Walkability

Walkable neighborhoods offer many benefits. Individuals living in walkable areas generate  lower carbon emissions and have better health. They are less lonely and more likely to make friends as adults, since chance encounters are more common on a sidewalk or at a local park or store than in car-dependent places. Walkable neighborhoods offer more freedom for people who are too young, too old, or otherwise incapable of driving. They also benefit the city. Dense, walkable areas provide more taxes into the city coffers than they consume, unlike car-dependent places.

I live in a neighborhood that could be very walkable and rollable. Almost everything I need on a day-to-day basis is nearby.  Within a quarter mile I have a grocery store, two parks, and many restaurants. My gym, local library, and my partner’s house are within a half a mile. I also live close to bus stops, light rail stations, and a quiet bike path that leads downtown to the east and to my office to the west.

Fig 1: Illustration of potential walkability in my neighborhood. 

The problem? Walking here kind of sucks because of the way the infrastructure is built. For one, there are not many sidewalks, and many existing ones are in disrepair. Secondly, I’m boxed in by dangerous “stroads” to the east and the south. A stroad is a term coined by Charles Marohn of the Strong Towns organization. A stroad is a street/road hybrid that does neither of its functions well. To put it simply, roads should have high speed limits and limited intersections and distractions. Their purpose is to get cars quickly between places. On the other hand, streets should have low speed limits (ideally <25 mph) with mixed activities other than simply driving. Their purpose is to be the framework for where people want to spend time. According to Marohn, cities should work to transform stroads into either streets or roads, for both safety and budgetary reasons. I show a street and a stroad in Fig. 2 below; I don't show a "road" in the figure because readers are likely familiar with highways. If you want to learn more, I recommend reading "Confessions of a Recovering Engineer" by Charles Marohn.

Figure 2: (a) 25th is a slow street with cars, bikes, pedestrians, and space for outdoor dining. (b) West Colfax is a dangerous, polluting, tax-consuming, noisy stroad. Also note the lack of a sidewalk on the opposite side.

For illustration, let’s take a virtual walk from my apartment (the star in Fig. 1) to my partner's apartment. Her apartment is two blocks east and four blocks south of mine. In any rational city, I should be able to walk any combination of what adds up to two blocks east and four south to get to her place. However, as you can see on the map, there is no possible direct way to arrive at her apartment without walking on a street without a sidewalk. On my typical route (shown in dark red arrows in Fig. 1), the first block has no sidewalk, the second block has a partial sidewalk, then I turn east and get a blissful two blocks with sidewalks, and then I turn south and have no sidewalk, followed by a partial sidewalk. 

On top of the lack of sidewalks, the really dangerous thing is crossing Colfax. West Colfax between Sheridan and Wadsworth is the most dangerous road in Lakewood and averages one crash every other day, with more than 10% of crashes involving a pedestrian or a cyclist. If you look at it, you see why. There are three lanes in each direction with a posted speed limit of 35 mph. Automobiles commonly go 5 to 10 mph over that. When I cross on foot, I typically play a high stakes game of Frogger where I wait for a break in traffic, run to the median, wait for another break in traffic, and then run to the other side. This is possible, if dangerous, as a young, able-bodied man, but this would be extremely dangerous, if not impossible, for many people (e.g., wheelchair users). To safely cross at a signalized crosswalk, I have to walk four extra blocks west, push the beg button, wait for the signal, and then retrace my steps back to the east. In total, this safe walk becomes 14 blocks instead of six. That’s insane. 

To the city's credit, the West Colfax Safety Project lays plans to improve pedestrian and vehicular safety on this section of road by 2024. One proposed improvement is a median that is designed to be stood on, which would improve my game of Frogger. There will also be signals to stop cars and allow pedestrians to cross mid block, also called HAWK signals. In a public meeting that I attended, one of the project engineers said that they hope to reduce from three lanes in each direction to two lanes in each direction. The old outer lanes will be used to widen the sidewalks and add visual cues to slow cars down. I hope these changes will prove effective at improving safety. After reading "Confessions of a Recovering Engineer", I expect that the first two improvements will have relatively minor improvements for pedestrian safety, while the last would improve both pedestrian and vehicular safety because it will reduce speeding. It is refreshing to see the city moving in the right direction, but there is still a lot of work to be done. For example, the West Colfax Safety Project will improve the sidewalks along Colfax, but there are no plans, to my knowledge, to add sidewalks to the many side streets that need them (see the map in Fig. 1).