0:00:14.197,0:00:16.601 So I'm here to talk to you[br]about the walkable city. 0:00:16.810,0:00:18.170 What is the walkable city? 0:00:18.194,0:00:20.674 Well, for want of a better definition,d 0:00:20.698,0:00:26.026 it's a city in which the car[br]is an optional instrument of freedom, 0:00:26.050,0:00:27.934 rather than a prosthetic device. 0:00:27.958,0:00:30.913 And I'd like to talk about[br]why we need the walkable city, 0:00:30.937,0:00:35.095 and I'd like to talk about[br]how to do the walkable city. 0:00:35.219,0:00:39.559 Most of the talks I give these days[br]are about why we need it, 0:00:39.583,0:00:42.679 but you guys are smart. 0:00:43.854,0:00:47.101 And also I gave that talk[br]exactly a month ago, 0:00:47.125,0:00:49.192 and you can see it at TED.com. 0:00:49.216,0:00:52.216 So today I want to talk[br]about how to do it. 0:00:53.180,0:00:55.119 In a lot of time thinking about this, 0:00:55.143,0:00:58.243 I've come up with what I call[br]the general theory of walkability. 0:00:58.267,0:01:01.197 A bit of a pretentious term,[br]it's a little tongue-in-cheek, 0:01:01.221,0:01:03.795 but it's something[br]I've thought about for a long time, 0:01:03.819,0:01:07.203 and I'd like to share[br]what I think I've figured out. 0:01:07.227,0:01:10.066 In the American city,[br]the typical American city -- 0:01:10.090,0:01:12.550 the typical American city[br]is not Washington, DC, 0:01:12.574,0:01:14.882 or New York, or San Francisco; 0:01:14.906,0:01:18.153 it's Grand Rapids or Cedar[br]Rapids or Memphis -- 0:01:18.177,0:01:21.288 in the typical American city[br]in which most people own cars 0:01:21.312,0:01:23.633 and the temptation[br]is to drive them all the time, 0:01:23.657,0:01:27.436 if you're going to get them to walk,[br]then you have to offer a walk 0:01:27.460,0:01:29.308 that's as good as a drive or better. 0:01:29.332,0:01:30.483 What does that mean? 0:01:30.507,0:01:33.048 It means you need to offer[br]four things simultaneously: 0:01:33.072,0:01:35.209 there needs to be a proper reason to walk, 0:01:35.233,0:01:37.703 the walk has to be safe and feel safe, 0:01:37.727,0:01:39.422 the walk has to be comfortable 0:01:39.446,0:01:41.215 and the walk has to be interesting. 0:01:41.239,0:01:43.849 You need to do all four[br]of these things simultaneously, 0:01:43.873,0:01:45.903 and that's the structure of my talk today, 0:01:45.927,0:01:47.556 to take you through each of those. 0:01:47.580,0:01:50.844 The reason to walk[br]is a story I learned from my mentors, 0:01:50.868,0:01:53.228 Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, 0:01:53.252,0:01:55.253 the founders of the New Urbanism movement. 0:01:55.277,0:01:59.100 And I should say half the slides[br]and half of my talk today 0:01:59.124,0:02:00.450 I learned from them. 0:02:00.474,0:02:02.253 It's the story of planning, 0:02:02.277,0:02:05.517 the story of the formation[br]of the planning profession. 0:02:05.541,0:02:08.271 When in the 19th century[br]people were choking 0:02:08.295,0:02:10.788 from the soot of the dark, satanic mills, 0:02:10.812,0:02:15.189 the planners said, hey, let's move[br]the housing away from the mills. 0:02:15.213,0:02:18.680 And lifespans increased[br]immediately, dramatically, 0:02:18.704,0:02:19.855 and we like to say 0:02:19.879,0:02:23.071 the planners have been trying to repeat[br]that experience ever since. 0:02:23.095,0:02:25.737 So there's the onset[br]of what we call Euclidean zoning, 0:02:25.761,0:02:29.836 the separation of the landscape[br]into large areas of single use. 0:02:29.860,0:02:32.337 And typically when I arrive[br]in a city to do a plan, 0:02:32.361,0:02:36.400 a plan like this already awaits me[br]on the property that I'm looking at. 0:02:36.424,0:02:38.126 And all a plan like this guarantees 0:02:38.150,0:02:40.189 is that you will not have a walkable city, 0:02:40.213,0:02:43.133 because nothing is located[br]near anything else. 0:02:43.157,0:02:46.797 The alternative, of course,[br]is our most walkable city, 0:02:46.821,0:02:49.351 and I like to say, you know,[br]this is a Rothko, 0:02:49.375,0:02:50.883 and this is a Seurat. 0:02:50.907,0:02:52.740 it's a different way of making places. 0:02:52.764,0:02:55.723 And even this map of Manhattan[br]is a bit misleading 0:02:55.747,0:02:59.322 because the red color[br]is uses that are mixed vertically. 0:03:00.451,0:03:03.155 So this is the big story[br]of the New Urbanists -- 0:03:03.179,0:03:05.691 to acknowledge[br]that there are only two ways 0:03:05.715,0:03:08.005 that have been tested by the thousands 0:03:08.029,0:03:10.969 to build communities,[br]in the world and throughout history. 0:03:10.993,0:03:12.871 One is the traditional neighborhood. 0:03:12.895,0:03:16.309 You see here several neighborhoods[br]of Newburyport, Massachusetts, 0:03:16.333,0:03:20.200 which is defined as being compact[br]and being diverse -- 0:03:20.224,0:03:24.366 places to live, work, shop,[br]recreate, get educated -- 0:03:24.390,0:03:26.269 all within walking distance. 0:03:26.293,0:03:28.429 And it's defined as being walkable. 0:03:28.453,0:03:29.987 There are lots of small streets. 0:03:30.011,0:03:31.737 Each one is comfortable to walk on. 0:03:31.761,0:03:34.275 And we contrast that to the other way, 0:03:34.299,0:03:37.118 an invention that happened[br]after the Second World War, 0:03:37.142,0:03:38.400 suburban sprawl, 0:03:38.424,0:03:43.001 clearly not compact, clearly not diverse,[br]and it's not walkable, 0:03:43.025,0:03:44.923 because so few of the streets connect, 0:03:44.947,0:03:47.830 that those streets that do connect[br]become overburdened, 0:03:47.854,0:03:49.944 and you wouldn't let your kid out on them. 0:03:50.268,0:03:53.119 And I want to thank Alex Maclean,[br]the aerial photographer, 0:03:53.143,0:03:56.198 for many of these beautiful pictures[br]that I'm showing you today. 0:03:56.452,0:03:57.918 He's an architect as well. 0:03:57.942,0:04:01.562 So it's fun to break sprawl down[br]into its constituent parts. 0:04:01.586,0:04:03.163 It's so easy to understand, 0:04:03.187,0:04:06.190 the places where you only live,[br]the places where you only work, 0:04:07.044,0:04:09.000 the places where you only shop, 0:04:09.024,0:04:12.368 and our super-sized public institutions. 0:04:12.392,0:04:13.832 Schools get bigger and bigger, 0:04:13.856,0:04:16.252 and therefore, further[br]and further from each other. 0:04:16.276,0:04:19.404 And the ratio of the size[br]of the parking lot 0:04:19.428,0:04:20.644 to the size of the school 0:04:20.668,0:04:22.285 tells you all you need to know, 0:04:22.309,0:04:24.847 which is that no child[br]has ever walked to this school, 0:04:24.871,0:04:26.776 no child will ever walk to this school. 0:04:26.800,0:04:30.640 The seniors and juniors are driving[br]the freshmen and the sophomores, 0:04:30.664,0:04:33.288 and of course we have[br]the crash statistics to prove it. 0:04:33.312,0:04:36.780 And then the super-sizing[br]of our other civic institutions 0:04:36.804,0:04:37.974 like playing fields -- 0:04:37.998,0:04:41.871 it's wonderful that Westin[br]in the Ft. Lauderdale area 0:04:41.895,0:04:44.963 has eight soccer fields[br]and eight baseball diamonds 0:04:44.987,0:04:46.846 and 20 tennis courts, 0:04:46.870,0:04:50.482 but look at the road[br]that takes you to that location, 0:04:50.506,0:04:52.452 and would you let your child bike on it? 0:04:52.476,0:04:54.606 And this is why we have[br]the soccer mom now. 0:04:54.630,0:04:56.872 When I was young, I had one soccer field, 0:04:56.896,0:04:58.921 one baseball diamond and one tennis court, 0:04:58.945,0:05:01.803 but I could walk to it,[br]because it was in my neighborhood. 0:05:01.827,0:05:04.678 Then the final part of sprawl[br]that everyone forgot to count: 0:05:04.702,0:05:07.522 if you're going to separate everything[br]from everything else 0:05:07.546,0:05:10.080 and reconnect it[br]only with automotive infrastructure, 0:05:10.104,0:05:12.626 then this is what your landscape[br]begins to look like. 0:05:12.650,0:05:13.865 The main message here is: 0:05:13.889,0:05:17.491 if you want to have a walkable city,[br]you can't start with the sprawl model. 0:05:17.515,0:05:19.586 you need the bones of an urban model. 0:05:19.610,0:05:22.458 This is the outcome[br]of that form of design, 0:05:22.482,0:05:23.873 as is this. 0:05:23.897,0:05:26.486 And this is something[br]that a lot of Americans want. 0:05:26.510,0:05:29.223 But we have to understand[br]it's a two-part American dream. 0:05:29.247,0:05:30.607 If you're dreaming for this, 0:05:30.631,0:05:32.647 you're also going to be dreaming of this. 0:05:32.671,0:05:35.151 That would be your nightmare, I suppose. 0:05:35.175,0:05:37.272 Often to absurd extremes, 0:05:37.296,0:05:39.913 when we build our landscape[br]to accommodate cars first. 0:05:39.937,0:05:42.178 And the experience[br]of being in these places -- 0:05:42.202,0:05:43.219 (Laughter) 0:05:43.243,0:05:44.623 This is not Photoshopped. 0:05:44.647,0:05:46.649 Walter Kulash took this slide. 0:05:46.673,0:05:48.370 It's in Panama City. 0:05:48.394,0:05:50.183 This is a real place. 0:05:50.947,0:05:53.426 And being a driver[br]can be a bit of a nuisance, 0:05:53.450,0:05:55.916 and being a pedestrian[br]can be a bit of a nuisance 0:05:55.940,0:05:57.883 in these places. 0:05:58.367,0:06:01.839 This is a slide that epidemiologists[br]have been showing for some time now, 0:06:01.863,0:06:03.159 (Laughter) 0:06:03.296,0:06:06.537 The fact that we have a society[br]where you drive to the parking lot 0:06:06.561,0:06:08.735 to take the escalator to the treadmill 0:06:08.759,0:06:10.687 shows that we're doing something wrong. 0:06:10.711,0:06:12.283 But we know how to do it better. 0:06:12.307,0:06:13.990 Here are the two models contrasted. 0:06:14.014,0:06:15.169 I show this slide, 0:06:15.193,0:06:17.979 which has been a formative document[br]of the New Urbanism now 0:06:18.003,0:06:19.407 for almost 30 years, 0:06:19.431,0:06:23.590 to show that sprawl and the traditional[br]neighborhood contain the same things. 0:06:23.614,0:06:25.000 It's just how big are they, 0:06:25.024,0:06:26.623 how close are they to each other, 0:06:26.647,0:06:28.322 how are they interspersed together 0:06:28.346,0:06:31.263 and do you have a street network,[br]rather than a cul-de-sac 0:06:31.287,0:06:33.322 or a collector system of streets? 0:06:33.346,0:06:35.163 So when we look at a downtown area, 0:06:35.187,0:06:37.322 at a place that has a hope[br]of being walkable, 0:06:37.346,0:06:39.904 and mostly that's our downtowns[br]in America's cities 0:06:39.928,0:06:41.696 and towns and villages, 0:06:41.720,0:06:44.785 we look at them and say[br]we want the proper balance of uses. 0:06:44.809,0:06:46.944 So what is missing or underrepresented? 0:06:46.968,0:06:50.628 And again, in the typical American cities[br]in which most Americans live, 0:06:50.652,0:06:52.662 it is housing that is lacking. 0:06:52.686,0:06:54.876 The jobs-to-housing balance is off. 0:06:54.900,0:06:57.083 And you find that when[br]you bring housing back, 0:06:57.107,0:06:59.173 these other things start to come back too, 0:06:59.197,0:07:01.673 and housing is usually first[br]among those things. 0:07:01.697,0:07:04.801 And, of course, the thing[br]that shows up last and eventually 0:07:04.825,0:07:05.990 is the schools, 0:07:06.014,0:07:10.835 because the young pioneers[br]have to move in, get older, have kids 0:07:10.859,0:07:13.897 and fight, and then the schools[br]get pretty good eventually. 0:07:13.921,0:07:16.398 The other part of this,[br]the useful city part, 0:07:16.422,0:07:17.727 is transit, 0:07:17.751,0:07:21.116 and you can have a perfectly[br]walkable neighborhood without it. 0:07:21.140,0:07:24.445 But perfectly walkable cities[br]require transit, 0:07:24.469,0:07:27.910 because if you don't have access[br]to the whole city as a pedestrian, 0:07:27.934,0:07:29.095 then you get a car, 0:07:29.119,0:07:30.274 and if you get a car, 0:07:30.298,0:07:32.846 the city begins to reshape itself[br]around your needs, 0:07:32.870,0:07:35.552 and the streets get wider[br]and the parking lots get bigger 0:07:35.576,0:07:37.453 and you no longer have a walkable city. 0:07:37.477,0:07:38.632 So transit is essential. 0:07:38.656,0:07:41.057 But every transit experience,[br]every transit trip, 0:07:41.081,0:07:42.976 begins or ends as a walk, 0:07:43.000,0:07:46.798 and so we have to remember to build[br]walkability around our transit stations. 0:07:47.322,0:07:50.067 Next category, the biggest one,[br]is the safe walk. 0:07:50.091,0:07:52.307 It's what most walkability[br]experts talk about. 0:07:52.331,0:07:56.372 It is essential, but alone not enough[br]to get people to walk. 0:07:56.396,0:07:59.539 And there are so many moving parts[br]that add up to a walkable city. 0:07:59.563,0:08:01.139 The first is block size. 0:08:01.163,0:08:02.510 This is Portland, Oregon, 0:08:02.534,0:08:06.100 famously 200-foot blocks,[br]famously walkable. 0:08:06.124,0:08:07.442 This is Salt Lake City, 0:08:07.466,0:08:09.546 famously 600-foot blocks, 0:08:09.570,0:08:10.939 famously unwalkable. 0:08:10.963,0:08:13.969 If you look at the two,[br]it's almost like two different planets, 0:08:13.993,0:08:16.309 but these places were both built by humans 0:08:16.333,0:08:19.973 and in fact, the story is that when[br]you have a 200-foot block city, 0:08:19.997,0:08:21.531 you can have a two-lane city, 0:08:21.555,0:08:22.972 or a two-to-four lane city, 0:08:22.996,0:08:27.021 and a 600-foot block city[br]is a six-lane city, and that's a problem. 0:08:28.085,0:08:29.563 These are the crash statistics. 0:08:29.677,0:08:31.763 When you double the block size -- 0:08:31.787,0:08:33.820 this was a study[br]of 24 California cities -- 0:08:33.844,0:08:35.336 when you double the block size, 0:08:35.360,0:08:38.986 you almost quadruple[br]the number of fatal accidents 0:08:39.010,0:08:41.010 on non-highway streets. 0:08:41.595,0:08:44.306 So how many lanes do we have? 0:08:44.330,0:08:47.807 This is where I'm going to tell you[br]what I tell every audience I meet, 0:08:47.831,0:08:50.561 which is to remind you[br]about induced demand. 0:08:50.585,0:08:55.022 Induced demand applies[br]both to highways and to city streets. 0:08:55.046,0:08:58.531 And induced demand tells us[br]that when we widen the streets 0:08:58.555,0:09:01.653 to accept the congestion[br]that we're anticipating, 0:09:01.677,0:09:04.014 or the additional trips[br]that we're anticipating 0:09:04.038,0:09:07.951 in congested systems,[br]it is principally that congestion 0:09:07.975,0:09:09.968 that is constraining demand, 0:09:09.992,0:09:11.754 and so that the widening comes, 0:09:11.778,0:09:14.894 and there are all of these latent trips[br]that are ready to happen. 0:09:14.918,0:09:16.307 People move further from work 0:09:16.331,0:09:18.564 and make other choices[br]about when they commute, 0:09:18.588,0:09:20.962 and those lanes fill up[br]very quickly with traffic, 0:09:20.986,0:09:23.487 so we widen the street again,[br]and they fill up again. 0:09:23.511,0:09:25.737 And we've learned that[br]in congested systems, 0:09:25.761,0:09:28.176 we cannot satisfy the automobile. 0:09:28.200,0:09:31.650 This is from Newsweek Magazine --[br]hardly an esoteric publication: 0:09:31.674,0:09:33.342 "Today's engineers acknowledge 0:09:33.366,0:09:36.592 that building new roads[br]usually makes traffic worse." 0:09:36.616,0:09:40.179 My response to reading this was,[br]may I please meet some of these engineers, 0:09:40.203,0:09:42.269 because these are not the ones that I -- 0:09:42.293,0:09:44.883 there are great exceptions[br]that I'm working with now -- 0:09:44.907,0:09:48.213 but these are not the engineers[br]one typically meets working in a city, 0:09:48.237,0:09:51.703 where they say, "Oh, that road[br]is too crowded, we need to add a lane." 0:09:51.727,0:09:53.887 So you add a lane, and the traffic comes, 0:09:53.911,0:09:56.368 and they say, "See, I told you[br]we needed that lane." 0:09:56.883,0:10:00.675 This applies both to highways[br]and to city streets if they're congested. 0:10:00.808,0:10:03.843 But the amazing thing[br]about most American cities that I work in, 0:10:03.867,0:10:05.156 the more typical cities, 0:10:05.180,0:10:08.212 is that they have a lot of streets[br]that are actually oversized 0:10:08.236,0:10:10.643 for the congestion[br]they're currently experiencing. 0:10:10.667,0:10:12.390 This was the case in Oklahoma City, 0:10:12.414,0:10:14.933 when the mayor came running[br]to me, very upset, 0:10:14.957,0:10:17.361 because they were named[br]in Prevention Magazine 0:10:17.385,0:10:20.538 the worst city for pedestrians[br]in the entire country. 0:10:20.562,0:10:22.268 Now that can't possibly be true, 0:10:22.292,0:10:25.421 but it certainly is enough[br]to make a mayor do something about it. 0:10:25.445,0:10:26.754 We did a walkability study, 0:10:26.778,0:10:30.113 and what we found, looking[br]at the car counts on the street -- 0:10:30.137,0:10:33.812 these are 3,000-, 4,000-, 7,000-car counts 0:10:33.836,0:10:37.783 and we know that two lanes[br]can handle 10,000 cars per day. 0:10:38.207,0:10:42.864 Look at these numbers --[br]they're all near or under 10,000 cars, 0:10:42.888,0:10:45.162 and these were the streets[br]that were designated 0:10:45.186,0:10:47.068 in the new downtown plan 0:10:47.092,0:10:49.726 to be four lanes to six lanes wide. 0:10:49.750,0:10:52.995 So you had a fundamental disconnect[br]between the number of lanes 0:10:53.019,0:10:55.261 and the number of cars[br]that wanted to use them. 0:10:55.285,0:10:59.200 So it was my job to redesign[br]every street in the downtown 0:10:59.224,0:11:00.959 from curb face to curb face, 0:11:00.983,0:11:02.985 and we did it for 50 blocks of streets, 0:11:03.009,0:11:04.366 and we're rebuilding it now. 0:11:04.390,0:11:07.430 So a typical oversized street to nowhere 0:11:07.454,0:11:09.654 is being narrowed, and now[br]under construction, 0:11:09.678,0:11:11.318 and the project is half done. 0:11:11.342,0:11:13.333 The typical street like this, you know, 0:11:13.357,0:11:16.803 when you do that,[br]you find room for medians. 0:11:16.827,0:11:18.809 You find room for bike lanes. 0:11:18.833,0:11:21.000 We've doubled the amount[br]of on-street parking. 0:11:21.024,0:11:24.973 We've added a full bike network[br]where one didn't exist before. 0:11:24.997,0:11:28.244 But not everyone has the money[br]that Oklahoma City has, 0:11:28.268,0:11:31.352 because they have an extraction[br]economy that's doing quite well. 0:11:31.376,0:11:33.428 The typical city is more[br]like Cedar Rapids, 0:11:33.452,0:11:37.442 where they have an all four-lane[br]system, half one-way system. 0:11:37.466,0:11:38.915 And it's a little hard to see, 0:11:38.939,0:11:42.223 but what we've done -- what we're doing;[br]it's in process right now, 0:11:42.247,0:11:43.851 it's in engineering right now -- 0:11:43.875,0:11:47.666 is turning an all four-lane[br]system, half one-way 0:11:47.690,0:11:51.267 into an all two-lane system, all two-way, 0:11:51.291,0:11:54.532 and in so doing, we're adding[br]70 percent more on-street parking, 0:11:54.556,0:11:55.915 which the merchants love, 0:11:55.939,0:11:57.359 and it protects the sidewalk. 0:11:57.383,0:11:59.145 That parking makes the sidewalk safe, 0:11:59.169,0:12:02.375 and we're adding a much more[br]robust bicycle network. 0:12:03.951,0:12:06.532 Then the lanes themselves.[br]How wide are they? 0:12:06.556,0:12:07.766 That's really important. 0:12:07.790,0:12:10.956 The standards have changed[br]such that, as Andrés Duany says, 0:12:10.980,0:12:13.074 the typical road[br]to a subdivision in America 0:12:13.098,0:12:15.290 allows you to see[br]the curvature of the Earth. 0:12:15.314,0:12:16.353 (Laughter) 0:12:16.377,0:12:19.622 This is a subdivision[br]outside of Washington from the 1960s. 0:12:19.646,0:12:21.967 Look very carefully[br]at the width of the streets. 0:12:21.991,0:12:24.098 This is a subdivision from the 1980s. 0:12:24.122,0:12:25.757 1960s, 1980s. 0:12:25.781,0:12:27.805 The standards have changed[br]to such a degree 0:12:27.829,0:12:29.782 that my old neighborhood of South Beach, 0:12:29.806,0:12:34.115 when it was time to fix the street[br]that wasn't draining properly, 0:12:34.139,0:12:36.683 they had to widen it[br]and take away half our sidewalk, 0:12:36.707,0:12:38.354 because the standards were wider. 0:12:38.378,0:12:41.075 People go faster on wider streets. 0:12:41.099,0:12:42.256 People know this. 0:12:42.280,0:12:45.406 The engineers deny it,[br]but the citizens know it, 0:12:45.430,0:12:49.256 so that in Birmingham, Michigan,[br]they fight for narrower streets. 0:12:49.280,0:12:51.802 Portland, Oregon, famously walkable, 0:12:51.826,0:12:55.371 instituted its "Skinny Streets" program[br]in its residential neighborhood. 0:12:55.395,0:12:57.245 We know that skinny streets are safer. 0:12:57.269,0:13:00.315 The developer Vince Graham,[br]in his project I'On, 0:13:00.339,0:13:02.155 which we worked on in South Carolina, 0:13:02.179,0:13:05.791 he goes to conferences and he shows[br]his amazing 22-foot roads. 0:13:05.815,0:13:08.531 These are two-way roads,[br]very narrow rights of way, 0:13:08.555,0:13:10.554 and he shows this well-known philosopher, 0:13:10.578,0:13:13.448 who said, "Broad is the road[br]that leads to destruction ... 0:13:13.472,0:13:15.573 narrow is the road that leads to life." 0:13:15.597,0:13:17.657 (Laughter) 0:13:17.681,0:13:20.050 (Applause) 0:13:20.074,0:13:21.866 This plays very well in the South. 0:13:21.890,0:13:23.787 Now: bicycles. 0:13:24.709,0:13:29.039 Bicycles and bicycling[br]are the current revolution underway 0:13:29.063,0:13:30.898 in only some American cities. 0:13:30.922,0:13:32.563 But where you build it, they come. 0:13:32.587,0:13:36.596 As a planner, I hate to say that,[br]but the one thing I can say 0:13:36.620,0:13:40.747 is that bicycle population[br]is a function of bicycle infrastructure. 0:13:40.771,0:13:44.186 I asked my friend Tom Brennan[br]from Nelson\Nygaard in Portland 0:13:44.210,0:13:46.790 to send me some pictures[br]of the Portland bike commute. 0:13:46.814,0:13:49.322 He sent me this. I said,[br]"Was that bike to work day?" 0:13:49.346,0:13:50.991 He said, "No, that was Tuesday." 0:13:51.015,0:13:55.979 When you do what Portland did and spend[br]money on bicycle infrastructure -- 0:13:56.003,0:14:00.224 New York City has doubled the number[br]of bikers in it several times now 0:14:00.248,0:14:02.285 by painting these bright green lanes. 0:14:02.309,0:14:06.575 Even automotive cities[br]like Long Beach, California: 0:14:06.599,0:14:10.678 vast uptick in the number of bikers[br]based on the infrastructure. 0:14:10.702,0:14:12.393 And of course, what really does it, 0:14:12.417,0:14:15.093 if you know 15th Street[br]here in Washington, DC -- 0:14:15.117,0:14:18.344 please meet Rahm Emanuel's[br]new bike lanes in Chicago, 0:14:18.368,0:14:21.746 the buffered lane, the parallel parking[br]pulled off the curb, 0:14:21.770,0:14:25.772 the bikes between the parked[br]cars and the curb -- 0:14:25.796,0:14:27.717 these mint cyclists. 0:14:28.041,0:14:31.592 If, however, as in Pasadena,[br]every lane is a bike lane, 0:14:31.616,0:14:33.577 then no lane is a bike lane. 0:14:33.601,0:14:36.713 And this is the only bicyclist[br]that I met in Pasadena, so ... 0:14:36.737,0:14:38.342 (Laughter) 0:14:38.366,0:14:40.057 The parallel parking I mentioned -- 0:14:40.081,0:14:41.703 it's an essential barrier of steel 0:14:41.727,0:14:45.513 that protects the curb and pedestrians[br]from moving vehicles. 0:14:45.637,0:14:49.233 This is Ft. Lauderdale;[br]one side of the street, you can park, 0:14:49.257,0:14:51.209 the other side of the street, you can't. 0:14:51.233,0:14:53.258 This is happy hour on the parking side. 0:14:53.282,0:14:55.973 This is sad hour on the other side. 0:14:55.997,0:14:58.986 And then the trees themselves[br]slow cars down. 0:14:59.010,0:15:01.296 They move slower when trees[br]are next to the road, 0:15:01.320,0:15:03.875 and, of course, sometimes[br]they slow down very quickly. 0:15:05.089,0:15:08.041 All the little details --[br]the curb return radius. 0:15:08.065,0:15:09.727 Is it one foot or is it 40 feet? 0:15:09.751,0:15:13.197 How swoopy is that curb to determine[br]how fast the car goes 0:15:13.221,0:15:15.686 and how much room you have to cross. 0:15:15.710,0:15:19.132 And then I love this, because this[br]is objective journalism. 0:15:20.266,0:15:24.345 "Some say the entrance to CityCenter[br]is not inviting to pedestrians." 0:15:24.369,0:15:26.827 When every aspect[br]of the landscape is swoopy, 0:15:26.851,0:15:29.524 is aerodynamic, is stream-form geometrics, 0:15:29.548,0:15:31.865 it says: "This is a vehicular place." 0:15:31.889,0:15:36.964 So no one detail, no one speciality,[br]can be allowed to set the stage. 0:15:36.988,0:15:38.552 And here, you know, this street: 0:15:38.576,0:15:42.468 yes, it will drain within a minute[br]of the hundred-year storm, 0:15:42.492,0:15:45.284 but this poor woman[br]has to mount the curb every day. 0:15:45.308,0:15:48.254 So then quickly, the comfortable walk[br]has to do with the fact 0:15:48.278,0:15:53.231 that all animals seek, simultaneously,[br]prospect and refuge. 0:15:53.255,0:15:55.355 We want to be able to see our predators, 0:15:55.379,0:15:57.898 but we also want to feel[br]that our flanks are covered. 0:15:57.922,0:16:00.413 And so we're drawn to places[br]that have good edges, 0:16:00.437,0:16:03.765 and if you don't supply the edges,[br]people won't want to be there. 0:16:03.789,0:16:05.928 What's the proper ratio[br]of height to width? 0:16:05.952,0:16:07.727 Is it one to one? Three to one? 0:16:07.851,0:16:11.636 If you get beyond one to six,[br]you're not very comfortable anymore. 0:16:11.660,0:16:12.979 You don't feel enclosed. 0:16:13.103,0:16:16.248 Now, six to one in Salzburg[br]can be perfectly delightful. 0:16:16.372,0:16:18.759 The opposite of Salzburg is Houston. 0:16:19.917,0:16:23.517 The point being the parking lot[br]is the principal problem here. 0:16:23.541,0:16:27.116 However, missing teeth, those empty lots[br]can be issues as well, 0:16:27.140,0:16:30.385 and if you have a missing corner[br]because of an outdated zoning code, 0:16:30.409,0:16:33.317 then you could have a missing nose[br]in your neighborhood. 0:16:33.341,0:16:35.178 That's what we had in my neighborhood. 0:16:35.202,0:16:38.278 This was the zoning code that said[br]I couldn't build on that site. 0:16:38.302,0:16:42.329 As you may know, Washington, DC[br]is now changing its zoning 0:16:42.353,0:16:45.483 to allow sites like this[br]to become sites like this. 0:16:45.507,0:16:47.673 We needed a lot of variances to do that. 0:16:47.697,0:16:49.981 Triangular houses[br]can be interesting to build, 0:16:50.005,0:16:53.107 but if you get one built,[br]people generally like it. 0:16:53.131,0:16:55.584 So you've got to fill those missing noses. 0:16:55.738,0:16:57.696 And then, finally, the interesting walk: 0:16:57.720,0:16:59.392 signs of humanity. 0:16:59.416,0:17:01.231 We are among the social primates. 0:17:01.255,0:17:03.443 Nothing interests us more[br]than other people. 0:17:03.467,0:17:04.961 We want signs of people. 0:17:04.984,0:17:07.988 So the perfect one-to-one ratio,[br]it's a great thing. 0:17:08.012,0:17:10.215 This is Grand Rapids,[br]a very walkable city, 0:17:10.240,0:17:12.082 but nobody walks on this street 0:17:12.106,0:17:14.217 that connects the two[br]best hotels together, 0:17:14.241,0:17:18.608 because if on the left,[br]you have an exposed parking deck, 0:17:18.633,0:17:21.117 and on the right,[br]you have a conference facility 0:17:21.141,0:17:24.569 that was apparently designed[br]in admiration for that parking deck, 0:17:24.594,0:17:27.101 then you don't attract that many people. 0:17:27.125,0:17:31.099 Mayor Joe Riley, in his 10th term,[br]Mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, 0:17:31.123,0:17:33.300 taught us it only takes[br]25 feet of building 0:17:33.324,0:17:35.618 to hide 250 feet of garage. 0:17:35.642,0:17:38.362 This one I call the Chia Pet Garage.[br]It's in South Beach. 0:17:38.386,0:17:39.830 That active ground floor. 0:17:39.854,0:17:42.573 I want to end with this project[br]that I love to show. 0:17:42.597,0:17:45.108 It's by Meleca Architects.[br]It's in Columbus, Ohio. 0:17:45.132,0:17:48.822 To the left is the convention center[br]neighborhood, full of pedestrians. 0:17:48.846,0:17:51.510 To the right is the Short North[br]neighborhood -- ethnic, 0:17:51.534,0:17:54.231 great restaurants,[br]great shops, struggling. 0:17:54.255,0:17:56.809 It wasn't doing very well[br]because this was the bridge, 0:17:56.833,0:17:59.300 and no one was walking[br]from the convention center 0:17:59.324,0:18:00.533 into that neighborhood. 0:18:00.557,0:18:04.850 Well, when they rebuilt the highway,[br]they added an extra 80 feet to the bridge. 0:18:04.874,0:18:07.348 Sorry -- they rebuilt the bridge[br]over the highway. 0:18:07.372,0:18:09.745 The city paid 1.9 million dollars, 0:18:09.769,0:18:12.015 they gave the site to a developer, 0:18:12.039,0:18:13.430 the developer built this 0:18:13.454,0:18:15.773 and now the Short North[br]has come back to life. 0:18:15.797,0:18:19.013 And everyone says, the newspapers,[br]not the planning magazines, 0:18:19.037,0:18:21.258 the newspapers say[br]it's because of that bridge. 0:18:21.282,0:18:23.902 So that's it. That's the general[br]theory of walkability. 0:18:23.926,0:18:25.946 Think about your own cities. 0:18:25.970,0:18:28.387 Think about how you can apply it. 0:18:28.411,0:18:30.365 You've got to do all four things at once. 0:18:30.389,0:18:32.698 So find those places[br]where you have most of them 0:18:32.722,0:18:34.627 and fix what you can, 0:18:34.651,0:18:37.335 fix what still needs fixing[br]in those places. 0:18:37.359,0:18:39.127 I really appreciate your attention, 0:18:39.151,0:18:41.215 and thank you for coming today. 0:18:41.239,0:18:45.793 (Applause)