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by seabea 885 days ago
I agree that the vast majority are not walkable but it doesn't need to be that way. I live near an extremely walkable suburb.

Storefronts at the sidewalk instead of on the other end of sprawling parking lot. Pedestrian crossings in the middle of longer stretches of road (as opposed to only at intersections). Dedicated bike paths throughout the entire town. Schools centrally located on a single campus in the middle of town.

It goes to show what a town can do when the local government decides they want to be more than just a outpost for a larger city.
1 comments
mrangle 885 days ago
It'll always be that way. The suburbs are vast. Walkability is the rare exception, not the rule. Due to distance. Some exceptional parts of some suburbs are walkable.

For example, I have in mind the immense suburbs of a second tier US city. These are impossible to redesign, and travel to do simple errands is measured in half mile increments. With expanses of residential housing and heavily trafficked roads inbetween. This is for convenient locations. Much of the housing is less conveniently located.

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CalRobert 885 days ago
You're generally right but suburbs _can_ be walkable if they're not designed by idiots. Houten, in the Netherlands, comes to mind. Or a lot of the US streetcar suburbs which these days are generally not considered suburbs - South Park, San Diego to give one example.
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mrangle 884 days ago
Respectfully, "can be" needs to be paired with "rarely". I'm not debating that the rare small section of expansive suburbs is walkable. That's found everywhere, rarely.

The reason that I'm insistent on the distinction is the same reason that I suspect responders are insistent on giving the impression that walkability is generally possible in suburbia. That reason is that the crux of the debate is whether or not the automobile has to remain central to American travel.

My POV is that suburbia is unavoidably car centric, almost all of the time with rare exceptions. Those taking the opposite pov are generally trying to give the impression that walkability is generally possible.

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