December 4, 2007
Why Washington Walks
A new report from the Brookings Institution shows that the D.C. metro area has the most “walkable places” per capita of any American city -- one for every 264,000 people, beating out even New York City for walkability. Visiting Fellow Christopher B. Leinberger says that the Washington region could serve as the model for the direction the country’s other metro areas are heading over the next generation. The Associated Press already picked up on the story.
Why does Washington walk more than any other city? The report credits the D.C. area with currently having the second highest absolute number of walking urban places with 20, compared to two in 1987 (Georgetown and Old Town Alexandria). It also lays out the major reasons why District residents favor the walking lifestyle:
(1) the success of the Metro rail system and (2) the aggressive use of “overlay zoning districts” that allow and promote walkable urbanism around Metro stations. Other reasons include the region’s strong economic growth over the past 15 years when the trend toward walkable urban development began, the high educational level of the population (the highest percentage of college graduates of all metro areas in the country according to the US Census in 2006), given the apparent, though not yet proven, propensity of the highly educated to prefer walkable urban development. It is also assisted by the large percentage of younger adults in their 20s and 30s that migrate to the region for employment opportunities and for the walkable urban lifestyle. Younger adults appear to have a higher propensity, though not proven, for walkable urbanism as well.
So younger, more educated people walk more than others? Maybe, but we'd have to say in our experience, Washington is a pretty equal-opportunity walking town. We see just as many people who are over 40 and from a variety of education and income levels walking in D.C. as we do younger college graduates.
The report names Capitol Hill, Adams Morgan, Georgetown, West End, Friendship Heights and Dupont Circle as model “walkable places” in the District. It also identifies Columbia Heights as a neighborhood that is "not yet at critical mass but probably will be over the next decade," comparing it to neighborhoods like Mid-Wilshire in Los Angeles, Crossroads in Kansas City and Royal Oak in the Detroit metropolitan area.
So why do you walk?
Photo by maxedaperture
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Maybe we all walk more because the taxi drivers try to screw us over like we're tourists.
i walk because metro stinks.
The peripatetic school of philosophy in ancient Athens was based on walking around and thinking and discussing, so maybe there's some truth to that statistic...
I think we need to look carefully at this "walkable city" stuff. I believe it is a pretext for the G-word, ignoring 19th century cities that never stopped walking, like NYC.
We walk because there is no parking.
I would rather spend 20 minutes walking, versus 5 driving + 30 looking looking for a parking spot.
How is it Bethesda, Silver Spring, and other suburbs have plenty of cheap parking, but DC none?
I walk because the metro stops are so far away from each other and I don't know every bus route.
I don't get people's complaints about the parking in DC. I drive just about everywhere, and I rarely have trouble finding a parking spot. It wouldn't even occur to me to park in a garage.
i walk because those MetroBus drivers need targets
Based on the above comments it seems like DC walks, but they're not happy about it.
Why so angry people? I walk, and I like it.
DC is around 25, 26 pedestrian fatalities this year. MPD, DDOT, the Mayor and Council need to figure out why these deaths happened and develop a strategy to implement in the coming years to encourage more pedestrian activity and more burden for vehicular traffic.
I understand there is to be a master pedestrian plan unveiled soon. I hope it include drastic measure to favor alternatives to vehicular traffic in the city.
Wow. The Crossroads in KC must have undergone some major changes in the past 3 years, because I lived smack in the middle of that 'hood, and it wasn't very pedestrian friendly. Few shops, even fewer affordable restaurants, and no grocery store within walking distance.
Maybe with the new performing arts center finally going forward, the city is finally investing some infrastructure money in the area.
Now I walk mostly because I hate driving and parking in DC.
alex - None of the philosophy majors I know walk. They all sit in Starbucks with laptops pretending to be writers.
Any evolved yeti will tell you that the only way to massage the foot gland is TO WALK ON IT!
I walk because [insert cynical DC comment here].
Yes, we get it, we're all jaded and hate where we live blah blah blah.
So younger, more educated people walk more than others?
But it didn't necessarily say that. It described it as an "apparent propensity of the highly educated to prefer walkable urban development."
So, more highly educated people choose to live in walkable areas, which is not the same as saying that they walk more than other groups that also live in said walkable areas.
Lemonlaug, we walkers are angry because 25 of us have been hit and killed this year in D.C. ...
I walk everywhere (don't own a car, not for environmental reasons but because I just never used it) and love it, but I don't love the threatening atmosphere that I am sometimes forced to deal with (sorry Lexus SUV driver, didn't mean to walk on the sidewalk in front of the parking garage and slowing down your arrival at Whole Foods by 2.2 seconds).
Taken from CNN.com:
"...one major caveat to his report: The survey did not take into account the size of each walkable place.
For example, midtown Manhattan is given the same weight as Reston Town Center, a lifestyle center outside Washington, even though the latter has only a tiny fraction of the office and retail space, residential units, and hotel rooms of midtown."
The study does not factor in neighborhood safety either. Wouldnt that contribute to walkability?
Personally, I like walking in DC just not yesterday or all of August.
"Why does Washington walk more than any other city?"
Woah, woah, woah. The report does not say that. It merely says that we have a lot of "walkable" places in proportion to the numbers of people (and actually, as you point out, in absolute numbers). But so what? The very nature of the report is biased towards places like DC where surburan sprawl has created various scattered nodes. Yes, we've done a decent job at turning some of these nodes into walkable centers, but if people are driving to get to and away from them, then it's not really that much of an accomplishment. If they used a more accurate measure of "walkable places" (i.e. not considering all of Midtown Manhattan as one big walkable place equivilant to Ballston) then DC (and particularly the DC "area") would fall way back, in my estimation.
I walk because I choose to live within walking distance of work, nightlife, and the grocery store.
I jaywalk because those "Steel vs. Flesh" ads make fun of me behind my back.
I found this website worth a few minutes of distraction. Tells the walk-ability of your address...I would like it to rate the quality of walk-ability. The quality of walk around in Old Town is a hell of a lot different than walking around Reston.
http://www.walkscore.com/walking-matters.shtml
Well, I walk in DC because I can. I'm from South Florida, made a pit stop in Atlanta and when you actually have a choice to walk places, it's just much more pleasant. For all the kvetching here, you have no idea how good we actually have it.
That having been said, I'm entirely over the people who must gun their car into the parking garage (because waiting ten seconds for my flesh and bones to cross in front is too much!)
And yeah, NYC is more walkable...and also an ugly city with no alibi. DC and many other urban regions have been putting themselves back together after the advent of the car. NYC never really had that impact. It just be yoogly.
DC Guy - You seem to already know why the deaths happened and have a solution [more burden for vehicular traffic]. I dont buy the logic. You make be a safe ped, but not all are.
Besides, I dont think you can force drivers to walk. But you can make it safer for walkers.
Anyway I wish people would drop the sanctimonious assumption that walker good, driver bad. Lots of these walkers are rude to drivers and may even cause a safety hazard in the process.
I walk in DC because it's a pleasant exercise, because it's full of handsome views, because America's high rates of gasoline consumption strengthens our nation's enemies, because I'm an eco-weenie, because it beats fighting the traffic, and because I can get as totally blitzed as I want and still get home without having to worry about driving over pedestrians.
Not necessarily in that order, though.
DCificare,
I am not saying walker=good, driver=bad, I am saying that cars are bigger and faster than pedestrians, except when it comes to stopping, and that there should be policy in place to preserve those who choose to walk, whether this is better enforcement of driving laws (and walking laws), or pedestrian crosswalks that are more visible, or pedestrian stop lights such as they use in other places which bring all vehicles to a stop so pedestrians don't have to worry about turning vehicles mowing them down.
Whatever it is, we should be looking at it now so there is more encouragement of non-vehicular traffic in the future.
I walk for the exercise and because I am afraid to move my car and not be able to find a parking space for it again (especially in the evenings).
DCificare,
I am not saying walker=good, driver=bad, I am saying that cars are bigger and faster than pedestrians, except when it comes to stopping, and that there should be policy in place to preserve those who choose to walk, whether this is better enforcement of driving laws (and walking laws), or pedestrian crosswalks that are more visible, or pedestrian stop lights such as they use in other places which bring all vehicles to a stop so pedestrians don't have to worry about turning vehicles mowing them down.
Whatever it is, we should be looking at it now so there is more encouragement of non-vehicular traffic in the future.
I walk because it makes me feel morally superior to everyone that isn't walking.
That, and because the jostling motion my legs make give me a little sexual thrill.
I think to be truly more walkable DC needs to relax some zoning restrictions, to allow more corner stores, restuarants, etc., in residential areas. Other cities, like Philly, NYC, allow for commercial establishments on a lot of corner lots in residential areas. DC apparently used to, but quit doing that. There are lots of places in supposedly 'walkable' DC neighborhoods where you actually have to go quite a few blocks to get to actual essentials like food or dry cleaning.
I love this...
Columbia Heights . . . is "not yet at critical mass but probably will be over the next decade"
I get it."Walkability" means the point at which middle class pedestrians aren't afraid they might see working people anymore.
Nothing like a new euphemism to make my day.
I'm a huge fan of how in the report they explain why NY came in 10th. Essentially: "Basically, our methodology was flawed and our definition of a 'walkable place' is arbitrary and meaningless."
Good to know. Thanks. Can I please my time back that I spent reading your report?
I walk because I can hit up six record stores in one fine afternoon.
Olsson's-->Second Story Books & Records-->Melody-->Red Onion-->Crooked Beat -->Som
oops. sorry. I kept getting server errors.
I walk because I can hit up six record stores in one fine afternoon.
Olsson's-->Second Story Books & Records-->Melody-->Red Onion-->Crooked Beat -->Som
I walk because I prefer to exericse my dogs via walking, rather than giving them rides in my car and having them pee in the backseat.
I walk because I prefer to exericse my dogs via walking, rather than giving them rides in my car and having them pee in the backseat.
I walk because it keeps me from having to post everything twice.
Walking blows. I skip.
I walk to protest multiple posts of the same comment.
I've been walking to work for 7 years now, and it has done wonders for my physical and mental health. It's a little over a mile each way, which gives me good exercise, and a good opportunity to connect with my neighborhood.
In the mornings, I never have to wonder if I'll be able to make my 9:30 meeting. I know exactly how long my commute will be, and it's unaffected by weather, traffic, or accidents. Tomorrow's snow forecast means only that I should wear boots.
Walking also allows me plenty of decompression time in the evenings. When I get home, instead of needing to unwind from a hellish commute, I can get straight to cooking dinner, gardening, whatever.
When I bought my house, I knew I was sacrificing a big yard and a few extra bedrooms. I could have gotten a much nicer, larger place in the suburbs for what I paid for my 12-foot-wide rowhouse. But every so often, when I have to go out to the 'burbs after work, and I see the miles of stopped traffic, and the horn-blowing, and the weaving in and out, and the general aggravation that comes with a daily commute, I'm reminded of how much I like walking.
DC should get negative walkability points for traffic circles.
Bitch-bitch-moan-moan. Why don't all you whiners leave DC?
i just don't get it. Obviously you are unhappy here. JUST MOVE ALREADY!!! If you'd rather be elsewhere, go there, please. Life's too short to suffer unnecessarily. There's room at the Inns in NYC, LA, SF or whatever other location is superior to DC in every way. Your departure will also make room for future residents who want to be here. And who hopefully won't be whiny, complaining pantywaists.
I lost about 30 lbs from walking when I moved to DC. I think DC is very walkable, just watch out for the rats at night.
sorry bout the multiple posts..kept getting server errors saying it didnt post...
Walking is for peasants. I love nothing more than to have my manservant Hop Sing break out the rickshaw for a jaunt around the opium district, where I can crack my rattan whip over pedestrians' heads while shouting, "Git a hoss!" When I'm feeling really frisky, I'll hop in my pimped-out sedan chair and my kung fu hookers will take me for a lazy evening's lope around Q Street, where I can buy the finest imported crack and only the most luxuriously diseased hookers. Yelling for "service" from a car window is so plebean. I prefer the personalized attention you can only get from an embroidered lotus foot sandal chucked from a passing sedan chair.
By the way, I love the photo chosen to go with this piece: bleak streetscape with only two pedestrians (and maybe a third waaaaaaay in the back). And that guy at the front of the picture doesn't look too happy to be walking.