Friday, September 23, 2011

More Walk Friendly Communities

The Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC) has announced another set of Walk Friendly communities that are working to improve a wide range of conditions related to walking, including safety, mobility, access, and comfort. They include:

Gold Level
Chicago, IL
Minneapolis, MN
San Francisco, CA

Silver Level                                      
Alexandria, VA
Philadelphia, PA
Santa Monica, CA

Bronze Level                                     
Cary, NC
Corvallis, OR
Davidson, NC
Lee’s Summit, MO    

“We were very pleased to have a great mix of designated communities this round,” said Carl Sundstrom, WFC program manager. “Through the application process, communities share their best practices and, in turn, we’re able to share this information to all of the communities who apply through the technical assistance we provide.”

You can read more about the program and all the Walk Friendly communities on the Walk Friendly Communities website. Think your community deserves to be on this list? Applications open for the next round in November.

Oh, and of course I have to mention that to date, my hometown of Seattle, Washington, has been the only Platinum-level Walk Friendly Community awarded. Kudos to the Emerald City!        

3 comments:

  1. Wow! My hometown of Cary is one place I did not expect to see on this list. It is a model for sprawling suburbs. That said, the trail network really is great... I find myself using it every time I'm visiting home. Just for exercise, though. Cary is definitely not walkable, mostly because the building density is low.

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  2. One does wonder about the criteria used.

    For instance, I've spent a lot of time walking (often long distances) around all areas of Seattle, and while it's not too bad on average (and the downtown core is very nice), it certainly doesn't strike me as superlative on a "walkability" scale.[*] I'd probably put Boston/Cambridge ahead of Seattle in terms of walkability.

    [*] my personable walkability index: (pleasure+beauty+interest) / (danger+fear+depression+boredom+exhaustion)

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  3. Admittedly, I walk a lot more here in LA than I ever did growing up in Seattle--and that counts the years when I didn't have a car. Call me a wimp, but I think weather plays a bigger factor than we sometimes like to admit. On the other hand, where does that put Boston?

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