Suburbs are unwalkable for free#
And makes it easier to create a playborhood for free range kids instead of leaving the last child in the woods. The 5-minute walk is the “pedestrian shed” and the 2.5-minute walk is the “play shed.” Having these neutral gathering places where people of all ages can go to play in parks, playgrounds, and plazas in the winter makes us more likely to enjoy frequent sledding, skating, skiing or just walking. Just as it should be a 5-minute walk to most daily needs, it should be a 2.5-minute walk to the nearest place to play. If we can control how the building meets the street and nothing more, we’re far along the placemakers way. The way that the buildings address the street, or the “private frontage,” makes for convivial places to gather and meet. This sense of enclosure is even more important in the winter, which coupled with short blocks helps create shelter from the wind. Shallow setbacks and skinny streets help us get to 1:2 or 1:3 ratios on main streets, and street trees help deliver enclosure for less urban conditions. Standard suburban enclosure is a 1:6 ratio of building height to street width. Outdoor rooms are created by a sense of enclosure, perhaps the most critical element of placemaking. When I do walk downtown in the winter, I’m always happy for the plentiful coffee shops for warm-ups. While I’ll jump on my bike during temperate seasons to attend a meeting downtown – three neighborhoods away – I’m somewhat risk-averse to cycling in winter and the 25-minute walk at -20 C usually will prompt me into a bus or cab. The 5-minute walk is the radius that defines the neighbourhood circle. Homes near schools, offices, shops, restaurants, parks, and places of worship make active transportation something more than a new year’s resolution. Having our daily needs available within a 5-minute walk makes it faster just to walk there instead of finding a place to park on the snowy streets. The useful walk is the first thing that makes us willing to step outside. If we really want to follow the Surgeon General’s warning to step it up, walkability is achieved at the scale of the neighborhood, not the scale of the region.Ĭharlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Those walkable neighborhoods that draw people out to just walk a block or two, and then once you’re geared up, you’re more likely to brave the elements. However, the greatest parts of each of these walkable winter cities aren’t the headliners, but rather the openers. These festivities are generally set in the city center and are regional draws. These major amenities are essential to get us outdoors and moving in the northern winters, and are spectacular and fun, including Ottawa’s Rideau Canal skating trails, Winnipeg’s Assiniboine and Red River trails and warming huts, Carnaval de Québec, Fête des Neiges de Montréal, Winnipeg’s Festival du Voyageur, Lumière de Montréal, and Ottawa’s Winterlude, to name a few.
Northern cities tend to go after big winter ideas to compete with the Sun Belt.
Suburbs are unwalkable license#
CreativeCommons ShareAlike License with Attribution: flickr user Jamie McCaffrey. The mindset at the time was that people drove, and provision for pedestrians was much less of a consideration.Carnival de Québec, Québec City, Québec. The inconsistency of the sidewalk provision when we would go for a walk around the neighbourhood still boggles my mind! This is not unique to this neighbourhood but speaks to the planning common throughout the 70's and 80's when these neighbourhoods were developed. The need to drive for every little thing was a major frustration for me while we lived there. As for socializing, there is nowhere within walking distance. For groceries, we would have to walk either 2 or 2.5km, or approx 25 to 30 minutes, transit would take 16 minutes including the walk, but not the wait time, as you wouldn't want to wait another 30 minutes for the next bus, the car is 5 minutes. The closest transit stop is 450m away, or a 6 minute walk, not a huge distance and just within TransLink's own guideline target for proximity to transit, but I never use it, trips undoubtedly take far longer than by car and always require a transfer, and as I have access to a car, it never seems worth it.
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