Neighborhood--How to Create Walk Appeal

One of my children, who lives in Minneapolis, has commented that he walks further to get to the bus stop to get to work, than what the walk from our home to the high school he attended had been. He often was driven or drove to high school (although in large part this was more due to sports). This experience may relate to a few factors, first that he is older, but second is the walk experience. Urbanist Steve Mouzon says that a 5 minute walk is a myth, and that people walk for miles in central Rome, London, Florence or many other well designed historic cities because the walk has variety, it is appealing. Of course, given the traffic in those cities it is probably easier, and perhaps quicker, to walk. Mouzon further notes that ¾ of a mile will be walked on a good American Main Street. For my son, a walk to high school was probably not as appealing as the walk he now takes to get to the bus stop. Walk appeal is interplay between the physical form and our psychological experiences. Form affects our senses and our mind view; it can provide a sense of place, or it can leave us apprehensive. This post, the fifth and last in a series on neighborhoods will explore what can be done to promote walking. Prior posts have given much information in this regard, and this post will reiterate some of the big picture aspects, but also focus on some of the nuances. The fourth post looked at why a Minneapolis neighborhood works and the third post examined the problems of walking in a Wisconsin village. The second post dealt with a small city in a time of transition as it became a suburb and the possible effects that has on social capital. The first post dealt with a neighborhood as a sense of place as a building block of our larger communities.

Sidewalk along four lane McKee Road in Fitchburg, WI
Not a very pleasant walk experience
Image 1

A public sidewalk along Fitchrona Road looking north.
Target parking lot is to left
Image 2

Red Wing, MN downtown.  Notice the building fenestration and lack of building articulation
this forms a nice street wall, and creates a pleasant walk experience.
 Of course, being a historic downtown, the street is a state highway, and sees a great deal of heavy traffic.
Image 3

Walking was the first viable human form of transportation. In our post-modern world the sub-urban form of development of the past 60 or 70 years has placed cars over feet, streets over sidewalks, and a form of development which makes it undesirable, if not treacherous, for walking. A newer diet option is the paleo diet, where a person eats a diet more attuned to the diet of our long ago ancestors (harkening to a hunter-gatherer way of life) rather than eating grains, dairy or other highly modified or processed foods. The idea is that the genetics of our 21st century human bodies have not had sufficient time to adapt to eating the grains, dairy and processed foods that have become part of human settlement over the past few thousand years, and that a diet reminiscent of long-ago ancestors is more appropriate for the genetics that apparently have not caught up to settlement-level agriculture. Similarly, recent medical research has shown that sitting is the new smoking and that the genetics of the human body are not meant to be in sitting positions for most of the day. The ever present desk job, now prevalent in our economy, is not healthy. While some harken in diet and posture to an era of early man, we continue to build neighborhoods and cities that are auto-dependent and where walking is difficult. To provide an appealing walk, a neighborhood needs more than sidewalks and paths as part of its infrastructure. Land use, form of buildings, and design elements are also important in setting walk appeal.

SmartCode Neighborhood in Fitchburg, WI
Notice building relationship to street, and lack of drives as served by an alley
Image 4

A neighborhood should also provide a variety of services—recreation, education, food and some basic retail to a resident. Retail stores today seem to desire a much larger trade area than in the past (see post 2), which means that walking is often not as viable. In post 3, I suggested that a half mile radius may be more appropriate for an ability to walk to other uses. In terms of the large picture, a variety of uses is one key to walking. After all, you need a destination. Jeff Speck, author of Walkable City has noted ten keys to walking and one those is having a destination. Ewing and Cervero (in 2010) completed a meta-analysis of the literature dealing with travel and the built environment. Many authors on the subject simply build off of well understood principles of urbanism and walkability. What a great way to earn a living—pointing out the obvious. The open-source SmartCode attempts to promote walkable neighborhoods by controlling form of development, and then looks to land use control. In most zoning codes if they control form of development it is secondary to specific land use control, which is the opposite of the SmartCode. As an open-source document, the SmartCode has been reviewed and revised by a large number of persons. The code came about from looking at the traditional forms of development (pre-World War II) and how that organic development type formed walkable neighborhoods and cities. In that earlier age, downtowns of smaller cities were still the place to be (see post 2 regarding the transition that took place). Larger cities would have neighborhood retail areas, an example being the Atwood Avenue—Winnebago Street area of Madison, WI.

Single family home in SmartCode, Fitchburg, WI
Notice garage setback and limited drive width near sidewalk (10')
Image 5

Downtowns of large cities are usually very walkable, but in the recent past they often lacked housing which is an important starting place for a walk. Live, play, educate, work—these words would denote a good neighborhood, but today many neighborhoods provide one and may be two of these features, with few provisions for a variety of occupational choices. Neighborhood retail and shopping areas are critical to providing uses for residents to walk to, and unfortunately (as pointed out in post #3) grade configuration and location at a periphery discount the ability to walk. Likewise, as intimated in the second post, traditional downtowns and neighborhood shopping areas have been replaced by power centers and big box stores.

Air photo of Target store in Fitchburg, WI
Notice the developer "outlots" at the top of the image.
Image 6

Power centers and big box stores demand large parking areas, often sized to handle the black Friday crowd, leaving the lots with much extra pavement for the vast majority of the year. But the problem is not necessarily the amount of the parking, but its location between the street and the building. In this situation a walker has to traverse through an inhospitable parking lot, often more than the length of a football field, to get to the front door. It is a walk even less exciting than getting to McFarland’s middle school. Further, the public sidewalk with a street on one-side and a parking lot on the other is one of the most unappealing walks to which a person should be subjected, and quite frankly it is not often accomplished. Thus, a walk needs to be appealing.

View looking west along Target store
Image 7

View of sidewalk looking to Target store
Image 8

Street view of Red Wing, MN
Where would you rather walk here, or the view in Images 7 & 8?
Noticed the lack of articulation, and differing facades which enhance the walk appeal
Image 9

Traditional neighborhoods and Rome have a common appeal that is often discarded today-- connectivity and size of blocks. Smaller blocks, say with a perimeter of 2000--2200 feet allow for greater connectivity of streets, and a block size that assists with walking, and which helps to disperse auto traffic. The term block had typically been associated with a one side distance of 660 feet. (Although there is great variation in block length over a variety of US cities with some having blocks up to 900’ in length.) It actually seems counterintuitive that this would work for walking, because with this block structure you are crossing streets more often, which would seem to delay the walk experience. But, a few main issues are at play that makes the smaller block perimeter appealing to a walker. First, it offers choice in terms of direction and a grid street pattern offers a multitude of ways to reach a destination. Second, crossing a street gives the walker a sense of progress. Finally, as Speck (2012) notes, smaller blocks produce more streets and more streets disperse traffic making the streets less wide and thus safer.

Multifamily SmartCode Building in Fitchburg, WI
Notice how it fronts the street.  This was just completed in August
 and street trees will be installed next year.
Image 10

The traditional main street provides a variety of factors which give us forms that have been lost in our push that bigger is better. First, the buildings are close to the street and in so doing they create a wall of the outdoor space. This street wall is an important psychological tool to the mind in the formation of space—and how it views, and creates how we get a sense of place. Additionally, the narrow store fronts common on many main streets change the view of the walker, and this is much more exciting and appealing to the walker than a long blank wall. A walk of 300’ along the concrete block wall of a Target store (see Image 7) seems to take much longer than a 300’ walk down a traditional main street (see image 9 as a comparison to image 7). Even though on a main street you may stop more often to view window displays or take in the sounds and the smells of the neighborhood. Imagine the pleasure, and titillation of the senses due to walking by a bakery. Wider sidewalks along a busy street allow for both perusing of the store windows and the walker who wishes to pass by. On a street in a traditional downtown a parking lane and street trees help separate the traffic lane from the sidewalk adding a sense of security. But, street trees also enhance the walk appeal besides the separation from traffic. The driveway in front of a big box store effectively functions as a roadway, but the lack of a parking lane and street trees negatively affect the walk experience along the very blank front wall of a Target or Walmart. Those of us old enough to remember will recall the art of window displays in traditional downtown stores, and its on-site advertising appeal to the pedestrian.

Red Wing, MN
Served by an alley, there are no drives to disrupt the walk appeal
Image 11

Red Wing, MN
Notice the parking, street trees, and flower baskets which enhance the downtown and
its appeal to the pedestrian.
Who is the cute red head in the foreground?
Image 12

Big Box stores can actually be accomplished in a more traditional pattern. Many big box stores have strip malls or an ever present national restaurant chain sitting near a major street. Developers refer to these smaller lots sitting in front of the big box store as outlots. These stores, however, could be attached to the big box in a liner building fashion creating separate store fronts, and placing all users along the same street. Parking can be placed across a street, which is no wider (if not actually more narrow) than the drive aisles commonly placed in front of a big box store. It is similar to the concept of placing liner retail stores at the street level of parking ramps. More pedestrian friendly methods can happen. It simply takes a different way of thinking and design. This way of thinking is seldom chosen because developers, large retailers, and policy makers are creatures of habit and seldom vary from their model.

Example of liner buildings.
LaCrosse, WI has used liner buildings with parking ramps
Image 13

The shops in an old downtown were usually accessed by an alley, which meant that driveway crossings of a block were less common, accentuating the pleasure of the walk, increasing the store fronts in a block, and reducing the worry of cross-traffic. Parking was provided on street. Is on-street parking for customer’s sufficient in this situation? When part of the population can walk, traditionally it was shown that it would function. In addition, Retail expert Bob Gibbs notes that most shopping trips, particularly in the day of the internet are 15 to 20 minutes, providing sufficient turn around for on-street parking stalls.

Multi-family building in Fitchburg, notice its articulation, with insets of about 6'
This can work counter to a good street wall form as shown in Images 10-12
Image 14

Parking off an alley also provides for better street fronts in residential areas. This can work for both single family and attached row houses. More difficult, however, is parking for single family homes not served by an alley. Traditional neighborhoods solved this by placing the garage at the rear of the lot, and a narrow, one car width driveway along the side of the house. Lots were narrower in that day than they are today. (Today the cost of public lot improvements runs about $500 a lineal foot of street frontage, ($250 per side of street) so narrow lots would seem to make more sense in this day and age.) The suburban pattern provides for two or three car width driveways, making for a rather unpleasant walk experience. Rather than using homes to form the street, the street is formed by wide drives and car parking. Rather than having the home as the focal point of the lot we get snout houses where the garage is the focal point. Rather than having a front porch to welcome visitors, the front door is setback along the garage. Given that American’s prize their cars so highly, garage domination should not be unexpected (and like the move from front porch to back yard deck is a descriptor for an increasing insularity), but it provides a decidedly less pleasant street and walk experience.

Single family homes served by an alley so there are no driveways to
disturb a walk
Image 15

Snout houses with wide drives (about 20') which can disturb the walk experience.
Image 16

Of course, not all blocks will have complete building fronts, and there are likely to be some parking areas. In such cases, good design can make a difference. For example placing the parking at or behind the setback of the building, and using a screen wall, even over landscaping, adds permanence in creating an enclosure for the pedestrian and in dividing the public (street) realm from the private realm. The enclosure is important to the psychology of the walk and the walk appeal. This type of enclosure is an important component of the SmartCode, and in seeing a street with apartment and row houses built under the SmartCode one can feel what it is the code wants to accomplish. The feel of a walk is important, but is difficult to describe, and that is likely due to our perception.

Notice the screen wall which helps form the street wall and obscures parking
The block wall works much better than the adjoining landscaping
Image 17

Use pf proper design elements make a big difference in whether a building helps provide walk appeal or works against such appeal. Highly articulated buildings provide less sense of enclosure and affect the fee one can get from walking, than from a building with a straight or much less articulated front. The sense of enclosure is an important part of the walk experience. In addition, buildings at a human scale, say about four stories, are better for the walk experience than skyscrapers. You will find downtown's of large cities filled with skyscrapers, and they create the skyline, but neighborhood centers are best with buildings at a human scale. There are ratios to be applied to building to street width to create enclosures, but they are not met in the world of today’s suburban one story buildings. Simple design elements are also important, such as well accomplished cornices, store front windows, and fenestration. In fact, traditional architecture is rather straightforward with a simple elegance. Architects today seem to have to prove their worth, but in so doing they take away from the elegance of simplicity that created the downtown form on which we look so highly.

Single family homes in SmartCode, with garages setback, and 10' wide drives
Not quite as walkable as an alley home, but much more so than a snout house
Image 18

We have moved away from a form of development that provided security, walk appeal and created a sense of place at a micro-scale for a pedestrian to one that places the pedestrian in a position behind the movement and parking of cars. We concentrate traffic on a few major streets, rather than allowing it to distribute in a grid system. We have lost the simple elegance of building construction in the past using fenestration and cornices to enhance buildings, rather than overly aggressive building articulation, and buildings with no relation to the public realm created by the street and sidewalk. And, our suburban form has produced neighborhoods which lack destinations. The walk my son has to his bus stop has an urban form that places buildings closer to the street, and car access if not off an alley has narrow drives. The form of development he passes by creates a sense of place, and provides progress as he walks in his Minneapolis neighborhood as compared to McFarland. His neighborhood in Minneapolis has more walk appeal, and that is one reason why he does not mind walking a greater distance to his bus stop.

Photos by the author