I'd love for my city (Albany, NY) to find ways to make walking irresistible. There is at least one pedestrian infrastructure improvement project happening in one of our main districts, but it feels so incremental and small.... not the big change we'd need to really incentivize walking more. I always go back to Jeff Speck's theory that to be irresistible, walks need to be useful, safe, comfortable, and interesting. I hope we can make some of these happen where I live!
Small, incremental change can add up! I do think that getting city officials who start to focus on walking is really important. Having a few pilot projects can be important for building demand. Thanks for sharing!
The walking numbers don't feel right to me; all forms of active transport have been up, why is walking anomalous? in Vancouver, "Pedestrian: Walking trips increased to 28% of mode share, up from 26% in 2021, which is similar to pre-pandemic levels." In the UK, "Findings show walking is the only transport mode to increase during the pandemic and have more people walking regularly than pre-pandemic. This increase has been for mixed purposes, not solely for leisure purposes, and in June-21 17.4 % of the sample who were eligible to drive, increased the frequency they walked and also decreased their car use." (I couldn't find any American studies) During the pandemic the streets were full of people walking, it was one of the few things they could do. I am going out tonight and walking 24 minutes to the subway because I don't want to get on a crowded bus. Right now I am going to download that study.
So the walking data is a little strange -- it's counting the number of walking trips, not walking time total or steps total. In other words, it's the decline in short walking trips most likely, not necessarily walking overall. I would definitely say that most places in the US are not experiencing a walking renaissance or anything close to that though... Vancover is way more dense than most American cities, same for UK.
I'd love for my city (Albany, NY) to find ways to make walking irresistible. There is at least one pedestrian infrastructure improvement project happening in one of our main districts, but it feels so incremental and small.... not the big change we'd need to really incentivize walking more. I always go back to Jeff Speck's theory that to be irresistible, walks need to be useful, safe, comfortable, and interesting. I hope we can make some of these happen where I live!
Small, incremental change can add up! I do think that getting city officials who start to focus on walking is really important. Having a few pilot projects can be important for building demand. Thanks for sharing!
The walking numbers don't feel right to me; all forms of active transport have been up, why is walking anomalous? in Vancouver, "Pedestrian: Walking trips increased to 28% of mode share, up from 26% in 2021, which is similar to pre-pandemic levels." In the UK, "Findings show walking is the only transport mode to increase during the pandemic and have more people walking regularly than pre-pandemic. This increase has been for mixed purposes, not solely for leisure purposes, and in June-21 17.4 % of the sample who were eligible to drive, increased the frequency they walked and also decreased their car use." (I couldn't find any American studies) During the pandemic the streets were full of people walking, it was one of the few things they could do. I am going out tonight and walking 24 minutes to the subway because I don't want to get on a crowded bus. Right now I am going to download that study.
So the walking data is a little strange -- it's counting the number of walking trips, not walking time total or steps total. In other words, it's the decline in short walking trips most likely, not necessarily walking overall. I would definitely say that most places in the US are not experiencing a walking renaissance or anything close to that though... Vancover is way more dense than most American cities, same for UK.