Putting pedestrians first?

The desirability of walkable cities, town and village centers, is coming to the forefront of city and town planning. It’s so obvious, we might think “Why didn’t I think of that?” Of course people want to walk!

If there is a coffee shop, ice cream store, drug store, market, restaurant, dry cleaner, school, and subway station or bus stop, within walking distance from home — terrific. These amenities bring value to our communities and our lives (and our real estate), not to mention that compact villages create a healthy environment reducing reliance on fuels, helping the environment, and getting us outside for exercise and visiting with our neighbors.

City planners have a new term for this: Pedestrian Oriented Development (POD).  For a nice primer on the subject, including examples, download Chapter 3.2 from the sustainable development handbook published by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. 

Pedestrian Oriented Development sounds a lot like Transit Oriented Development (TOD), a planning term coined in the 1980s. Of course, the pattern of such growth originated earlier, as villages and towns developed around transit since the earliest days of railroads. But the planning concept gained attention in recent decades as a response to historical planning trends that accommodated automotive traffic primarily.

Some suggest that Pedestrian Oriented Development and Transit Oriented Development are, more or less, the same thing. As the City of Lowell’s planning department describes both terms, “Transit-oriented development is actually pedestrian-oriented development, with pedestrian-oriented centers of development around transit stations throughout a region.”

However, the difference may be in that, in the POD perspective, the pedestrian has some primacy. For those of us who have worked  in architecture and planning over the years, this is quite a shift in thinking. It is refreshing to consider putting the pedestrian experience ahead of — or, at least, on par with — considerations of spaces and structures.

If you’re interested in learning more, renowned planner and researcher Reid Ewing spoke recently at the UVM Transportation Research Center in in Burlington, VT, on Pedestrian-Oriented Development ideas: sizing development parcels, arranging streets, and allowing diverse uses to make walking a feasible option. You can view Ewing’s presentation online on CCTV. Also, the Planning Commissioners Journal published a review of his presentation.

Burlington, incidentally, has quite a few commonalities with Newton: historic downtown area(s), vibrancy, people of all ages, a college town, access to an important body of water, and a similar climate. Take a look at where the direction improving and increasing walkability is headed.

Pedestrian Oriented Development benefits everyone, whether we are able bodied, young or old, or pushing a stroller. Easier movement from home to a destination on safe sidewalks doesn’t have a downside. Some people have known this all along, but the rest of us are catching up. For example, many local groups are examining how to incorporate pedestrian and bike routes within the existing street and sidewalk infrastructure of Newton. Discussions of safe routes to school, snow shoveling and handicapped accessibility, have been hot topics.

Who doesn’t want to walk?