Walking... It's What We Do

In our lives, we have all been to places we consider to be especially appealing and comfortable. These places might be a single street, a street corner, a series of streets, or an entire community. Often times the word used to describe these places is 'walkable'. WalkSanDiego believes there are 5 important ingredients of walking. To learn more about these, click here.

Photo Credit: Dan Burden

Erosion of cities by automobiles..proceeds as a kind of nibbling, small nibbles at first, but eventually hefty bites... A street is widened here, another is straightened there, more land goes into parking...No one step in this process is, in itself, crucial. But cumulatively the effect is enormous..City character is blurred until every place becomes more like every other place, all adding up to No Place.
- Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Streets in the U.S. were originally designed to be walkable. However, with the advent of the automobile and the growth of our communities, our roads were designed more and more with one goal: to allow for smooth flow of traffic, i.e. avoid congestion. As a result, streets became wider and more dangerous for people not in a car. Unfortunately, this view has become dominant throughout San Diego and the U.S. during the past 50 years. In Southern California, wide streets with multiple travel lanes and typically narrow sidewalks have become the norm. Yet these streets do little to match the 'walkable', livable community image we have in our mind. In fact, these streets are some times down right dangerous to walk. Consider:

• A nationwide study found that 55% of Americans would rather drive less or walk more.
• 66% of Americans want more transportation options so they have the freedom to choose how to get where they need to go.
• The San Diego region was ranked fifth among 50 metropolitan areasin 2011 for pedestrian fatality rates.
• More than 40% of pedestrian deaths in 2007 and 2008 occurred where no sidewalk available.
• Bicyclists and pedestrians represent 12% of all trips nationwide, suffer 13% of fatalities, and receive less than 1% of federal funding.