Landscape Architect Articles

The Walkable Index07-25-08 | News

The Walkable Index

How Walkable is your community? Walk Score www.walkscore.com rates 2,508 communities across the country for walkability. San Francisco is ranked number one. About 85 percent of the federal transportation funding goes to maintaining highways, but only 1.5 percent (about $3 per American per year) to support walking and biking and only 15 percent going to public transit. (See SAFTEA-LU side bar)

The House Appropriation Transportation Subcommittee previously approved its version of the FY 2009 transportation funding, however, that bill did not include a provision transferring funds to the HTF. Full committee markup of the bill in the House was scheduled for July 7 but was canceled and at press time no date to reschedule.

The Walkable Index
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In The Option of Urbanism, developer Christopher Leinberger details how government policies over the past 60 years have created the driving suburbs, based largely on the car economy and the oil industry, which have resulted in the decline of community.

When it comes to urban planning or urban redevelopment, making cities and neighborhoods more walkable is becoming more of a focus and priority. The landscape design standards associated with New Urbanism and the SmartCode are two examples.

Walk About
How does your city or community rate for walkability? Walk Score www.walkscore.com rates 2,508 communities all over the country for walkability. The website espouses the benefits of walking: residents of walkable neighborhoods drive less, suffer fewer car accidents (riding a bus is 10 times safer than driving) and weigh less (the ?EUR??,,????'?????<

Walk Score elucidates the factors that make for walkability:

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The top 10 walkable U.S., according to Walk Score:
1. San Francisco
2. NYC
3. Boston
4. Chicago
5. Philadelphia
6. Seattle
7. Washington, D.C.
8. Long Beach, Calif.
9. Los Angeles
10. Portland, Ore.

Near the bottom of the list are such communities as Charlotte, N.C., Jacksonville, Fla., and Nashville, Tenn.

SAFTEA-LU

On July 11, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the FY 2009 Transportation legislation, which fully funds the highway and transit programs (SAFTEA-LU). The committee authorized a $8.017 billion transfer of funds from general revenue to the Highway Trust Fund (HTF). Without that fund transfer, the highway program would have had to be cut by 34 percent. The bill provides $41.2 billion for the highway program (the same amount as in FY 08) and $10.2 billion for transit (7.7 percent above the FY 08). Also included in the bill is funding for the Airport Improvement Program ($3.515 billion, the same amount as in FY 08).