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Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places
Nearly every US city would like to be more walkable—for reasons of health, wealth, and the environment—yet few are taking the proper steps to get there. The goals are often clear, but the path is seldom easy. Jeff Speck’s follow-up to his bestselling Walkable City is the resource that cities and citizens need to usher in an era of renewed street life. Walkable City Rules is a doer’s guide to making change in cities, and making it now.
The 101 rules are practical yet engaging—worded for arguments at the planning commission, illustrated for clarity, and packed with specifications as well as data. For ease of use, the rules are grouped into 19 chapters that cover everything from selling walkability, to getting the parking right, escaping automobilism, making comfortable spaces and interesting places, and doing it now!
Walkable City was written to inspire; Walkable City Rules was written to enable. It is the most comprehensive tool available for bringing the latest and most effective city-planning practices to bear in your community. The content and presentation make it a force multiplier for place-makers and change-makers everywhere.
The 101 rules are practical yet engaging—worded for arguments at the planning commission, illustrated for clarity, and packed with specifications as well as data. For ease of use, the rules are grouped into 19 chapters that cover everything from selling walkability, to getting the parking right, escaping automobilism, making comfortable spaces and interesting places, and doing it now!
Walkable City was written to inspire; Walkable City Rules was written to enable. It is the most comprehensive tool available for bringing the latest and most effective city-planning practices to bear in your community. The content and presentation make it a force multiplier for place-makers and change-makers everywhere.
312 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
August 22, 2020
As I live in Milwaukee without a car, the whys and wherefores of traffic planning (for walkers, bikers, transit and cars) are of great interest to me. The author makes it fascinating! It is an easy read at 2 pages per rule/idea, and each of those pages is filled with stats and stories to illustrate. Most fortuitously, the same rules that improve the pedestrian/biking experience also result in safer roads with no loss of travel time for cars. Highly recommended.
July 21, 2019
I didn't not finish this because it was bad, but rather because it's more of a reference book, not something one sits down to read cover to cover. I also very recently read it's companion, Walkable City, and didn't need to totally rehash everything from that book yet so I mostly flipped and skimmed. But this is a really good one, something I would probably buy or ask for as a gift.
Walkable City, says Speck in the intro, is for thinkers, and this "sequel" is for doers. With respect to urban design I'm more on the thinker side because I'm not employed by a city or urban design firm, or in a position to participate regularly in urban design decisions - BUT as I say I'd like to own this book so I can easily look up the evidence to make better informed decisions regarding support of urban design initiatives in my city.
This book helped me understand the bike situation better than Walkable City, and it only took a couple pages of reading to understand exactly why Saskatoon's bike lane experiment failed so spectacularly. It's almost as if the city looked at the existing evidence and guidelines for implementing cycling infrastructure and did the exact opposite of what you're supposed to do. Extremely frustrating, especially now that the can has been decisively kicked several years down the road. Hopefully next time the people in charge are better informed.
Lots of full colour diagrams and never more than two pages per "rule". It's well designed and readable. I love learning about this subject and I'm so glad I discovered Jeff Speck.
Walkable City, says Speck in the intro, is for thinkers, and this "sequel" is for doers. With respect to urban design I'm more on the thinker side because I'm not employed by a city or urban design firm, or in a position to participate regularly in urban design decisions - BUT as I say I'd like to own this book so I can easily look up the evidence to make better informed decisions regarding support of urban design initiatives in my city.
This book helped me understand the bike situation better than Walkable City, and it only took a couple pages of reading to understand exactly why Saskatoon's bike lane experiment failed so spectacularly. It's almost as if the city looked at the existing evidence and guidelines for implementing cycling infrastructure and did the exact opposite of what you're supposed to do. Extremely frustrating, especially now that the can has been decisively kicked several years down the road. Hopefully next time the people in charge are better informed.
Lots of full colour diagrams and never more than two pages per "rule". It's well designed and readable. I love learning about this subject and I'm so glad I discovered Jeff Speck.
July 5, 2020
Great book about city planning and urbanism, but too many examples from USA, not all recommendation applies to Europe and especially Ukraine.
April 8, 2019
“We used to build great cities, before the automobile,” writes Jeff Speck in his introduction. Now every community wants walkability as its special sauce, a central goal that can improve every city.
Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time is for readers, Speck says. Walkable City Rules is for doers.
A hundred and one rules here, each a two-page assertion supported by data and discussion. Ten years ago, we would have considered much of this book outlandish, Speck writes. But now these rules define achievable best practices in North America. Favorites:
Rule 7. Push for local schools. Schools belong in neighborhoods. In the sixties, half of all American children walked or biked to school. Now, twelve percent do. (I grew up in that half that walked to and from school.)
Rule 21/25. Redesign your bus network. In most cities, the bus serves as the public transit workhorse. A modern transit system provides frequent service in the dense areas. The modern model favors density of ridership rather than coverage of the area. In the next year or two, Milwaukee will launch its first network overhaul in a generation. https://www.ridemcts.com/programs/mct... … Do not mistake ride-sharing for transit. Ride-hailing services may reduce drunk driving but it is bad for traffic and transit. These services cannibalize the local transit system while keeping cars on the streets.
Rule 30. Open a street to pedestrians. State Street in Madison, a big college town, proves the success.
Rule 55. It is safer to concentrate cyclists on fewer routes where drivers expect to see them. Strength in number.
Rule 74. Keep signals simple. The ideal crossing signal for people who walk gives a head start of a few seconds before the drivers get a green light. New York City found that these light cycles reduced crashes and crash severity. Here, pedestrians may get a head start of a second or two.
Rule 78/79. Put trees everywhere. Trees protect sidewalks. They reduce crashes and shape the space. Street trees absorb stormwater, with a mature one drinking the first half inch of every rainfall. Trees absorb pollutants while reducing urban heat islands. … Space most urban trees thirty feet apart. Also, plant them in the median.
Rule 88. Make interesting places. The concept of an active facade requires a window or door every ten feet. The goal: Blur the distinction between shop and sidewalk. Nobody wants to walk for a minute past a dull facade. (But here we do just that where Whole Foods fronts on a busy corridor of walkers, bikers, transit and traffic. Customers eat at an elevated window counter, giving pedestrians a view of knees and shins. A few years later, in the next block, a new branch library fronts on the same corridor, a natural opportunity for an active and engaging entrance. Instead, we enter on a dark side street while the boring front facade offers nothing at eye level. Two wasted opportunities in two blocks. Maybe the next generation will fix that in fifty or a hundred years. As an update to its store, Whole Foods is building a bar that will open to semi-permanent seating on the sidewalk. We’ll see.)
Rule 94. Conduct a walkability study. An audit examines the categories of walkability, including safe, useful and comfortable.
Rule 102/103. (My rules, in addition to the ones from Jeff Speck.) Enforce the laws. No wheels on the sidewalk. Bikes and scooters belong in the street. Use the bike lanes. And the city needs to enforce the bus and no-parking zones. Flagrant violations happen all day long. Cones and flashers does not give trucks and cars the right to block these protected areas. ... Also, define no-parking zones and bus stops with yellow paint, a cheap, quick and easy eye-catcher.
“Read this book twice and you could be qualified for the planning commission.” — Jeff Speck
“The most relevant writer and thinker of his generation on the subject of city planning.” — Ron Bogle, American Architectural Foundation
Jeff Speck drew on the wisdom of many people and their books. Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives ... Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution ... Start-Up City: Inspiring Private and Public Entrepreneurship, Getting Projects Done, and Having Fun ... The High Cost of Free Parking ... Green Metropolis: What the City Can Teach the Country About True Sustainability
A note on style and design. Those two-letter postal codes belong on mail, not in running text, where we should use the abbreviation for each state. The postal code appears as a jarring upper case eye-catcher that distracts from the content. The style of this book formats each postal code this way: open parenthesis, the two upper-case letters, close parenthesis. (XX) One paragraph lists seventy-two places, with twenty-eight of the smaller cities taking postal codes.
Posting this on National Walking Day.
mil WALK ee
Walk.
It’s our middle name.
Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time is for readers, Speck says. Walkable City Rules is for doers.
A hundred and one rules here, each a two-page assertion supported by data and discussion. Ten years ago, we would have considered much of this book outlandish, Speck writes. But now these rules define achievable best practices in North America. Favorites:
Rule 7. Push for local schools. Schools belong in neighborhoods. In the sixties, half of all American children walked or biked to school. Now, twelve percent do. (I grew up in that half that walked to and from school.)
Rule 21/25. Redesign your bus network. In most cities, the bus serves as the public transit workhorse. A modern transit system provides frequent service in the dense areas. The modern model favors density of ridership rather than coverage of the area. In the next year or two, Milwaukee will launch its first network overhaul in a generation. https://www.ridemcts.com/programs/mct... … Do not mistake ride-sharing for transit. Ride-hailing services may reduce drunk driving but it is bad for traffic and transit. These services cannibalize the local transit system while keeping cars on the streets.
Rule 30. Open a street to pedestrians. State Street in Madison, a big college town, proves the success.
Rule 55. It is safer to concentrate cyclists on fewer routes where drivers expect to see them. Strength in number.
Rule 74. Keep signals simple. The ideal crossing signal for people who walk gives a head start of a few seconds before the drivers get a green light. New York City found that these light cycles reduced crashes and crash severity. Here, pedestrians may get a head start of a second or two.
Rule 78/79. Put trees everywhere. Trees protect sidewalks. They reduce crashes and shape the space. Street trees absorb stormwater, with a mature one drinking the first half inch of every rainfall. Trees absorb pollutants while reducing urban heat islands. … Space most urban trees thirty feet apart. Also, plant them in the median.
Rule 88. Make interesting places. The concept of an active facade requires a window or door every ten feet. The goal: Blur the distinction between shop and sidewalk. Nobody wants to walk for a minute past a dull facade. (But here we do just that where Whole Foods fronts on a busy corridor of walkers, bikers, transit and traffic. Customers eat at an elevated window counter, giving pedestrians a view of knees and shins. A few years later, in the next block, a new branch library fronts on the same corridor, a natural opportunity for an active and engaging entrance. Instead, we enter on a dark side street while the boring front facade offers nothing at eye level. Two wasted opportunities in two blocks. Maybe the next generation will fix that in fifty or a hundred years. As an update to its store, Whole Foods is building a bar that will open to semi-permanent seating on the sidewalk. We’ll see.)
Rule 94. Conduct a walkability study. An audit examines the categories of walkability, including safe, useful and comfortable.
Rule 102/103. (My rules, in addition to the ones from Jeff Speck.) Enforce the laws. No wheels on the sidewalk. Bikes and scooters belong in the street. Use the bike lanes. And the city needs to enforce the bus and no-parking zones. Flagrant violations happen all day long. Cones and flashers does not give trucks and cars the right to block these protected areas. ... Also, define no-parking zones and bus stops with yellow paint, a cheap, quick and easy eye-catcher.
“Read this book twice and you could be qualified for the planning commission.” — Jeff Speck
“The most relevant writer and thinker of his generation on the subject of city planning.” — Ron Bogle, American Architectural Foundation
Jeff Speck drew on the wisdom of many people and their books. Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives ... Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution ... Start-Up City: Inspiring Private and Public Entrepreneurship, Getting Projects Done, and Having Fun ... The High Cost of Free Parking ... Green Metropolis: What the City Can Teach the Country About True Sustainability
A note on style and design. Those two-letter postal codes belong on mail, not in running text, where we should use the abbreviation for each state. The postal code appears as a jarring upper case eye-catcher that distracts from the content. The style of this book formats each postal code this way: open parenthesis, the two upper-case letters, close parenthesis. (XX) One paragraph lists seventy-two places, with twenty-eight of the smaller cities taking postal codes.
Posting this on National Walking Day.
mil WALK ee
Walk.
It’s our middle name.
November 24, 2018
This was an impulse buy at the Boston Book Fair but a good one.
In another life I could have stayed at Tufts and enrolled in their Urban and Environmental Policy (UEP) graduate program and I could have ended up doing the sort of work Jeff Speck does for a living. It's an honorable profession and one that saves lives on many levels.
On this Thanksgiving weekend I faind myself very thankful that I live in one of the most walkable cities in America. However you define my city (Somerville, MA, the Camberville combo of Somerville and Cambridge, or the larger Boston area), the City has a tradition and base bones that encourage walking and an overlay of active citizens (especially college kids) who wouldn't accept it any other way.
All that said, it is amazing to me how many of the opportunities Speck mentions to make the city a healthier, more livable space I see still untaken. Reading this book really opens your eyes to the infrastructure around you. You understand more what the line markings and bike lines are trying to do (I found myself getting pissed at drivers so blatantly abusing road space). But you don't just see the new markings, you also begin to see the values and assumptions built into the roadscape and landscape. Even in 'liberal' Boston, the much greater value placed on the time and travel of relatively wealthy drivers over often poorer walkers or bicyclists is breath-taking.
I want to send copes of this book to the mayor(s) of my city. I want to tape the pages up in every highway department in the state. I want to thump it like an old-time preacher at a public meeting.
Because in so many ways, this is the future I want for my daughter and her peers. This is the start of the future we need to be building for them.
Near the end of the book, Speck extols the benefits of Tactical Urbanism - going forward with small steps in a private capacity to show your community that having wayfaring walking signs, or parklets, or even a main street cycle track won't cause traffic to snarl to a stop or the sky to fall. Speck praises these as indicative of the "productive impatience of Millennials". I love that phrase, and while I'm solidly a GenXer I hope I can get myself motivated to help in that productive impatience.
In another life I could have stayed at Tufts and enrolled in their Urban and Environmental Policy (UEP) graduate program and I could have ended up doing the sort of work Jeff Speck does for a living. It's an honorable profession and one that saves lives on many levels.
On this Thanksgiving weekend I faind myself very thankful that I live in one of the most walkable cities in America. However you define my city (Somerville, MA, the Camberville combo of Somerville and Cambridge, or the larger Boston area), the City has a tradition and base bones that encourage walking and an overlay of active citizens (especially college kids) who wouldn't accept it any other way.
All that said, it is amazing to me how many of the opportunities Speck mentions to make the city a healthier, more livable space I see still untaken. Reading this book really opens your eyes to the infrastructure around you. You understand more what the line markings and bike lines are trying to do (I found myself getting pissed at drivers so blatantly abusing road space). But you don't just see the new markings, you also begin to see the values and assumptions built into the roadscape and landscape. Even in 'liberal' Boston, the much greater value placed on the time and travel of relatively wealthy drivers over often poorer walkers or bicyclists is breath-taking.
I want to send copes of this book to the mayor(s) of my city. I want to tape the pages up in every highway department in the state. I want to thump it like an old-time preacher at a public meeting.
Because in so many ways, this is the future I want for my daughter and her peers. This is the start of the future we need to be building for them.
Near the end of the book, Speck extols the benefits of Tactical Urbanism - going forward with small steps in a private capacity to show your community that having wayfaring walking signs, or parklets, or even a main street cycle track won't cause traffic to snarl to a stop or the sky to fall. Speck praises these as indicative of the "productive impatience of Millennials". I love that phrase, and while I'm solidly a GenXer I hope I can get myself motivated to help in that productive impatience.
December 24, 2018
A few years ago, Jeff Speck wrote the excellent book "Walkable City", in which he explained that a walkable place is one where walking is useful, safe, comfortable and interesting.
What does this book add? Detail. For example:
*Instead of merely stating that cities can make walking useful by mixing uses, he suggests form-based codes that regulate building form instead of use, and suggests that cities accommodate children by placing playgrounds and parks "within a short walk of every household."
*Instead of merely urging cities to build more public transit, he suggests that cities create a Frequent Service Network for buses, and that buses in this network have extended hours. To make buses run faster, he suggests allowing "the bus to run in a dedicated lane, unimpeded by traffic."
What does this book add? Detail. For example:
*Instead of merely stating that cities can make walking useful by mixing uses, he suggests form-based codes that regulate building form instead of use, and suggests that cities accommodate children by placing playgrounds and parks "within a short walk of every household."
*Instead of merely urging cities to build more public transit, he suggests that cities create a Frequent Service Network for buses, and that buses in this network have extended hours. To make buses run faster, he suggests allowing "the bus to run in a dedicated lane, unimpeded by traffic."
April 25, 2024
This was a lovely city planning book. Its layout is more like a textbook than a novel, and that makes going back to read points of interest much easier. There are some lovely pictures that illustrate points further, though my one gripe is that some of them are diagrams or charts WITH NO KEY, so it's just random colors to the reader.
This book breaks down pretty complicated city planning concepts into small changes, with the context being how we in North America can fix our flawed cities. The author is also pretty sassy and has some great quotes, like, "Do our leaders not realize how much more traffic their limos would face if everybody stopped taking transit?"
10/10 would recommend to any person interested in city planning and walkable cities, from beginner to advanced. Jeff Speck gives some amazing advice on what to realistically advocate for in our cities, and how to make our communities change for the better!
This book breaks down pretty complicated city planning concepts into small changes, with the context being how we in North America can fix our flawed cities. The author is also pretty sassy and has some great quotes, like, "Do our leaders not realize how much more traffic their limos would face if everybody stopped taking transit?"
10/10 would recommend to any person interested in city planning and walkable cities, from beginner to advanced. Jeff Speck gives some amazing advice on what to realistically advocate for in our cities, and how to make our communities change for the better!
February 11, 2021
A really interesting book on urban city planning. In his book "Walkable City," Speck suggests that if you want a thriving city, you need to invest in walkability. In this book, he gives practical examples of how city planning can prioritize pedestrian activity over automobile activity. Instead of letting "speed and efficiency of driving" entirely direct city planning, he shows how creating a walkable environment can minimize traffic deaths and add to property value.
July 7, 2020
Ще одна з книг, яка дозволила чітко розставити по поличках деякі питання, які інтуітивно десь розумів, але чогось не вистачало.
Чому в європейських містах почуваєш себе затишно і чому там не набридає ходити пішки.
Чому в європейських містах почуваєш себе затишно і чому там не набридає ходити пішки.
April 15, 2024
This book made me feel like I could go out and fix my city. My confidence might be misplaced, but I'm feeling it anyways!
March 20, 2023
I WISH I BOUGHT THIS BOOK INSTEAD OF READING. so many great rules to help shape cities (in the short term of course). I love that this books states even though cats kill cities - we can’t elongate them. The US has spent the last 60 years building for cars and (sadly) a lot of communities are dependent on them. we have to work with what we have and make progress gradually. It’s going to be hard. It’s going to experience pushback, but our places are going to be better for it. Books like these make me fired up to learn urban planning and make communities safer, happier, and more livable
December 10, 2018
A great practical resource for officials and advocates who want to make their cities more walkable.
March 15, 2019
This is a hard one, because I enjoyed it, I agree with everything he said, but having just read his Walkable City, I found this book too similar to get too excited about. It's differentiation is apparently this would be a list of rules for implementing the findings in Walkable City, but I'm not a moron, so if I've learned that "large lanes are bad," it's not so hard to think up the rule "make smaller lanes," say.
If one hasn't read the earlier book, this is 5 star, brilliant, read it now stuff. If you've read the earlier book, this is 3 star, decent, but not worth going out of your way for it stuff. So I'm averaging to 4.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).
If one hasn't read the earlier book, this is 5 star, brilliant, read it now stuff. If you've read the earlier book, this is 3 star, decent, but not worth going out of your way for it stuff. So I'm averaging to 4.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).
April 17, 2019
Wow. Who would think that a book about traffic planning would be so good!!! I’ve been to walkable (Fayetteville AR, most of the UK) and totally NON walkable downtowns (East Point) and I saw the difference and the solutions on every page.
December 13, 2022
4.5 Stars!
“North America, along with much of the world, has been building and rebuilding its cities and towns quite badly for more than half a century. To do it properly would have been easy; we used to be great at it. But, like voting for president, just because something is easy to do does not mean that it will be done, or done well.”
I have yet to read “Walkable City” but I still got so much out of this highly compelling guide and I now really look forward to getting a hold of the predecessor sooner rather than later. Walking spaces should be useful, safe, comfortable and interesting, all of which seem fair and obvious enough, but of course the way most cities are laid out suggests otherwise.
Speck unlocks a lot of great ideas in here, like the benefit and impact of road diets on cities, and the importance of choosing porous options over dendritic sprawl in places. Angle parking is great (except beside cycle corridors, in which case they should resort to rear angle parking). Street trees provide huge benefits across many areas.
We also learn about the four different kinds of road flow- speed, free, slow and yield. We see that wider travel lanes, more travel lanes and faster travel lanes all lead inevitably to higher mortality rates on roads and yet they persist. Then there’s FQA, (Frontal Quality Assessment), locating anchors and creating sticky corners and energizing spaces, and we are told not to shy away from tactical urbanism and remember, never let a terrorist design your city.
“In 2013, Stockholm, with a similar population to Phoenix, lost six people to car crashes. Phoenix lost 167. Remarkably, Stockholm made it through 2016 without a single pedestrian or cyclist dying.”
This is largely due to the effect of Vision Zero, a Swedish approach to eliminating traffic deaths.
As drivers move more quickly, their cone of vision narrows, making crashes more likely, he adds that, “You are five times as likely to be killed by a car going 30 (mph) as a car going 20, and five times again as likely to be killed by a car going 40.”
“Most motorists are profoundly anti-social, and often even sociopathic. We are at our most selfish while driving, and often at our most aggressive.”
This book reminded me just how so much that has gone wrong and is wrong with the world in 2022 can be traced back to or embodied by the motor car. In many ways it’s the perfect embodiment of free market capitalism, aside from its appalling environmental impact it encourages and rewards selfish and reckless behaviour, and it often deludes and drugs us with speed, isolation and its gadget trickery into ideas of potency and invincibility, whilst disregarding the real world beyond its narrow confines.
“The larger your city’s biking population, the better off your city will be.”
The parts on Induced demand were really interesting too, like the frankly incredible cases of California’s 405 Freeway, when it was recently expanded at a cost of around $1.6 billion, it opened to congestion that was even worse than before. The same happened in Texas which at the cost of $2.8 billion to turn the Katy Freeway into “the world’s widest highway,” to reduce congestion, but within four years of completion, the morning commute was already taking 30% longer and the afternoon one was 55% longer than before construction.
So often this advice is delivered with deft economy and simplicity, we get clear solutions and smart ideas which allow us to view the city through new eyes, using so many transformative possibilities and read it with a new and potent language, so that we literally see the old in fresh and new ways and become more solution orientated rather than problem focused.
Of course like all good books this sparked an online search or two, chasing down digital breadcrumbs where I learned the difference between “sociofugal” (areas which minimise contact with other people) and “sociopetal” (spaces which bring people together) spaces, which apparently relate to the study of proxemics (the study of the human use of space). So this is a clean, crisp and concise guide which is far bigger than the sum of its parts and makes for good reading for outsiders and insiders alike.
“North America, along with much of the world, has been building and rebuilding its cities and towns quite badly for more than half a century. To do it properly would have been easy; we used to be great at it. But, like voting for president, just because something is easy to do does not mean that it will be done, or done well.”
I have yet to read “Walkable City” but I still got so much out of this highly compelling guide and I now really look forward to getting a hold of the predecessor sooner rather than later. Walking spaces should be useful, safe, comfortable and interesting, all of which seem fair and obvious enough, but of course the way most cities are laid out suggests otherwise.
Speck unlocks a lot of great ideas in here, like the benefit and impact of road diets on cities, and the importance of choosing porous options over dendritic sprawl in places. Angle parking is great (except beside cycle corridors, in which case they should resort to rear angle parking). Street trees provide huge benefits across many areas.
We also learn about the four different kinds of road flow- speed, free, slow and yield. We see that wider travel lanes, more travel lanes and faster travel lanes all lead inevitably to higher mortality rates on roads and yet they persist. Then there’s FQA, (Frontal Quality Assessment), locating anchors and creating sticky corners and energizing spaces, and we are told not to shy away from tactical urbanism and remember, never let a terrorist design your city.
“In 2013, Stockholm, with a similar population to Phoenix, lost six people to car crashes. Phoenix lost 167. Remarkably, Stockholm made it through 2016 without a single pedestrian or cyclist dying.”
This is largely due to the effect of Vision Zero, a Swedish approach to eliminating traffic deaths.
As drivers move more quickly, their cone of vision narrows, making crashes more likely, he adds that, “You are five times as likely to be killed by a car going 30 (mph) as a car going 20, and five times again as likely to be killed by a car going 40.”
“Most motorists are profoundly anti-social, and often even sociopathic. We are at our most selfish while driving, and often at our most aggressive.”
This book reminded me just how so much that has gone wrong and is wrong with the world in 2022 can be traced back to or embodied by the motor car. In many ways it’s the perfect embodiment of free market capitalism, aside from its appalling environmental impact it encourages and rewards selfish and reckless behaviour, and it often deludes and drugs us with speed, isolation and its gadget trickery into ideas of potency and invincibility, whilst disregarding the real world beyond its narrow confines.
“The larger your city’s biking population, the better off your city will be.”
The parts on Induced demand were really interesting too, like the frankly incredible cases of California’s 405 Freeway, when it was recently expanded at a cost of around $1.6 billion, it opened to congestion that was even worse than before. The same happened in Texas which at the cost of $2.8 billion to turn the Katy Freeway into “the world’s widest highway,” to reduce congestion, but within four years of completion, the morning commute was already taking 30% longer and the afternoon one was 55% longer than before construction.
So often this advice is delivered with deft economy and simplicity, we get clear solutions and smart ideas which allow us to view the city through new eyes, using so many transformative possibilities and read it with a new and potent language, so that we literally see the old in fresh and new ways and become more solution orientated rather than problem focused.
Of course like all good books this sparked an online search or two, chasing down digital breadcrumbs where I learned the difference between “sociofugal” (areas which minimise contact with other people) and “sociopetal” (spaces which bring people together) spaces, which apparently relate to the study of proxemics (the study of the human use of space). So this is a clean, crisp and concise guide which is far bigger than the sum of its parts and makes for good reading for outsiders and insiders alike.
April 1, 2024
As much as I like the different steps on how to make cities more walkable or better, at least half of the book was more so about roads. Though road diets, crosswalks, intersections, traffic flow, parking all leads into what make a road or street safe, it was more catered to downtown settings of cities.
As much as they talked about Canadian cities in the book, more so like a name drop, it didn’t really took some examples from some good Canadian Urbanism design that can be applied to US cities. Must because the book is a bit dated though some good aspects can be replicated . An gentle density through our city boundaries like Montreal, which is arguably the most walkable city in Canada and US, being more so heavily European influenced than Anglophone cities. With the start of a bicycle revolution in Montreal having many more lanes built, being better designed and implemented. It also has the cities littered with medium density leading to more bike or transit use, though with still high car usage but it did create wonderful neighborhoods not just encompassing around downtown.
Transit Malls could’ve been a good follow up to pedestrian streets, with also being another form of one. Having cars blocked off in certain streets it can enjoy a lot of thoroughfare of transit riders switching to different lines or passing through a zone of transit. Granville Street Mall in Vancouver and the King Street Priority Corridor as an example, though some other places in the US also have them. Surprised not much is said about transit as much as reform and pushing for streetcars, because it seems slight bus increase of frequencies are a game changer.
Also, there’s a weird motif of curbside parking being helpful for some rush hour commuters spending time in businesses and being still a facet of safety barrier for pedestrians. That can be solved by street and road redesign for speeding cars and intersection collision. Preferring travel lanes being taken away to be used for bike or transit lanes rather than both or parking lanes. It keep addressing the possibility of getting hit by a door from a parked car if beside while cycling, unless remedied only by just widening the bike lane. I think busy commercial streets can coexist with bike lanes and no parking like the Bloor Street bike lane project in Toronto; though that one is helped by a lot of intersecting bus or streetcar routes along the street which has a subway line running underneath.
Lastly, as much as beg buttons and some timed intersections are dangerous for pedestrian crossings why not have raised sidewalks? Same height as curbs, running like speed bump for cars, and usually nicely designated with signs and paint or lights which catches the driver’s attention and having to slow down or else running risk damaging the car other than hitting a pedestrian.
As much as they talked about Canadian cities in the book, more so like a name drop, it didn’t really took some examples from some good Canadian Urbanism design that can be applied to US cities. Must because the book is a bit dated though some good aspects can be replicated . An gentle density through our city boundaries like Montreal, which is arguably the most walkable city in Canada and US, being more so heavily European influenced than Anglophone cities. With the start of a bicycle revolution in Montreal having many more lanes built, being better designed and implemented. It also has the cities littered with medium density leading to more bike or transit use, though with still high car usage but it did create wonderful neighborhoods not just encompassing around downtown.
Transit Malls could’ve been a good follow up to pedestrian streets, with also being another form of one. Having cars blocked off in certain streets it can enjoy a lot of thoroughfare of transit riders switching to different lines or passing through a zone of transit. Granville Street Mall in Vancouver and the King Street Priority Corridor as an example, though some other places in the US also have them. Surprised not much is said about transit as much as reform and pushing for streetcars, because it seems slight bus increase of frequencies are a game changer.
Also, there’s a weird motif of curbside parking being helpful for some rush hour commuters spending time in businesses and being still a facet of safety barrier for pedestrians. That can be solved by street and road redesign for speeding cars and intersection collision. Preferring travel lanes being taken away to be used for bike or transit lanes rather than both or parking lanes. It keep addressing the possibility of getting hit by a door from a parked car if beside while cycling, unless remedied only by just widening the bike lane. I think busy commercial streets can coexist with bike lanes and no parking like the Bloor Street bike lane project in Toronto; though that one is helped by a lot of intersecting bus or streetcar routes along the street which has a subway line running underneath.
Lastly, as much as beg buttons and some timed intersections are dangerous for pedestrian crossings why not have raised sidewalks? Same height as curbs, running like speed bump for cars, and usually nicely designated with signs and paint or lights which catches the driver’s attention and having to slow down or else running risk damaging the car other than hitting a pedestrian.
July 31, 2022
This shorter book seems well suited for a member of a city council who has already bought off on the "walkable city" movement, but those who need convincing might been to hear more detailed arguments to the city redesign strategy. That's because many of rules (which, according to the author, are backed by numerous studies) in this book are counterintuitive to both citizens and urban designers from previous generations. Reduce congestion by removing road lanes? Increase safety by making roads narrower and eliminating bicycle helmet mandates?
I'm a supporter in what Speck is trying to accomplish, but I couldn't wrap my head around some of these counterintuitive claims, and the nature of the book prevents him from going into too much detail. I have a feeling that some of the "rules" will turn into "guidelines" upon further inspection, and won't be the panacea to some cities and certain configurations. For instance, much of the book is based on the idea that if cities become safe for pedestrians and cyclists, the number of pedestrians and cyclists will rise. However, my decision to "not walk" to a destination rarely has to do with safety, and much more to do with other factors: time, distance, the need to bring my family with me, the need to carry purchased items, poor weather conditions, etc. Of these factors, the book rarely mentions them, as if they are not true factors at all.
I specifically bring this up, because before I read the book I was curious how Speck would deal with pushing for cycling in non-touristy, not weather cities. The solution offered- that some buildings provide showers, does little good for most people, especially low income workers who are likely to use bikes but also are likely to work in fast food/ restaurants that do not have these facilities.
I like the cause but I wish the messaging wasn't as dogmatic.
I'm a supporter in what Speck is trying to accomplish, but I couldn't wrap my head around some of these counterintuitive claims, and the nature of the book prevents him from going into too much detail. I have a feeling that some of the "rules" will turn into "guidelines" upon further inspection, and won't be the panacea to some cities and certain configurations. For instance, much of the book is based on the idea that if cities become safe for pedestrians and cyclists, the number of pedestrians and cyclists will rise. However, my decision to "not walk" to a destination rarely has to do with safety, and much more to do with other factors: time, distance, the need to bring my family with me, the need to carry purchased items, poor weather conditions, etc. Of these factors, the book rarely mentions them, as if they are not true factors at all.
I specifically bring this up, because before I read the book I was curious how Speck would deal with pushing for cycling in non-touristy, not weather cities. The solution offered- that some buildings provide showers, does little good for most people, especially low income workers who are likely to use bikes but also are likely to work in fast food/ restaurants that do not have these facilities.
I like the cause but I wish the messaging wasn't as dogmatic.
January 1, 2020
Now here is a transportation nerd book that I can recommend to everyone. It is very visual and common sense, but also incorporates the best available research. If you read this and then look around your favorite and least favorite places you will see a whole set of reasons why. Each ‘reason’ is confined to two pages, so it is really just the top-level takeaways. But if every planner and civil engineer had this on their desk and every concerned citizen gave it a once-over, we would be able to make better transportation decisions for the places we want to make walkable.
2019 Reading Challenge Update
Book number: 34 / 41
Scorecard (see below):
W: 16/20
NW: 9/20
NA: 6/20
T: 6/8
F: 14
NF: 19
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Notes: I'm trying to read 41 books this year (one more than last year). To make sure I'm getting a broad range, I'm tracking some metrics. This year, I’m also picking a regional focus across both fiction and nonfiction. The last few years I’ve found that having several books on one theme or region enriched the experience because I got multiple perspectives. My goal is to read books that are: half by women, half not by white people, half by non-americans, and at least 8 that are regionally- and topically themed on asia, genocide, and / or the Khmer Rouge specifically, a topic I don’t feel I know enough about. I'll also go for about half fiction and half non-fiction, which I neglected last year.
2019 Reading Challenge Update
Book number: 34 / 41
Scorecard (see below):
W: 16/20
NW: 9/20
NA: 6/20
T: 6/8
F: 14
NF: 19
-------
Notes: I'm trying to read 41 books this year (one more than last year). To make sure I'm getting a broad range, I'm tracking some metrics. This year, I’m also picking a regional focus across both fiction and nonfiction. The last few years I’ve found that having several books on one theme or region enriched the experience because I got multiple perspectives. My goal is to read books that are: half by women, half not by white people, half by non-americans, and at least 8 that are regionally- and topically themed on asia, genocide, and / or the Khmer Rouge specifically, a topic I don’t feel I know enough about. I'll also go for about half fiction and half non-fiction, which I neglected last year.
May 30, 2021
Як на мене це книга "маст-рід" для тих, хто займається плануванням міст. Автомобілецентричність - це застарілий погляд на розвиток міст, якого на жаль продовжують ще дотримуватись чиновники. Люди ж хочуть в міському просторі зручності, безпеки та вражень. Саме ці категорії є тим, що стимулює міські економіки, дає розвит��к малому бізнесу, сфері будівництва, туризму тощо. Джефф Спек детально зупиняється у своїх "Правилах" на всіх аспектах міського планування від проектування міських доріг, місць для паркування, розвитку велоінфраструктури, громадського транспорту до озеленення, збереженння історичних будівель, створення пішохідних місць, додання місцям креативності тощо.
November 20, 2021
Incredibly practical, yet also sobering that in many ways, North American, car dependent cities are unable to actually accomplish the true vision. We've gone too far and wrecked our chances to become liveable, healthy, safe, people-first cities. But thankfully there is still hope for many downtowns, community nodes, and shopping districts to become walkable communities and pockets of beauty in our cities.
This is a must read to understand the well researched science of city planning. It will unveil the many shortcomings of our current urban realms and show the little ways we can make things so much better.
This is a must read to understand the well researched science of city planning. It will unveil the many shortcomings of our current urban realms and show the little ways we can make things so much better.
January 18, 2024
Read this in place of Walkable City, but I enjoyed this much more than I expected and found it quite thought-provoking. I must admit I’m relatively new to the urban planning space - I’m guessing some of the content might be old hat to some more well-versed, but I learned a lot as a newbie.
I really appreciated how this book very concretely laid out the principles of walkability and step by step broke down in a very methodical way how you might achieve that in a city.
It honestly gave me so much food for thought as I was reading it and made me so much more hyper conscious of the environment and suburbs around me - how the streets around myself are striped and designed, why certain spaces feel hostile as a pedestrian and why other areas feel so much more inviting.
I will admit at times the content does get pretty into the weeds for your average reader, but all in all, would highly recommend for someone that wants to better understand what goes into making an area walkable and wants a deeper perspective on the built environment around them.
Some interesting themes I took away from this:
• Why parking (how much is provided, where it goes, how much it should cost) is such a big deal
• How to structure incentives to promote walking and public transit and discourage driving
• How subtle things like street and lane design encourage or discourage certain driving patterns
• Why certain streets feel more comfortable / spark a sense of neighborliness and others don’t
• How to better design streets to make them safer, more inviting, more interesting
I really appreciated how this book very concretely laid out the principles of walkability and step by step broke down in a very methodical way how you might achieve that in a city.
It honestly gave me so much food for thought as I was reading it and made me so much more hyper conscious of the environment and suburbs around me - how the streets around myself are striped and designed, why certain spaces feel hostile as a pedestrian and why other areas feel so much more inviting.
I will admit at times the content does get pretty into the weeds for your average reader, but all in all, would highly recommend for someone that wants to better understand what goes into making an area walkable and wants a deeper perspective on the built environment around them.
Some interesting themes I took away from this:
• Why parking (how much is provided, where it goes, how much it should cost) is such a big deal
• How to structure incentives to promote walking and public transit and discourage driving
• How subtle things like street and lane design encourage or discourage certain driving patterns
• Why certain streets feel more comfortable / spark a sense of neighborliness and others don’t
• How to better design streets to make them safer, more inviting, more interesting
October 1, 2019
This is a highly valuable addendum to Speck's previous book "Walkable Cities." He sets each rule in discrete chunks, each only two pages long, allowing the reader/activist/gov't worker to isolate a problem and propose a solution. Some are small (the right way to plant trees). Some large (how to create a bike network). Some are more theoretical, but this latter case represents a very small minority. The vast majority of the book provides concrete tools and examples for creating more walkable cities.
April 7, 2023
I sometimes complain that Toronto is not as walkable as it can be. But then I read how bad cities in the US are, and I realize that, even though it isn't perfect, Toronto is heading in the right direction.
In 101 2-page rules, the author talks of best-in-class cities and suggests how cities can become human-size if we just put the effort (and money) to tackle the problem from the ground up.
In summary: reliable and quality public transit is better than cars, smaller streets are better for pedestrians, and, well, basically everything is better with fewer cars.
In 101 2-page rules, the author talks of best-in-class cities and suggests how cities can become human-size if we just put the effort (and money) to tackle the problem from the ground up.
In summary: reliable and quality public transit is better than cars, smaller streets are better for pedestrians, and, well, basically everything is better with fewer cars.
December 30, 2019
Builds off of Walkable City. If you felt inspired by that book, do not read this one. If you are reading this as a practitioner, you won’t find anything practicable to build your toolkit for for progress in infrastructure or changes in land use planning, policy. Mr. Speck often makes hyperbolic commentary which is neither useful in describing the 101 rules or how those rules effect long term change.
June 19, 2022
This is addictive reading because it's basically a book full of proven solutions to make our city environments safer and more hospitable to ourselves. Seems like a no-brainer, but we all know places where it never happens. Happily, he cites Des Moines as a good example of this several times throughout. Guess I'll stop rolling my eyes at how Fleur and Ingersoll have been under construction for a bajillion years.
December 22, 2018
Great stuff in here. I just wish it weren’t just “cities” in the title since that word alienates a lot of towns where improvements like these are needed. Worth a read and should be required reading for anyone who sits on a local zoning, planning, bicycle, disability, school, or transportation committee.
October 1, 2020
A copy of these well-researched, functional rules for designing a city for people rather than cars should be given to every mayor, city council and city planning office. He makes the case and gives the ammunition to combat misguided road and city design that has ruined most US cities since the 1970s for the benefit of the automobile industry and fossil fuel companies.
November 5, 2020
101 reasons why we should promote walkable city. This a good reference to counter any arguments that our cities are not capable to promote walkability and transit systems. I am going to study this rules over and over again in order to put down those are not wiling to change the bad urban planning and the ugly sprawls and low quality of life.
June 23, 2021
A practical application book, valuable for people interested in being urban planners, city engineers, architects, or urban politicians.
Walkable Cities may be a more interesting read for the casual urbanist citizen. I’ll have to check it out.
I give it four stars partly in spirit with Jeff Speck that everything is constantly being born again, so there is always room for improvement.
Walkable Cities may be a more interesting read for the casual urbanist citizen. I’ll have to check it out.
I give it four stars partly in spirit with Jeff Speck that everything is constantly being born again, so there is always room for improvement.
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