.org/)

Greg Ramsey of Village Habitat Design (http://www.allthingshealing.com/tabId/197/itemId/538/CarReduced-and-CarFree-Pedestrian-Habitats.aspx) lists the primary objectives to be incorporated into a car reduced / free community as follows:

1. Reduce car ownership and create cluster parking areas at the outskirts of the community. These cluster parking areas can then be converted over time to a place to house shared and rental vehicles. Greenfield development (building on land that has previously never been built on) will ultimately have to be bonded to insure financing for community transportation links (shuttle to town/city). Charging commensurate impact fees for new cars can pay for the community transportation infrastructure.

2. Develop or convert existing streets to pedestrian, bike and electric cart/moped streets. Existing neighborhoods can start with the conversion of one street and then proceed to every other street, etc.

3. Develop effective community and public transit links. Car reduced/free communities can only be as effective as their transit links. A community shuttle can be an effective way to connect the communities to more substantial public transportation.

4. Development of pedestrian-proximity mixed-use communities, including residential, agricultural, energy production, wildlife habitats, workplaces, and community/civic buildings.

5. Development of pedestrian scaled spaces and buildings that respond to privacy gradients, celebration of community, social interaction and links to nature.

Conversion will occur by increments while new communities can be designed as full pedestrian habitats. These communities will be devoid of highways and streets as we know them today.

As odd as this may seem at the moment, as the natural resources become scarce and the nations will face more global issues, car-free communities will become a vital model for development.

Our friends over-seas

Europe is already a couple of steps ahead by implementing new zoning and regulations. In 2000, Britain put forth a comprehensive effort to reform planning and to discourage the use of cars. All new development has to be accessible to public transit. The new 2001 planning document set new regulations, limiting permits to many housing compounds, restaurants and shopping malls that did not follow this new rule.

Copenhagen focuses on converting streets into pedestrian zones, reducing the impact of cars and therefore traffic and parking requirements. The existing parking lots are being converted into public squares.

Germany’s prototypical suburb of Vauban, near the French-Swiss border, went even further and forbade cars all together. Street parking, driveways and home garages are not allowed in this upscale community. Streets are completely car free, except the main thoroughfare which connects Vauban with downtown Freiburg. There are only two large garages to park on the community outskirts, offering parking spots for about $40,000 each. Communal car rental as well as a car-sharing club by families are locally available. This suburb is an example of a growing trend in Europe to separate suburban life from auto use.

Back home

Within the US, hundreds of groups, which are environment oriented, mayor’s offices and the American Association of Retired People, promote development of communities that would be less dependent on cars. Existing suburbs are slowly being modified, to become more efficient, dense and people friendly with the access to public transportation. The River Trails Conservation Assistance Program of the National Park Service is countrywide helping communities to develop walking trails.

While tightly knitting the holes in the existing urban fabric, new patterns are being developed. A landscape with connection to public transit can create an interesting combination. All over Europe green lines are carpeting railways. This idea not only looks pleasant but also helps to reduce the heat island effect and storm water runoff. (http://www.landfx.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=28&p=3960)

For the past few years, Memphians have been talking about the Green Belt Rail system on the old CSX rail line. By incorporating the light rail line as a part of this belt, both purposes would be served - a Transit Oriented Development (TOD) catalyst throughout the area and a place of relaxation for the Memphis’ residents. While this would not change the suburbs, it has a potential to spark a development along the line and connect the next suburbs to downtown/ medical center jobs, while promoting walking within the TODs and along the green belt.