0:00:00.897,0:00:03.786 So I'm here to talk to you[br]about the walkable city. 0:00:03.810,0:00:05.169 What is the walkable city? 0:00:05.193,0:00:07.674 Well, for want of a better definition, 0:00:07.698,0:00:14.586 it's a city in which the car[br]is an optional instrument of freedom, 0:00:14.610,0:00:16.494 rather than a prosthetic device. 0:00:16.518,0:00:19.473 And I'd like to talk about[br]why we need the walkable city, 0:00:19.497,0:00:23.655 and I'd like to talk about[br]how to do the walkable city. 0:00:23.679,0:00:28.019 Most of the talks I give these days[br]are about why we need it, 0:00:28.043,0:00:31.139 but you guys are smart. 0:00:32.314,0:00:35.561 And also I gave that talk[br]exactly a month ago, 0:00:35.585,0:00:37.652 and you can see it at TED.com. 0:00:37.676,0:00:40.676 So today I want to talk[br]about how to do it. 0:00:40.700,0:00:42.639 In a lot of time thinking about this, 0:00:42.663,0:00:45.763 I've come up with what I call[br]the general theory of walkability. 0:00:45.787,0:00:48.717 A bit of a pretentious term,[br]it's a little tongue-in-cheek, 0:00:48.741,0:00:51.315 but it's something[br]I've thought about for a long time, 0:00:51.339,0:00:54.723 and I'd like to share[br]what I think I've figured out. 0:00:54.747,0:00:57.586 In the American city,[br]the typical American city -- 0:00:57.610,0:00:59.850 the typical American city[br]is not Washington, DC, 0:00:59.874,0:01:02.182 or New York, or San Francisco; 0:01:02.206,0:01:05.453 it's Grand Rapids or Cedar[br]Rapids or Memphis -- 0:01:05.477,0:01:08.588 in the typical American city[br]in which most people own cars 0:01:08.612,0:01:10.933 and the temptation[br]is to drive them all the time, 0:01:10.957,0:01:14.736 if you're going to get them to walk,[br]then you have to offer a walk 0:01:14.760,0:01:16.608 that's as good as a drive or better. 0:01:16.632,0:01:17.783 What does that mean? 0:01:17.807,0:01:20.348 It means you need to offer[br]four things simultaneously: 0:01:20.372,0:01:22.429 there needs to be a proper reason to walk, 0:01:22.453,0:01:24.803 the walk has to be safe and feel safe, 0:01:24.827,0:01:26.522 the walk has to be comfortable 0:01:26.546,0:01:28.315 and the walk has to be interesting. 0:01:28.339,0:01:30.949 You need to do all four[br]of these things simultaneously, 0:01:30.973,0:01:33.003 and that's the structure of my talk today, 0:01:33.027,0:01:34.656 to take you through each of those. 0:01:34.680,0:01:37.944 The reason to walk[br]is a story I learned from my mentors, 0:01:37.968,0:01:40.328 Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, 0:01:40.352,0:01:42.353 the founders of the New Urbanism movement. 0:01:42.377,0:01:45.890 And I should say half the slides[br]and half of my talk today 0:01:45.914,0:01:47.240 I learned from them. 0:01:47.264,0:01:49.043 It's the story of planning, 0:01:49.067,0:01:52.307 the story of the formation[br]of the planning profession. 0:01:52.331,0:01:57.082 When in the 19th century[br]people were choking 0:01:57.106,0:01:59.599 from the soot of the dark, satanic mills, 0:01:59.623,0:02:03.999 the planners said, hey, let's move[br]the housing away from the mills. 0:02:04.023,0:02:07.490 And lifespans increased[br]immediately, dramatically, 0:02:07.514,0:02:08.665 and we like to say 0:02:08.689,0:02:11.881 the planners have been trying to repeat[br]that experience ever since. 0:02:11.905,0:02:14.547 So there's the onset[br]of what we call Euclidean zoning, 0:02:14.571,0:02:18.646 the separation of the landscape[br]into large areas of single use. 0:02:18.670,0:02:21.147 And typically when I arrive[br]in a city to do a plan, 0:02:21.171,0:02:25.210 a plan like this already awaits me[br]on the property that I'm looking at. 0:02:25.234,0:02:26.936 And all a plan like this guarantees 0:02:26.960,0:02:28.999 is that you will not have a walkable city, 0:02:29.023,0:02:31.943 because nothing is located[br]near anything else. 0:02:31.967,0:02:35.607 The alternative, of course,[br]is our most walkable city, 0:02:35.631,0:02:38.161 and I like to say, you know,[br]this is a Rothko, 0:02:38.185,0:02:39.688 and this is a Seurat. 0:02:39.712,0:02:42.253 It's just a different way --[br]he was the pointilist -- 0:02:42.277,0:02:44.110 it's a different way of making places. 0:02:44.134,0:02:46.943 And even this map of Manhattan[br]is a bit misleading 0:02:46.967,0:02:51.147 because the red color[br]is uses that are mixed vertically. 0:02:51.171,0:02:53.875 So this is the big story[br]of the New Urbanists -- 0:02:53.899,0:02:56.411 to acknowledge[br]that there are only two ways 0:02:56.435,0:02:58.725 that have been tested by the thousands 0:02:58.749,0:03:01.689 to build communities,[br]in the world and throughout history. 0:03:01.713,0:03:03.591 One is the traditional neighborhood. 0:03:03.615,0:03:07.029 You see here several neighborhoods[br]of Newburyport, Massachusetts, 0:03:07.053,0:03:11.320 which is defined as being compact[br]and being diverse -- 0:03:11.344,0:03:15.486 places to live, work, shop,[br]recreate, get educated -- 0:03:15.510,0:03:17.389 all within walking distance. 0:03:17.413,0:03:19.549 And it's defined as being walkable. 0:03:19.573,0:03:21.107 There are lots of small streets. 0:03:21.131,0:03:22.857 Each one is comfortable to walk on. 0:03:22.881,0:03:25.395 And we contrast that to the other way, 0:03:25.419,0:03:28.238 an invention that happened[br]after the Second World War, 0:03:28.262,0:03:29.520 suburban sprawl, 0:03:29.544,0:03:34.121 clearly not compact, clearly not diverse,[br]and it's not walkable, 0:03:34.145,0:03:36.043 because so few of the streets connect, 0:03:36.067,0:03:38.950 that those streets that do connect[br]become overburdened, 0:03:38.974,0:03:41.064 and you wouldn't let your kid out on them. 0:03:41.088,0:03:43.939 And I want to thank Alex Maclean,[br]the aerial photographer, 0:03:43.963,0:03:47.018 for many of these beautiful pictures[br]that I'm showing you today. 0:03:47.042,0:03:50.662 So it's fun to break sprawl down[br]into its constituent parts. 0:03:50.686,0:03:52.263 It's so easy to understand, 0:03:52.287,0:03:55.290 the places where you only live,[br]the places where you only work, 0:03:56.144,0:03:58.100 the places where you only shop, 0:03:58.124,0:04:01.468 and our super-sized public institutions. 0:04:01.492,0:04:02.932 Schools get bigger and bigger, 0:04:02.956,0:04:05.352 and therefore, further[br]and further from each other. 0:04:05.376,0:04:08.505 And the ratio of the size[br]of the parking lot 0:04:08.529,0:04:09.745 to the size of the school 0:04:09.769,0:04:11.385 tells you all you need to know, 0:04:11.409,0:04:13.947 which is that no child[br]has ever walked to this school, 0:04:13.971,0:04:15.876 no child will ever walk to this school. 0:04:15.900,0:04:19.740 The seniors and juniors are driving[br]the freshmen and the sophomores, 0:04:19.764,0:04:22.388 and of course we have[br]the crash statistics to prove it. 0:04:22.412,0:04:25.880 And then the super-sizing[br]of our other civic institutions 0:04:25.904,0:04:27.074 like playing fields -- 0:04:27.098,0:04:30.971 it's wonderful that Westin[br]in the Ft. Lauderdale area 0:04:30.995,0:04:34.063 has eight soccer fields[br]and eight baseball diamonds 0:04:34.087,0:04:35.946 and 20 tennis courts, 0:04:35.970,0:04:39.582 but look at the road[br]that takes you to that location, 0:04:39.606,0:04:41.552 and would you let your child bike on it? 0:04:41.576,0:04:43.706 And this is why we have[br]the soccer mom now. 0:04:43.730,0:04:45.972 When I was young, I had one soccer field, 0:04:45.996,0:04:48.021 one baseball diamond and one tennis court, 0:04:48.045,0:04:50.903 but I could walk to it,[br]because it was in my neighborhood. 0:04:50.927,0:04:53.778 Then the final part of sprawl[br]that everyone forgot to count: 0:04:53.802,0:04:56.622 if you're going to separate everything[br]from everything else 0:04:56.646,0:04:59.180 and reconnect it[br]only with automotive infrastructure, 0:04:59.204,0:05:01.726 then this is what your landscape[br]begins to look like. 0:05:01.750,0:05:02.965 The main message here is: 0:05:02.989,0:05:06.591 if you want to have a walkable city,[br]you can't start with the sprawl model. 0:05:06.615,0:05:08.686 you need the bones of an urban model. 0:05:08.710,0:05:11.558 This is the outcome[br]of that form of design, 0:05:11.582,0:05:12.973 as is this. 0:05:12.997,0:05:15.586 And this is something[br]that a lot of Americans want. 0:05:15.610,0:05:18.323 But we have to understand[br]it's a two-part American dream. 0:05:18.347,0:05:19.707 If you're dreaming for this, 0:05:19.731,0:05:23.112 you're also going to be dreaming of this,[br]often to absurd extremes, 0:05:23.136,0:05:25.753 when we build our landscape[br]to accommodate cars first. 0:05:25.777,0:05:28.018 And the experience[br]of being in these places -- 0:05:28.042,0:05:29.059 (Laughter) 0:05:29.083,0:05:30.463 This is not Photoshopped. 0:05:30.487,0:05:32.489 Walter Kulash took this slide. 0:05:32.513,0:05:34.210 It's in Panama City. 0:05:34.234,0:05:36.023 This is a real place. 0:05:36.047,0:05:38.526 And being a driver[br]can be a bit of a nuisance, 0:05:38.550,0:05:41.015 and being a pedestrian[br]can be a bit of a nuisance 0:05:41.039,0:05:42.540 in these places. 0:05:42.564,0:05:46.038 This is a slide that epidemiologists[br]have been showing for some time now, 0:05:46.062,0:05:47.078 (Laughter) 0:05:47.102,0:05:50.567 The fact that we have a society[br]where you drive to the parking lot 0:05:50.591,0:05:52.465 to take the escalator to the treadmill 0:05:52.489,0:05:54.417 shows that we're doing something wrong. 0:05:54.441,0:05:56.013 But we know how to do it better. 0:05:56.037,0:05:57.720 Here are the two models contrasted. 0:05:57.744,0:05:58.899 I show this slide, 0:05:58.923,0:06:01.709 which has been a formative document[br]of the New Urbanism now 0:06:01.733,0:06:03.137 for almost 30 years, 0:06:03.161,0:06:07.320 to show that sprawl and the traditional[br]neighborhood contain the same things. 0:06:07.344,0:06:08.730 It's just how big are they, 0:06:08.754,0:06:10.353 how close are they to each other, 0:06:10.377,0:06:12.052 how are they interspersed together 0:06:12.076,0:06:14.993 and do you have a street network,[br]rather than a cul-de-sac 0:06:15.017,0:06:17.052 or a collector system of streets? 0:06:17.076,0:06:18.893 So when we look at a downtown area, 0:06:18.917,0:06:21.052 at a place that has a hope[br]of being walkable, 0:06:21.076,0:06:23.634 and mostly that's our downtowns[br]in America's cities 0:06:23.658,0:06:25.426 and towns and villages, 0:06:25.450,0:06:28.515 we look at them and say[br]we want the proper balance of uses. 0:06:28.539,0:06:30.674 So what is missing or underrepresented? 0:06:30.698,0:06:34.358 And again, in the typical American cities[br]in which most Americans live, 0:06:34.382,0:06:36.392 it is housing that is lacking. 0:06:36.416,0:06:38.606 The jobs-to-housing balance is off. 0:06:38.630,0:06:40.813 And you find that when[br]you bring housing back, 0:06:40.837,0:06:42.903 these other things start to come back too, 0:06:42.927,0:06:45.403 and housing is usually first[br]among those things. 0:06:45.427,0:06:48.531 And, of course, the thing[br]that shows up last and eventually 0:06:48.555,0:06:49.736 is the schools, 0:06:49.760,0:06:52.080 because the people have to move in, 0:06:52.104,0:06:56.925 the young pioneers have to move in,[br]get older, have kids 0:06:56.949,0:06:59.987 and fight, and then the schools[br]get pretty good eventually. 0:07:00.011,0:07:02.313 The other part of this part, 0:07:02.337,0:07:05.828 the useful city part, 0:07:05.852,0:07:07.157 is transit, 0:07:07.181,0:07:10.546 and you can have a perfectly[br]walkable neighborhood without it. 0:07:10.570,0:07:13.875 But perfectly walkable cities[br]require transit, 0:07:13.899,0:07:17.340 because if you don't have access[br]to the whole city as a pedestrian, 0:07:17.364,0:07:18.525 then you get a car, 0:07:18.549,0:07:19.704 and if you get a car, 0:07:19.728,0:07:22.276 the city begins to reshape itself[br]around your needs, 0:07:22.300,0:07:24.982 and the streets get wider[br]and the parking lots get bigger 0:07:25.006,0:07:26.883 and you no longer have a walkable city. 0:07:26.907,0:07:28.062 So transit is essential. 0:07:28.086,0:07:30.487 But every transit experience,[br]every transit trip, 0:07:30.511,0:07:32.406 begins or ends as a walk, 0:07:32.430,0:07:36.228 and so we have to remember to build[br]walkability around our transit stations. 0:07:36.252,0:07:38.997 Next category, the biggest one,[br]is the safe walk. 0:07:39.021,0:07:41.237 It's what most walkability[br]experts talk about. 0:07:41.261,0:07:45.302 It is essential, but alone not enough[br]to get people to walk. 0:07:45.326,0:07:48.469 And there are so many moving parts[br]that add up to a walkable city. 0:07:48.493,0:07:50.069 The first is block size. 0:07:50.093,0:07:51.440 This is Portland, Oregon, 0:07:51.464,0:07:55.030 famously 200-foot blocks,[br]famously walkable. 0:07:55.054,0:07:56.372 This is Salt Lake City, 0:07:56.396,0:07:58.476 famously 600-foot blocks, 0:07:58.500,0:07:59.869 famously unwalkable. 0:07:59.893,0:08:02.899 If you look at the two,[br]it's almost like two different planets, 0:08:02.923,0:08:05.239 but these places were both built by humans 0:08:05.263,0:08:08.903 and in fact, the story is that when[br]you have a 200-foot block city, 0:08:08.927,0:08:10.461 you can have a two-lane city, 0:08:10.485,0:08:11.902 or a two-to-four lane city, 0:08:11.926,0:08:15.951 and a 600-foot block city[br]is a six-lane city, and that's a problem. 0:08:15.975,0:08:17.453 These are the crash statistics. 0:08:17.477,0:08:19.563 When you double the block size -- 0:08:19.587,0:08:21.620 this was a study[br]of 24 California cities -- 0:08:21.644,0:08:23.136 when you double the block size, 0:08:23.160,0:08:26.786 you almost quadruple[br]the number of fatal accidents 0:08:26.810,0:08:28.811 on non-highway streets. 0:08:28.835,0:08:31.066 So how many lanes do we have? 0:08:31.090,0:08:34.567 This is where I'm going to tell you[br]what I tell every audience I meet, 0:08:34.591,0:08:37.321 which is to remind you[br]about induced demand. 0:08:37.345,0:08:41.782 Induced demand applies[br]both to highways and to city streets. 0:08:41.806,0:08:45.291 And induced demand tells us[br]that when we widen the streets 0:08:45.315,0:08:48.413 to accept the congestion[br]that we're anticipating, 0:08:48.437,0:08:50.774 or the additional trips[br]that we're anticipating 0:08:50.798,0:08:54.711 in congested systems,[br]it is principally that congestion 0:08:54.735,0:08:56.728 that is constraining demand, 0:08:56.752,0:08:58.514 and so that the widening comes, 0:08:58.538,0:09:01.654 and there are all of these latent trips[br]that are ready to happen. 0:09:01.678,0:09:03.067 People move further from work 0:09:03.091,0:09:05.324 and make other choices[br]about when they commute, 0:09:05.348,0:09:07.722 and those lanes fill up[br]very quickly with traffic, 0:09:07.746,0:09:10.247 so we widen the street again,[br]and they fill up again. 0:09:10.271,0:09:12.497 And we've learned that[br]in congested systems, 0:09:12.521,0:09:14.936 we cannot satisfy the automobile. 0:09:14.960,0:09:18.410 This is from Newsweek Magazine --[br]hardly an esoteric publication: 0:09:18.434,0:09:20.102 "Today's engineers acknowledge 0:09:20.126,0:09:23.352 that building new roads[br]usually makes traffic worse." 0:09:23.376,0:09:26.939 My response to reading this was,[br]may I please meet some of these engineers, 0:09:26.963,0:09:29.029 because these are not the ones that I -- 0:09:29.053,0:09:31.643 there are great exceptions[br]that I'm working with now -- 0:09:31.667,0:09:34.973 but these are not the engineers[br]one typically meets working in a city, 0:09:34.997,0:09:38.463 where they say, "Oh, that road[br]is too crowded, we need to add a lane." 0:09:38.487,0:09:40.647 So you add a lane, and the traffic comes, 0:09:40.671,0:09:43.128 and they say, "See, I told you[br]we needed that lane." 0:09:43.152,0:09:46.944 This applies both to highways[br]and to city streets if they're congested. 0:09:46.968,0:09:50.003 But the amazing thing[br]about most American cities that I work in, 0:09:50.027,0:09:51.316 the more typical cities, 0:09:51.340,0:09:54.372 is that they have a lot of streets[br]that are actually oversized 0:09:54.396,0:09:56.803 for the congestion[br]they're currently experiencing. 0:09:56.827,0:09:58.550 This was the case in Oklahoma City, 0:09:58.574,0:10:01.093 when the mayor came running[br]to me, very upset, 0:10:01.117,0:10:03.521 because they were named[br]in Prevention Magazine 0:10:03.545,0:10:06.698 the worst city for pedestrians[br]in the entire country. 0:10:06.722,0:10:08.428 Now that can't possibly be true, 0:10:08.452,0:10:11.581 but it certainly is enough[br]to make a mayor do something about it. 0:10:11.605,0:10:12.914 We did a walkability study, 0:10:12.938,0:10:16.273 and what we found, looking[br]at the car counts on the street -- 0:10:16.297,0:10:19.972 these are 3,000-, 4,000-, 7,000-car counts 0:10:19.996,0:10:23.943 and we know that two lanes[br]can handle 10,000 cars per day. 0:10:23.967,0:10:28.624 Look at these numbers --[br]they're all near or under 10,000 cars, 0:10:28.648,0:10:31.222 and these were the streets[br]that were designated 0:10:31.246,0:10:33.458 in the new downtown plan 0:10:33.482,0:10:36.116 to be four lanes to six lanes wide. 0:10:36.140,0:10:39.385 So you had a fundamental disconnect[br]between the number of lanes 0:10:39.409,0:10:41.651 and the number of cars[br]that wanted to use them. 0:10:41.675,0:10:45.590 So it was my job to redesign[br]every street in the downtown 0:10:45.614,0:10:47.349 from curb face to curb face, 0:10:47.373,0:10:49.375 and we did it for 50 blocks of streets, 0:10:49.399,0:10:50.756 and we're rebuilding it now. 0:10:50.780,0:10:53.820 So a typical oversized street to nowhere 0:10:53.844,0:10:56.044 is being narrowed, and now[br]under construction, 0:10:56.068,0:10:57.708 and the project is half done. 0:10:57.732,0:10:59.723 The typical street like this, you know, 0:10:59.747,0:11:03.193 when you do that,[br]you find room for medians. 0:11:03.217,0:11:05.199 You find room for bike lanes. 0:11:05.223,0:11:07.390 We've doubled the amount[br]of on-street parking. 0:11:07.414,0:11:11.363 We've added a full bike network[br]where one didn't exist before. 0:11:11.387,0:11:14.634 But not everyone has the money[br]that Oklahoma City has, 0:11:14.658,0:11:17.742 because they have an extraction[br]economy that's doing quite well. 0:11:17.766,0:11:19.818 The typical city is more[br]like Cedar Rapids, 0:11:19.842,0:11:23.832 where they have an all four-lane[br]system, half one-way system. 0:11:23.856,0:11:25.305 And it's a little hard to see, 0:11:25.329,0:11:28.613 but what we've done -- what we're doing;[br]it's in process right now, 0:11:28.637,0:11:30.241 it's in engineering right now -- 0:11:30.265,0:11:34.056 is turning an all four-lane[br]system, half one-way 0:11:34.080,0:11:37.657 into an all two-lane system, all two-way, 0:11:37.681,0:11:40.922 and in so doing, we're adding[br]70 percent more on-street parking, 0:11:40.946,0:11:42.305 which the merchants love, 0:11:42.329,0:11:43.749 and it protects the sidewalk. 0:11:43.773,0:11:45.535 That parking makes the sidewalk safe, 0:11:45.559,0:11:49.237 and we're adding a much more[br]robust bicycle network. 0:11:49.261,0:11:51.842 Then the lanes themselves.[br]How wide are they? 0:11:51.866,0:11:53.076 That's really important. 0:11:53.100,0:11:56.266 The standards have changed[br]such that, as Andrés Duany says, 0:11:56.290,0:11:58.384 the typical road[br]to a subdivision in America 0:11:58.408,0:12:00.600 allows you to see[br]the curvature of the Earth. 0:12:00.624,0:12:01.663 (Laughter) 0:12:01.687,0:12:04.932 This is a subdivision[br]outside of Washington from the 1960s. 0:12:04.956,0:12:07.277 Look very carefully[br]at the width of the streets. 0:12:07.301,0:12:09.408 This is a subdivision from the 1980s. 0:12:09.432,0:12:11.067 1960s, 1980s. 0:12:11.091,0:12:13.115 The standards have changed[br]to such a degree 0:12:13.139,0:12:15.092 that my old neighborhood of South Beach, 0:12:15.116,0:12:18.275 when it was time to fix the street[br]that wasn't draining properly, 0:12:18.299,0:12:20.843 they had to widen it[br]and take away half our sidewalk, 0:12:20.867,0:12:22.606 because the standards were wider. 0:12:22.630,0:12:26.085 People go faster on wider streets. 0:12:26.109,0:12:27.266 People know this. 0:12:27.290,0:12:30.416 The engineers deny it,[br]but the citizens know it, 0:12:30.440,0:12:34.266 so that in Birmingham, Michigan,[br]they fight for narrower streets. 0:12:34.290,0:12:36.812 Portland, Oregon, famously walkable, 0:12:36.836,0:12:40.381 instituted its "Skinny Streets" program[br]in its residential neighborhood. 0:12:40.405,0:12:42.255 We know that skinny streets are safer. 0:12:42.279,0:12:45.325 The developer Vince Graham,[br]in his project I'On, 0:12:45.349,0:12:47.165 which we worked on in South Carolina, 0:12:47.189,0:12:51.104 he goes to conferences and he shows[br]his amazing 22-foot roads. 0:12:51.128,0:12:53.541 These are two-way roads,[br]very narrow rights of way, 0:12:53.565,0:12:55.564 and he shows this well-known philosopher, 0:12:55.588,0:12:58.458 who said, "Broad is the road[br]that leads to destruction ... 0:12:58.482,0:13:00.583 narrow is the road that leads to life." 0:13:00.607,0:13:02.667 (Laughter) 0:13:02.691,0:13:05.060 (Applause) 0:13:05.084,0:13:07.143 This plays very well in the South. 0:13:07.167,0:13:09.064 Now: bicycles. 0:13:09.929,0:13:14.411 Bicycles and bicycling[br]are the current revolution underway 0:13:14.435,0:13:16.118 in only some American cities. 0:13:16.142,0:13:17.783 But where you build it, they come. 0:13:17.807,0:13:21.816 As a planner, I hate to say that,[br]but the one thing I can say 0:13:21.840,0:13:25.967 is that bicycle population[br]is a function of bicycle infrastructure. 0:13:25.991,0:13:29.406 I asked my friend Tom Brennan[br]from Nelson\Nygaard in Portland 0:13:29.430,0:13:32.010 to send me some pictures[br]of the Portland bike commute. 0:13:32.034,0:13:34.542 He sent me this. I said,[br]"Was that bike to work day?" 0:13:34.566,0:13:36.211 He said, "No, that was Tuesday." 0:13:36.235,0:13:41.199 When you do what Portland did and spend[br]money on bicycle infrastructure -- 0:13:41.223,0:13:45.444 New York City has doubled the number[br]of bikers in it several times now 0:13:45.468,0:13:47.505 by painting these bright green lanes. 0:13:47.529,0:13:51.095 Even automotive cities[br]like Long Beach, California: 0:13:51.119,0:13:55.198 vast uptick in the number of bikers[br]based on the infrastructure. 0:13:55.222,0:13:56.913 And of course, what really does it, 0:13:56.937,0:13:59.313 if you know 15th Street[br]here in Washington, DC -- 0:13:59.337,0:14:02.314 please meet Rahm Emanuel's[br]new bike lanes in Chicago, 0:14:02.338,0:14:05.716 the buffered lane, the parallel parking[br]pulled off the curb, 0:14:05.740,0:14:09.742 the bikes between the parked[br]cars and the curb -- 0:14:09.766,0:14:11.687 these mint cyclists. 0:14:11.711,0:14:15.262 If, however, as in Pasadena,[br]every lane is a bike lane, 0:14:15.286,0:14:17.247 then no lane is a bike lane. 0:14:17.271,0:14:20.383 And this is the only bicyclist[br]that I met in Pasadena, so ... 0:14:20.407,0:14:22.012 (Laughter) 0:14:22.036,0:14:23.727 The parallel parking I mentioned -- 0:14:23.751,0:14:25.373 it's an essential barrier of steel 0:14:25.397,0:14:29.183 that protects the curb and pedestrians[br]from moving vehicles. 0:14:29.207,0:14:32.803 This is Ft. Lauderdale;[br]one side of the street, you can park, 0:14:32.827,0:14:34.779 the other side of the street, you can't. 0:14:34.803,0:14:36.828 This is happy hour on the parking side. 0:14:36.852,0:14:39.543 This is sad hour on the other side. 0:14:39.567,0:14:42.556 And then the trees themselves[br]slow cars down. 0:14:42.580,0:14:44.866 They move slower when trees[br]are next to the road, 0:14:44.890,0:14:47.445 and, of course, sometimes[br]they slow down very quickly. 0:14:48.119,0:14:51.071 All the little details --[br]the curb return radius. 0:14:51.095,0:14:52.757 Is it one foot or is it 40 feet? 0:14:52.781,0:14:56.227 How swoopy is that curb to determine[br]how fast the car goes 0:14:56.251,0:14:57.966 and how much room you have to cross. 0:14:57.990,0:15:01.412 And then I love this,[br]because this is objective journalism. 0:15:01.436,0:15:05.515 "Some say the entrance to CityCenter[br]is not inviting to pedestrians." 0:15:05.539,0:15:07.997 When every aspect[br]of the landscape is swoopy, 0:15:08.021,0:15:10.694 is aerodynamic, is stream-form geometrics, 0:15:10.718,0:15:13.035 it says: "This is a vehicular place." 0:15:13.059,0:15:18.134 So no one detail, no one speciality,[br]can be allowed to set the stage. 0:15:18.158,0:15:19.722 And here, you know, this street: 0:15:19.746,0:15:23.638 yes, it will drain within a minute[br]of the hundred-year storm, 0:15:23.662,0:15:26.454 but this poor woman[br]has to mount the curb every day. 0:15:26.478,0:15:29.424 So then quickly, the comfortable walk[br]has to do with the fact 0:15:29.448,0:15:34.401 that all animals seek, simultaneously,[br]prospect and refuge. 0:15:34.425,0:15:36.525 We want to be able to see our predators, 0:15:36.549,0:15:39.068 but we also want to feel[br]that our flanks are covered. 0:15:39.092,0:15:41.583 And so we're drawn to places[br]that have good edges, 0:15:41.607,0:15:44.935 and if you don't supply the edges,[br]people won't want to be there. 0:15:44.959,0:15:47.098 What's the proper ratio[br]of height to width? 0:15:47.122,0:15:48.897 Is it one to one? Three to one? 0:15:48.921,0:15:52.706 If you get beyond one to six,[br]you're not very comfortable anymore. 0:15:52.730,0:15:54.049 You don't feel enclosed. 0:15:54.073,0:15:57.218 Now, six to one in Salzburg[br]can be perfectly delightful. 0:15:57.242,0:15:59.629 The opposite of Salzburg is Houston. 0:16:00.487,0:16:04.087 The point being the parking lot[br]is the principal problem here. 0:16:04.111,0:16:07.686 However, missing teeth, those empty lots[br]can be issues as well, 0:16:07.710,0:16:10.955 and if you have a missing corner[br]because of an outdated zoning code, 0:16:10.979,0:16:13.887 then you could have a missing nose[br]in your neighborhood. 0:16:13.911,0:16:15.748 That's what we had in my neighborhood. 0:16:15.772,0:16:18.848 This was the zoning code that said[br]I couldn't build on that site. 0:16:18.872,0:16:22.599 As you may know, Washington, DC[br]is now changing its zoning 0:16:22.623,0:16:25.753 to allow sites like this[br]to become sites like this. 0:16:25.777,0:16:27.943 We needed a lot of variances to do that. 0:16:27.967,0:16:30.251 Triangular houses[br]can be interesting to build, 0:16:30.275,0:16:32.977 but if you get one built,[br]people generally like it. 0:16:33.001,0:16:35.454 So you've got to fill those missing noses. 0:16:35.478,0:16:37.436 And then, finally, the interesting walk: 0:16:37.460,0:16:39.132 signs of humanity. 0:16:39.156,0:16:40.971 We are among the social primates. 0:16:40.995,0:16:43.183 Nothing interests us more[br]than other people. 0:16:43.207,0:16:44.701 We want signs of people. 0:16:44.725,0:16:47.728 So the perfect one-to-one ratio,[br]it's a great thing. 0:16:47.752,0:16:49.956 This is Grand Rapids,[br]a very walkable city, 0:16:49.980,0:16:51.622 but nobody walks on this street 0:16:51.646,0:16:53.757 that connects the two[br]best hotels together, 0:16:53.781,0:16:58.149 because if on the left,[br]you have an exposed parking deck, 0:16:58.173,0:17:00.657 and on the right,[br]you have a conference facility 0:17:00.681,0:17:04.110 that was apparently designed[br]in admiration for that parking deck, 0:17:04.134,0:17:06.641 then you don't attract that many people. 0:17:06.665,0:17:10.639 Mayor Joe Riley, in his 10th term,[br]Mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, 0:17:10.663,0:17:12.840 taught us it only takes[br]25 feet of building 0:17:12.864,0:17:15.158 to hide 250 feet of garage. 0:17:15.182,0:17:17.902 This one I call the Chia Pet Garage.[br]It's in South Beach. 0:17:17.926,0:17:19.370 That active ground floor. 0:17:19.394,0:17:22.113 I want to end with this project[br]that I love to show. 0:17:22.137,0:17:24.648 It's by Meleca Architects.[br]It's in Columbus, Ohio. 0:17:24.672,0:17:28.362 To the left is the convention center[br]neighborhood, full of pedestrians. 0:17:28.386,0:17:31.050 To the right is the Short North[br]neighborhood -- ethnic, 0:17:31.074,0:17:33.771 great restaurants,[br]great shops, struggling. 0:17:33.795,0:17:36.349 It wasn't doing very well[br]because this was the bridge, 0:17:36.373,0:17:38.840 and no one was walking[br]from the convention center 0:17:38.864,0:17:40.213 into that neighborhood. 0:17:40.237,0:17:44.530 Well, when they rebuilt the highway,[br]they added an extra 80 feet to the bridge. 0:17:44.554,0:17:47.028 Sorry -- they rebuilt the bridge[br]over the highway. 0:17:47.052,0:17:49.425 The city paid 1.9 million dollars, 0:17:49.449,0:17:51.695 they gave the site to a developer, 0:17:51.719,0:17:53.110 the developer built this 0:17:53.134,0:17:55.453 and now the Short North[br]has come back to life. 0:17:55.477,0:17:58.693 And everyone says, the newspapers,[br]not the planning magazines, 0:17:58.717,0:18:00.938 the newspapers say[br]it's because of that bridge. 0:18:00.962,0:18:03.582 So that's it. That's the general[br]theory of walkability. 0:18:03.606,0:18:05.626 Think about your own cities. 0:18:05.650,0:18:08.067 Think about how you can apply it. 0:18:08.091,0:18:10.045 You've got to do all four things at once. 0:18:10.069,0:18:12.378 So find those places[br]where you have most of them 0:18:12.402,0:18:14.307 and fix what you can, 0:18:14.331,0:18:17.015 fix what still needs fixing[br]in those places. 0:18:17.039,0:18:18.807 I really appreciate your attention, 0:18:18.831,0:18:21.507 and thank you for coming today. 0:18:21.531,0:18:24.079 (Applause)