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I don’t get why there are so few walkable places. The demand is there and willing to pay a premium, and the small lots and narrow streets should make it fairly

I don’t get why there are so few walkable places. The demand is there and willing to pay a premium, and the small lots and narrow streets should make it fairly inexpensive to build.

orangeoxidation 5y ago
Regulation, education, inertia. All of those tell specialist things like "streets have to be at least this wide in residential areas". Zoning can make it impossible for the requirements of daily life to be in walkable distance. There is also some scale issues. A walkable city is great. A walkable neighborhood might not be, not if it is too small and everyone has to drive to work, to the grocer and to the doctor. Public transport makes only sense if it can move enough people. All drivers (so everyone) will be uncomfortable with the walkable, but disconnected small neighborhood. There has been some rethinking in the last decade or so and cities are trying to become more walkable, more livable and less car focused with increasing frequency.
- Ensorceled 5y ago
  > A walkable neighborhood might not be, not if it is too small and everyone has to drive to work, to the grocer and to the doctor. If a "walkable neighborhood" has none of those things, it's really a neighborhood with sidewalks. There are doctors, dentists, grocers, a theatre, bars, restaurants, hardware store, ... all within walking distance in my neighborhood. Neighborhoods can be like that.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
jdblair 5y ago
Zoning is the biggest impediment. Most US cities have parking requirements, rules for setbacks, and limits on number units in a building. There is a strong incentive against changing the rules to allow more construction because scarcity increases the value of existing units.
- crooked-v 5y ago
  Also, residential-only zoning that prevents the kind of small businesses that give people any reason to actually walk around walkable neighborhoods.
- nuerow 5y ago
  > Zoning is the biggest impediment. Most US cities have parking requirements, rules for setbacks, and limits on number units in a building. Surely that's not it, because zoning in general and urban planning in particular is what determines walkability, and that is determined by design. Even if you have the most stringent requirements for parking, plans are already produced with that in mind. Therefore, either a urban area is designed with walkability in mind, or it is not.
  - xboxnolifes 5y ago
    Walkability requires a certain degree of density and mixing of residential and commercial buildings. When a lot of zoning is only single family homes on large plots with the commercial structures separated a few miles away, walkability becomes basically impossible. When you don't have those requirements, it doesn't even make sense to design around walkability, as nobody would walk to you even if you built a walking path to their doorstep.
dugmartin 5y ago
It is a little crazy. I live in a pretty little New England village that is very walkable and has a functioning two-block downtown (real grocery stores, banks, pharmacy, etc with 2nd and 3rd floor apartments). The crazy thing is the current town zoning would not allow for most of the existing small lot residential and all of the downtown commercial properties to be built now due to minimum lot sizes and parking requirements. We already have a hole in the middle of downtown due to a couple of local part time real estate investors buying the one eyesore and having to tear it down as it was literally falling down and then not being allowed to rebuild on the same footprint because of the need for 1 car parking space per bedroom for their upper floor apartments. I see the need for some zoning but enacting laws that directly prevent the thing that everyone that lives here loves about the town is crazy.
ip26 5y ago
Aside from zoning, there's also wealth disparity. What do I mean? My local historic neighborhoods are beautiful, walkable, with modest houses, and the most expensive place in town by a long sight. People are buying up adjacent properties, knocking everything down, and building big, fancy houses on the merged plots. Essentially, thanks to tremendous wealth, people are inserting suburban houses & attempting to have it all - large modern house in cute old walkable neighborhood. The end game, unfortunately, is obvious.

I don’t get why there are so few walkable places. The demand is there and willing to pay a premium, and the small lots and narrow streets should make it fairly inexpensive to build.

orangeoxidation 5y ago

Regulation, education, inertia. All of those tell specialist things like "streets have to be at least this wide in residential areas". Zoning can make it impossible for the requirements of daily life to be in walkable distance. There is also some scale issues. A walkable city is great. A walkable neighborhood might not be, not if it is too small and everyone has to drive to work, to the grocer and to the doctor. Public transport makes only sense if it can move enough people. All drivers (so everyone) will be uncomfortable with the walkable, but disconnected small neighborhood. There has been some rethinking in the last decade or so and cities are trying to become more walkable, more livable and less car focused with increasing frequency.

Ensorceled 5y ago
> A walkable neighborhood might not be, not if it is too small and everyone has to drive to work, to the grocer and to the doctor. If a "walkable neighborhood" has none of those things, it's really a neighborhood with sidewalks. There are doctors, dentists, grocers, a theatre, bars, restaurants, hardware store, ... all within walking distance in my neighborhood. Neighborhoods can be like that.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

jdblair 5y ago

Zoning is the biggest impediment. Most US cities have parking requirements, rules for setbacks, and limits on number units in a building. There is a strong incentive against changing the rules to allow more construction because scarcity increases the value of existing units.

crooked-v 5y ago
Also, residential-only zoning that prevents the kind of small businesses that give people any reason to actually walk around walkable neighborhoods.
nuerow 5y ago
> Zoning is the biggest impediment. Most US cities have parking requirements, rules for setbacks, and limits on number units in a building. Surely that's not it, because zoning in general and urban planning in particular is what determines walkability, and that is determined by design. Even if you have the most stringent requirements for parking, plans are already produced with that in mind. Therefore, either a urban area is designed with walkability in mind, or it is not.
- xboxnolifes 5y ago
  Walkability requires a certain degree of density and mixing of residential and commercial buildings. When a lot of zoning is only single family homes on large plots with the commercial structures separated a few miles away, walkability becomes basically impossible. When you don't have those requirements, it doesn't even make sense to design around walkability, as nobody would walk to you even if you built a walking path to their doorstep.

dugmartin 5y ago

It is a little crazy. I live in a pretty little New England village that is very walkable and has a functioning two-block downtown (real grocery stores, banks, pharmacy, etc with 2nd and 3rd floor apartments). The crazy thing is the current town zoning would not allow for most of the existing small lot residential and all of the downtown commercial properties to be built now due to minimum lot sizes and parking requirements. We already have a hole in the middle of downtown due to a couple of local part time real estate investors buying the one eyesore and having to tear it down as it was literally falling down and then not being allowed to rebuild on the same footprint because of the need for 1 car parking space per bedroom for their upper floor apartments. I see the need for some zoning but enacting laws that directly prevent the thing that everyone that lives here loves about the town is crazy.

ip26 5y ago

Aside from zoning, there's also wealth disparity. What do I mean? My local historic neighborhoods are beautiful, walkable, with modest houses, and the most expensive place in town by a long sight. People are buying up adjacent properties, knocking everything down, and building big, fancy houses on the merged plots. Essentially, thanks to tremendous wealth, people are inserting suburban houses & attempting to have it all - large modern house in cute old walkable neighborhood. The end game, unfortunately, is obvious.