In three weeks TCW will host Eric Fredericks from Sacramento, CA to come to Troy for a workshop and evening presentation as part of our second annual summer speakers series.   As someone who lives for environmental planning, to spend a day chatting with colleagues about walkability is my idea of good time, but why should you be interested?  And just what is “walkability” anyway?

The definition of walkability is just how friendly is an area to walking-how easy is it to get around to things without being dependent on a car.  The Walkable and Livable Communities Institute has a good page on what is  (see our links).  It can include such things as having good connections between shops, parks, and residential areas, to looking at car speeds and volume of traffic.  People like to have a stroll in a place where they feel safe and where they feel connected to a community.  Improving walkability can go hand in hand with such varied things as economic development (ie filled storefronts make people want to walk on by and look inside) to rails to trails conversations (walk from your home to the bike path). 

As gas costs continue to hover around the $3 per gallon mark here and, not withstanding terrible oil spills, will likely to stay there or increase, people are looking at new ways to get around.  Walking is just one of those ways (cycling, carpooling, and more people working flex hours or from home are other ways to reduce gas consumption).  But walkability does so much more than just ease the pocketbook.  When you walk around your home, you notice things you wouldn’t in a car.  When you walk in your hometown, you might say Hi to someone,  you might stop into a shop you’ve never been to before, and you just might stop and smell the flowers your neighbor just planted.  All of those things contribute to making our community a safer and stronger place to be.

I’m really looking forward to having Eric come back to Troy to speak about walkability and I think you will enjoy his presentation too.  Mark your calendars for May 25 at 7pm and look to this website & blog for more details.  The next few weeks I’ll try to post other blog topics about walkability.