Status
Available
Publication
New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, c2012.
Description
Jeff Speck has dedicated his career to determining what makes cities thrive. And he has boiled it down to one key factor: walkability. The very idea of a modern metropolis evokes visions of bustling sidewalks, vital mass transit, and a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly urban core. But in the typical American city, the car is still king, and downtown is a place that's easy to drive to but often not worth arriving at. Making walkability happen is relatively easy and cheap; seeing exactly what needs to be done is the trick. In this essential new book, Speck reveals the invisible workings of the city, how simple decisions have cascading effects, and how we can all make the right choices for our communities. Bursting with sharp observations and real-world examples, giving key insight into what urban planners actually do and how places can and do change, Walkable City lays out a practical, necessary, and eminently achievable vision of how to make our normal American cities great again.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Othemts
A city planner by trade, Speck is aware of what works and doesn't work in creating and maintaining thriving metropolises. He blames many of his fellow planners for the big mistakes of repeatedly designing cities for the swift movement of cars and then for places to park those cars, destroying the
The Useful Walk
Step 1. Put Cars in Their Place.
Step 2. Mix the Uses.
Step 3. Get the Parking Right.
Step 4. Let Transit Work.
The Safe Walk
Step 5. Protect the Pedestrian.
Step 6. Welcome Bikes.
The Comfortable Walk
Step 7. Shape the Spaces.
Step 8. Plant Trees.
The Interesting Walk
Step 9. Make Friendly and Unique Faces.
Step 10. Pick Your Winners.
I read a lot of books about urbanism, city planning, walking, and bicycling (and against the prioritizing of automobiles), so I'm the proverbial choir being preached too. Speck's book clearly states the advantages of his model to everyone, and enunciates the steps in getting to that point. For these reasons, this is the book I'd hand to an automobile-focused doubter to read and think it would have a great chance of making an impression.
Favorite Passages:
“The General Theory of Walkability explains how, to be favored, a walk has to satisfy four main conditions: it must be useful, safe, comfortable, and interesting. Each of these qualities is essential and none alone is sufficient. Useful means that most aspects of daily life are located close at hand and organized in a way that walking serves them well. Safe means that the street has been designed to give pedestrians a fighting chance against being hit by automobiles; they must not only be safe but feel safe, which is even tougher to satisfy. Comfortable means that buildings and landscape shape urban streets into ‘outdoor living rooms,’ in contrast to wide-open spaces, which usually fail to attract pedestrians. Interesting means that sidewalks are lined by unique buildings with friendly faces and that signs of humanity abound.”
“Since midcentury, whether intentionally or by accident, most American cities have effectively become no-walking zones. In the absence of any larger vision or mandate, city engineers—worshipping the twin gods of Smooth Traffic and Ample Parking—have turned our downtowns into places that are easy to get to but not worth arriving at.”
“Engineers design streets for speeds well above the posted limit, so that speeding drivers will be safe—a practice that, of course, causes the very speeding it hopes to protect against.”
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city in the process. The obvious solution is to make the city more "walkable" but many efforts to design cities as a place to walk have failed as well, often due to their half-hearted nature or lack of understanding of what makes a city walkable. To address this, Speck created a ten step list (cited in its entirety below) with each chapter describing the facets involved in creating truly walkable city.The Useful Walk
Step 1. Put Cars in Their Place.
Step 2. Mix the Uses.
Step 3. Get the Parking Right.
Step 4. Let Transit Work.
The Safe Walk
Step 5. Protect the Pedestrian.
Step 6. Welcome Bikes.
The Comfortable Walk
Step 7. Shape the Spaces.
Step 8. Plant Trees.
The Interesting Walk
Step 9. Make Friendly and Unique Faces.
Step 10. Pick Your Winners.
I read a lot of books about urbanism, city planning, walking, and bicycling (and against the prioritizing of automobiles), so I'm the proverbial choir being preached too. Speck's book clearly states the advantages of his model to everyone, and enunciates the steps in getting to that point. For these reasons, this is the book I'd hand to an automobile-focused doubter to read and think it would have a great chance of making an impression.
Favorite Passages:
“The General Theory of Walkability explains how, to be favored, a walk has to satisfy four main conditions: it must be useful, safe, comfortable, and interesting. Each of these qualities is essential and none alone is sufficient. Useful means that most aspects of daily life are located close at hand and organized in a way that walking serves them well. Safe means that the street has been designed to give pedestrians a fighting chance against being hit by automobiles; they must not only be safe but feel safe, which is even tougher to satisfy. Comfortable means that buildings and landscape shape urban streets into ‘outdoor living rooms,’ in contrast to wide-open spaces, which usually fail to attract pedestrians. Interesting means that sidewalks are lined by unique buildings with friendly faces and that signs of humanity abound.”
“Since midcentury, whether intentionally or by accident, most American cities have effectively become no-walking zones. In the absence of any larger vision or mandate, city engineers—worshipping the twin gods of Smooth Traffic and Ample Parking—have turned our downtowns into places that are easy to get to but not worth arriving at.”
“Engineers design streets for speeds well above the posted limit, so that speeding drivers will be safe—a practice that, of course, causes the very speeding it hopes to protect against.”
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LibraryThing member lindap69
While the title is not, this is definitely an inspirational book as we look to make our cities more liveable as our natural resources diminish. I was amazed at the variety of ways this can happen. Speck includes a substantial amount of data and actual examples to prove his points.
LibraryThing member snash
Being a city walker in a walkable city, I loved this book. Now as I walk, I can see the various impacts that he describes. The studies that he cites are fascinating. I only hope it becomes an inspirational guidebook for many cities helping to overcome the multitude of bad decisions made by narrow
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"experts. Show Less
LibraryThing member bzromine
Jeff Speck's Walkable City is an accessible look at American urban planning practices over the previous decades and the largely car-friendly cities they have produced. It also offers a prescription for moving away from auto-centricity to pedestrian, bike and transit supportive cities.
Speck argues
As someone who is not a student of urban planning, it's hard to judge how revolutionary Speck's ideas are and how much opposition exists to their implementation. Based on living in Pittsburgh - which I consider a far cry from a pedestrian / transit friendly city - it seems like Speck's ideas are making some headway in revitalizing, urban centers. I hope this is a trend that continues as more young people choose to make this city their home.
Walkable City is probably best suited for those a novice understanding of urban planning. I learned some interesting things - how fears of traffic congestion are often overblown (but have powerful sway over city planners), how confusing streets are often the safest and how making improvements to already walkable neighborhoods is generally more productive than trying to rehab lost causes - but never felt bogged down by jargon. Overall, Walkable City is a well argued, enjoyable and generally humble look at how we can make our urban spaces safer and more enjoyable for everyone.
Speck argues
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that Millennials - the demographic to which I sometimes begrudgingly belong - are more interested in urban life and less interested in owning vehicles than preceding generations. In my case, this is an accurate assessment. Speck offers 10 suggestions for making cities friendlier for non-drivers. His ideas range from having scaled rates for parking - and fewer parking spaces - to planting trees along roadways to slow driving speeds and keep pedestrians safe.As someone who is not a student of urban planning, it's hard to judge how revolutionary Speck's ideas are and how much opposition exists to their implementation. Based on living in Pittsburgh - which I consider a far cry from a pedestrian / transit friendly city - it seems like Speck's ideas are making some headway in revitalizing, urban centers. I hope this is a trend that continues as more young people choose to make this city their home.
Walkable City is probably best suited for those a novice understanding of urban planning. I learned some interesting things - how fears of traffic congestion are often overblown (but have powerful sway over city planners), how confusing streets are often the safest and how making improvements to already walkable neighborhoods is generally more productive than trying to rehab lost causes - but never felt bogged down by jargon. Overall, Walkable City is a well argued, enjoyable and generally humble look at how we can make our urban spaces safer and more enjoyable for everyone.
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LibraryThing member Figgles
Eminently readable manifesto for reviving not just American cities by making them cities for people not cars. This one pushed all my buttons - cyclist, pedestrian, public transport user, greenie, art and architecture nerd - but you don't have to be all those things to learn from this book. If we
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want to save the planet and boost the economy we need to remake our towns and cities on a human scale. Jeff Speck doesn't just say what needs to be done he says why, and backs it up with reference to research and case studies. Which may sound dull, but this book is very readable and also laugh out loud funny. A must read for everyone who can influence design of their urban and suburban spaces - but in particular Mayors. (I suspect my Mayor may already have read this). I bought this at a Lecture by the author and also recommend following him on Twitter @JeffSpeckAICP. Show Less
LibraryThing member 2wonderY
I browsed this just because I like to think about environmental design. Speck came up with some interesting data. He claims that a 50 minute commute translates into an emotional cost equal to $16,000 a year. He doesn't tell where that comes from, but that about sums up my current situation. My
His discussion of the details is fascinating, and he provides many examples from cities all over the globe.
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office moved that distance, and my connections to my community have been all but severed because of it. His discussion of the details is fascinating, and he provides many examples from cities all over the globe.
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LibraryThing member Chris.Bulin
This was more amusing and informative than I expected. I am seriously considering getting a copy for each of our city council members.
LibraryThing member ashleytylerjohn
Really like this one--I'm on an urban-planning kick, and to a certain extent some books are running into others--but Speck's background (he's worked with Duany and Plater-Zyberk) and his focus on real, specific suggestions for improving cities, kept this book humming along.
I've learned so many
This sort of sensible, data-driven, obvious-when-pointed-out information permeates the pages. Greatly recommended.
(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).
I've learned so many
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things that I'd never even considered before, an example would be his suggestion that metered street parking be priced high enough that it's only ever around 85% full--because if too cheap, too many people will opt to drive, not find anywhere to park, and drive around and around, circling, until finally they luck into a spot (one study showed that after 6:00pm, in their particular city the vast majority of traffic downtown consisted of hopeful parkers circling, which is self-evidentally a horrid unenvironmental practice).This sort of sensible, data-driven, obvious-when-pointed-out information permeates the pages. Greatly recommended.
(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).
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LibraryThing member Andjhostet
This is a really good book that tied into the other city planning books I've read this year.
There are 10 steps in creating walkable cities. They are all explained in the book really well, and the expanded edition I read further explained and updated a lot of them.
1. Put cars in their place.
2. Mix
3. Get the parking right.
4. Let transit work.
5. Protect the pedestrian.
6. Welcome bikes.
7. Shape the spaces.
8. Plant trees.
9. Make friendly and unique faces.
10. Pick your winners.
There are 10 steps in creating walkable cities. They are all explained in the book really well, and the expanded edition I read further explained and updated a lot of them.
1. Put cars in their place.
2. Mix
Show More
the uses3. Get the parking right.
4. Let transit work.
5. Protect the pedestrian.
6. Welcome bikes.
7. Shape the spaces.
8. Plant trees.
9. Make friendly and unique faces.
10. Pick your winners.
Show Less