Click on this link to view the pdf of my report.
Slower internet connection? View this low resolution version instead.

Raw notes from each workshop and presentation are still posted under the “notes from walk21” category of this website. Under “notes“, I’ve posted interesting quotes I found while cross-referencing.

If you have any questions, I’d be happy to talk with you about what I learned at this outstanding, very informative and inspiring conference.

Issues of universal accessibility, visions and philosophy for streets as public spaces were discussed.

Previously posted notes related to this conference can be found under the category notes from walk21.

BREAKOUT SESSION: DON’T LEAVE ME OUT – PROGRESS IN THE UK

Carol Thomas, UK
Shared Space – Safe Space: Meeting the Requirements of Blind and Partially Sighted People in a Shared Space

Shared space (pedestrian priority street – pedestrians and cars share space) is good but shared surface (no curb on the sidewalk) is dangerous for people who are sight impaired. Blind people want and need a curb. It provides a safe area that they can use with a consistent sense of safety.

Even when creating shared space, don’t take away the delineation of vehicle versus pedestrian space – safe zones are still needed.

Jim Walker, The Access Company
Transport for London

/* “Local Accessibility Schemes” was offered as a standards guide addressing key barriers to access and a range of measures and standards. tfl.gov.uk was provided as a reference source, but when I searched that site, then the internet, I couldn’t find it.
*/

Are you designing with people with disabilities or designing for them?
• locomotion
• seeing
• hearing
• reaching, stretching, dexterity
• learning disability

/* jargon alert: “deprivation” is the word they use in describing the data they have collected on where people with disabilities are living and where their need for services is.
*/

The presenter talked about his experience making the Jubilee Walk in London more accessible. The route was established by the queen to commemorate her silver jubilee. It connects major cultural and heritage institutions in London.

One challenge was to create interpretative panels to describe and explain the view from different spots. Many different materials, layouts and textures were tested to find out what would work best for people with any of the above noted disabilities; e.g. brail, engraved or embossed images, etc.

“Walky Talky” is a program to be implemented this year that allows pedestrians to phone a special number that describes the space, tells stories or provides background information about the site or view.

Some reference resources he suggested:
Dogrose-trust.org.uk
tfl.gov.uk/walking
jubileewalkway.com
theaccesscompany.com

PLENARY

Pier Giorgio Di Cicco
Phenomenological thoughts on pedestrianism, the body, and the city, and the importance of recovering our geo-physical relationship with the land

Toronto’s poet laureate provided an overview of the whole conference with highlights, common themes and wizened observations. The following phrases were from that speech.

Leave a footprint of delight. Good things start with smiles.

Don’t close the roads, open the streets.

TS Eliot – “a study of anatomy will not teach you how to make a hen lay eggs.”

“Sustainability is about replenishing an ethic of entitlement with an ethic of sufficiency.”

“The enemy is the absence of civic communion.” A city’s reason for being is closeness. “The enemy is the zeitgeist of withdrawal.”

“Anonymity is as toxic to the heart as hydrocarbons are to the environment.”

Create a public forum for encounter. If people take delight in each other, they will leave a footprint of delight.

PLENARY: NEXT STEPS TO BUILDING SUCCESSFUL COMMUNITY

Brad Graham, Assistant Deputy Minister, Ontario Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal

“Density without design is disaster.”

!! There is an excellent example of engaging youth in community planning in Ontario. A youth design charette was held in developing the Ontario Growth Plan.

Tim Pharaoh, Consultant, Llewellyn Davies Yeang

He recommended looking up Manual for Streets from the dft.gov.uk website. He talked about the need for “context sensitive design.”

Litigation fears are founded and are a good excuse for not being innovative.

Road hierarchies should be scrapped; use social function terminology instead.

Streets should be viewed as social spaces reflecting local distinctiveness, created using quality materials and plantings.

Discussed are ways for making cities more walkable.

Previously posted notes related to this conference can be found under the catagory notes from walk21.

PLENARY SESSION
Todd Litman, Transport Economist; Director, Victoria Transport Policy Institute
/* excellent speaker!! */

Numerous benefits of walkable streets, including community cohesion, and money stays in the neighbourhood. Also, health and less need for parking.

Planners and public officials are burdened with creating ‘paradise’ – the idea that is it a distant place that you go to – you need lots of highways to get there and parking when you get there, which is a contradiction of paradise.

Growth is bringing bigger development, but is it getting better, is the community getting better for it?

The goal should be mobility – movement accessibility – being able to get services, goods and activities.

The number of cars (or is it car trips?) has leveled off after years of steady, dramatic increase. It appears that the novelty of auto use has worn off. The past was about quantity, the future is about quality of transportation. The past is not the future.

Wheeled luggage is the greatest transportation breakthrough. It allows older people or people with mobility challenges to travel more freely without requiring assistance. This is a good example of how modest incremental improvement makes a big difference.

Currently, there is a lot of talk about cars from a pollution and energy source perspective, but if we all drove electric cars, we would not solve our transportation problems.

Sustainable planning is to planning is like preventative medicine is to medicine.

How can we squeeze more happiness out of each unit of consumption? Our culture treats everything as a marketable commodity – health, safety, security – but not everything is a commodity. Increased happiness is not necessarily created with increased material wealth. In fact, the research shows that, after a certain point where survival is no longer a question, the opposite can be true.

“Reductionist planning” results in one solution that creates more problems. Focusing on one problem only, at the expense of all others, risks simply shifting the problem or making things worse in a different way.

“Comprehensive planning” results in win-win solutions. Look for the ideas that solve multiple problems. Look for the problems that might be created incidentally and mitigate or prevent those within the solution.

Traffic deaths go down in smart-growth communities – they are safer.

/* note to self: find out more about “economics of congestion values”
*/

“Promoting walkability is no more anti-car than a healthy diet is anti-food.”

/* note to self: check out the Victoria Transport Institute’s website – vtpi.org
*/

PLENARY SESSION
Catherine O’Brien – The School of Education, Health and Wellness, Cape Breton University
Sustainable Happiness

Research had focused on the negative – mental illness – but they are now looking at the positive – happiness.

• Happiness is an indicator of health and longevity.
• People who are happy seek out and act on health information.
• It is now known that happiness can be taught.
• Happy people tend to be less materialistic and environmentally conscious.

Relationships are critical to happiness. It involves a feeling of engagement.

/* jargon alert: “subjective well-being” = happiness */

StatsCan found that cyclists and walkers are more likely to enjoy their commute.

Advertisers have picked up on happiness research. They are using it to market their products. They suggest that buying a certain car will make the customer happy.

“Sustainable happiness is the pursuit of happiness that does not exploit the happiness of other people.

We need “positive transportation.”

–

In response to a question from the audience (I didn’t note what it was, now I’ve forgotten) Todd Litman replied, “The challenge is to create affordable housing that is not simply discounted because it is so undesirable.”

BREAKOUT SESSION: ROUTES FOR ALL OCCASSIONS

Ole Thorson, Spain
Urban Walking Routes in Barcelona

Standards for supporting walkability:
1. Recommended 3m sidewalk width without obstacles, minimum 2m
2. Pedestrian crossings as straight and direct as possible
3. Visibility between pedestrians and vehicles
4. Way-finding

Robert Stopnicki, City of Toronto
If You Let Them, They Will Walk: The Story of the Rolling Stones Concert in Toronto, 2003

The manager who was responsible for coordinating spectator transportation for the Rolling Stones concert in Toronto talked about what he learned during the planning and from the event.

• People prefer to walk an unencumbered, conflict-free route
• It needs to be obvious where to go
• People would rather walk a long way to a vehicles and leave quickly than sit in a vehicle waiting to get out.

For the concert, all surrounding roads were closed to traffic except transit.

Decision-making was decentralized. Task groups were able to respond to issues without working through a remote chain of command.

The spectator’s perception of the success of logistics of large events is measured by their egress, not access.

Large groups are willing to walk significant distances if routes are clear and direct.

Agile communications help to deal with problems.

Stefan van der Spek, Delft University, Netherlands
Spatial Metro: Strategies to Improve City Centres for Pedestrians

Spatial metro is a strategy to improve city centres for pedestrians.

• routing
• intersections
• signage

1. activities
2. physical condition
3. guidance
4. use

1. pavement
2. landscaping
3. façade rhythm

/* note to self: check out the website for Spatial Metro.
Also, Technical University of Delft’s website on Spatial Metro and a powerpoint presentation on a Spatial Metro project
*/

Thematic route maps (eg. A folded map for locating businesses) might not be effective because they don’t serve mixed needs and cross purposes. For example, someone might be going shopping but would also be interested in cultural points.

Even if there’s only one small thing wrong, people won’t use the route. It might not be a conscious decision, but people will choose to not use the route.

Information must be available at the point of arrival. It should include information about the city, transportation, activities and way-finding. It should use a system of information points and routing orientation. They should be placed at the beginning, along the way, and at the main destination. Maps should be dedicated to each location – facing the direction that the viewer is standing when viewing the map.

A pedestrian map could indicate the entrances to buildings to help the pedestrian orient themselves or plan their route. A participant noted that the entrance could/should indicate whether the entrance is accessible to someone using a mobility aid.

/* note to self: check out urbanism.nl – Technical Universtity of Delft’s website on Urbanism
*/

BREAKOUT SESSION: LIVABLE STREETS – WHERE ARE WE NOW?

Bruce Appleyard, USA
Shared Streets and Spaces: 25 Years of Livable Streets

His father wrote a classic public realm planning book titled Livable Streets. He continues the legacy by promoting his father’s ideas.

• Clear and distinct gateways celebrate entering a neighbourhood.
• Remove curbs
• Provide parking, but minimal parking
• Ensure clear sightlines
• Create outdoor ‘living rooms’
• Passing bays to allow for cars to pass one another on narrow residential streets
• Have no more than 100 vehicles per hour during peak play period.

Daniel Sauter, Zurich Switzerland
Livable Streets and Social Inclusion: A Tale of Three City Neighbourhoods

“Encounter zones” or “wonerfs” are streets with 20km/h maximum speed and priority for pedestrians and children’s play.

!! Research shows that, on interaction between neighbours, the influence of street structure is more important than social structure of the neighbourhood.

Details are important.

Creating pedestrian zones has no detrimental effect on property values. But mix of housing types is needed to ensure no negative impact.

What would happen if we allocated resources and money based on time spent? That is, in relation to how much time we actually spent driving?

/* note to self: look up the Manual for Streets – book of standards for the UK.
Also, the UK Department for Transport page for “sustainable travel” and UK Department for Transport’s advice to local authorities for encouraging walking
*/

–

A participant asked whether parked cars might have as detrimental an effect on the level of inclusion and number of contacts on a street as passing cars. Sauter agreed that there may be, but when I asked him about it later, he said that no research has been done yet to determine if this is true.

/* for tips on creating school walking routes, check out bikewalk.org – the National Center for Bicycling and Walking’s website and Creating Walkable Communities: A Guide for Local Governments
*/

As streets became wider, they became less safe. Drivers are more careful in streets with diverse uses.

The incidence of fatality goes up 8 times from an increase in vehicle speed from 20m/h or 30m/h on a street.

Discussed are the need for getting citizens involved in creating walkable spaces, ways of measuring the walkability of a place and making it more walkable, and reasons why that’s not only good for our health but also the local economy.

Previously posted notes related to this conference can be found under the catagory notes from walk21.

PLENARY: WALKABILITY ROADSHOW AS A BEST PRACTICES TOOL

Bronwen Thornton, Walk21 Development Director

Public toilets and benches are essential for creating a walkable street. It makes it accessible to people of all ages and abilities.

PLENARY: IMPLEMENTING BEST PRACTICE

Daniel Egan, Pedestrian and Cycling Infrastructure, City of Toronto
Priority for Public Process

1. Involve citizens at each step
2. Place pedestrians at the top of the hierarchy
3. Narrow the streets, widen the sidewalks

Link the goal of walkability with existing programs. Show how being walkable advances or complements other initiatives.

Take the risk of implementing pilot projects and test projects. If there is an idea that sounds like it has potential but doesn’t have a precedent, try it. Even if it fails or doesn’t work as expected, it can be used as a learning experience. It also seemed that he was suggesting that creating change, even if temporary, makes a public space more dynamic, and might encourage dialogue and inspire ideas for its potential, for the possibilities of what it could become.

Graham A. Vincent, Director of Transportation Planning, Regional District of Waterloo

Pedestrians are the primary indicator of quality of life and vibrancy in a city.

Cities can achieve big impact for marginal cost, eg. street trees.

Integrate networks and connect diverse activity nodes. Clustering uses in a walkable environment makes using public transit to, from or between those nodes a reasonable option.

Build sidewalks. People are much less likely to walk in areas without connecting sidewalks.

Facilitate more events. They foster the idea of walking and a sense of neighbourhiness and community spirit.

Most cities have basic urban plans. Finish the urban design guidelines and use those to create standards for engineers. Have the design inform the engineering decisions so there have a model or direction to follow.

Use integrated land use planning. The impacts development plans on transportation systems and walkability must be fully thought out and incorporated into the plans.

Some people will sometimes walk for the sake of walking, but to get more people walking often, they need to have somewhere to walk to.

Paul Baskcomb, Department of Growth and Development, City of Greater Sudbury

To plan a more walkable community, 65 people participated in a day-long workshop including councillors, local health agencies, provincial agencies, etc.

The city issued a walking challenge to its citizens and distributed pedometers.

/* Note to self: google Bogota Colombia to learn more about transportation planning focused on pedestrian and bicycle networks
*/

David Anderson, Mayor, Town of Minto

Develop a checklist for planners and politicians – key components of walkability. This will help make it very clear and easy to assess how well a proposal supports the goal of a great walkable community.

BREAKOUT SESSION: WALKABILITY ASSESSMENT – TECHNIQUES AND APPLICATIONS

Miles Tight, Leeds University
Techniques for Assessing the Walkability of the Pedestrian Environment

Public priority was measured for elements or traits that make them feel comfortable or discouraged from walking.
• Cleanliness (dog evidence)
• Safe
• Lighting
• Cyclists
• Connectivity
• Greenery
• Building facing sidewalk

One of the methods they used in the public consultation process was to present hypothetical choices to test stated priorities.

It is more important to improve the quality of the current walking experience instead of just quantity – improve the experience for the people already walking.

Chanam Lee, Texas A&M University
Walkability and Economic Value

Their research shows that the grocery store is the top destination for people walking. The number of markets within a certain distance is related to that local population’s consumption of fruit and vegetables

/* Note to self: google the “Seattle WBC Survey”
http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/docs/pmp/Urban_Sustainability_Seattle_WEB_Jul.pdf
http://gis.esri.com/library/userconf/proc05/papers/pap1040.pdf
http://www.activelivingresearch.org/alr/files/JPAH_6_Lee.pdf
*/

Often the reason for low rates of walking is there is “nowhere to go.”

The benefits of designing attractive and inviting places is reflected property values. Their research considered the strip mall. Shopping centres with a varied roofline have higher improvement values for property assessment.

/* Note to self: google Active Living By Design
http://www.activelivingbydesign.org/
*/

BREAKOUT SESSION: BETTER URBAN DESIGN FOR MORE WALKING

Tim Pharaoh (UK)

Successful streets are streets with people. Streets do not have to be well designed to attract people. Good urban design, good architecture by itself does not attract people. Poor mix of uses means activity will be limited to a particular time of day.

The most important consideration is CONTEXT!! Consider the culture of the local community and area layout – urban grid and connectivity, and competing locations.

1. Sufficient population (residents or visitors)
2. Street network makes it possible to walk – connected, facilities grouped together
3. Streets designed for people to walk in
  a. Connected
  b. Convenient
  c. Comfortable
  d. Conspicuous – clear to see where you’re going
  e. Convivial, friendly

The street is primary – don’t believe otherwise … but discourage car-dominated streets. Use tighter turning circles, low speed design, and design buildings with front doors on the street.

4. People present
  a. Mixed use
  b. Work where they shop

5. People not being in vehicles – get them out of their cars

People make 3 trips per day on average. The challenge is to increase dual or multiple modality.

London had a population of 8 million people before cars. They used walking, busses, rail, etc… even in the suburbs.

With pedestrians, a street gets a greater presence of people. With vehicles, people are just passing through.

It is said that we build it because that’s what people want… “that’s complete rubbish”

It’s harder to get places built that are good for walking than to not build places not walkable. It’s easier for developers to design to the accepted engineering standards because it’s faster – less planning time and less risk in the approvals process. This discourages innovative design.

From a pedestrian perspective, “roundabouts are the worst English export”

Leo (I didn’t catch his last name) – Toronto

Toronto is working to make 50s suburbs, such as Don Mills, pedestrian friendly by changing the pattern of network roads and walkways. Definition is often lost in suburbs due to large spaces between buildings. They have reworked street grid with landowners and ratepayer groups.

Line the edges of open spaces with active uses. This will bring people, activity, and safety to those spaces.

His advice is to find ways to increase the fineness of the network grain.

Sohyun Park, Seoul Korea

Walking in a Historic Residential Neighbourhood in Seoul Korea: A Different Perspective
Research was done to compare the walkability of historic and traditional neighbourhoods in Korea and North America.

Higher density, more mixed uses and more connectivity creates a more walkable environment which results in more walking. This is true of the neo-traditional neighbourhoods in North America [my word; she simply called it “traditional”, but the pictures showed new, modern high density podium and tower neighbourhoods].

How does this compare to the historic Seoul neighbourhood? Bukchon is the study example. They used 17 measurable “walkability indicators.”

Researchers were very surprised to find the historic neighbourhood less walkable than modern highrise neighbourhoods. Though the modern neighbourhood actually measured more walkable, there is a strong preference for historic streetscapes. The main influences on rates of walking were topography and density of intersections.

Where do they go? It’s different by age; grocery, bus stops, local commercial street.

More serious consideration for seniors is needed.

Mothers of children walk more in the traditional neighbourhoods.

The argument against doing something about climate change is always that it would be too expensive and would harm the economy. But, what is the cost of not doing anything?

But nature doesn’t care about the costs. “Economics is of no relevance to the issue of the biosphere.”

For obesity and diabetes, the best medicine is to walk.

This is the defining moment of humans as a species. Foresight is the great ability of humans.

Human beings have become so powerful, we’ve been undermining the very things that keep us alive.

Economics is a set of values posed as science. It considers the environment as an “externality”.

Imagine a test tube full of a growth medium. A single bacteria is dropped in. After one minute, the cell divides – there are now two bacteria. This happens each minute, so as a result, the population doubles each minute. There is 60 minutes worth of medium in the test tube. At the 59th minute, the test tube is only 50% full of bacteria. At the 58th minute, it’s 25% full; with only 3 minutes left, the tube is just 12.5% full. Imagine, with only 3 minutes before the bacteria completely exhausted the resources that sustains their life, one of them figures this out and tells the others. The response might have been laughter. They could have dismissed the warning; “look at all this space and food we have around us.” But what if they recognized the danger and they are so smart that they figure out a way to create new worlds for them to live in – 3 new test tubes, so they now have four test tubes in which to stretch and live. At the 61st minute, two tubes would be full. And after one more minute, all four test tubes would be full with no food remaining.

Our population has been doubling over our specie’s existence. In his lifetime, the Earth’s population has grown from 2 billion to 6 billion. If humans were the bacteria and the test tube is the Earth, we are now at 59+half minutes. “We are in the 59th minute.”

With the way we’re living now, the pace at which we’re using and losing our natural resources, the volumes of pollution we’re creating with the consequences we’re already experiencing, could the Earth accommodate twice as many of us and still provide the quality of life we expect?

Councillor Bill Saundercook, City of Toronto
Toronto sees walking as a key piece of their climate change strategy. It’s also healthy, creates vitality, and is good for the economy.

A walkable city is a happy city.

A walkable city is welcoming to both visitors and residents – it’s good for tourism.

Rodney Tolley, Walk21 Director
“Champions of healthy sustainable, efficient communities… walkers are the indicators of quality of life.”

Gary Welsh, General Manager of Transportation for Toronto
Reorganize sidewalks so pedestrians get priority.

In a side conversation before the workshop began, I spoke with the presenter, Fred Kent, about the PPS presentations I had already attended and his work helping Surrey improve the public spaces in Whalley. He said he knew White Rock. He stayed at the Ocean Promenade on Marine Drive while he was working in Surrey. He was impressed with much of the waterfront. However, I thought it was interesting that, when here, he wondered if there was more further out… more than the waterfront. He didn’t know there was an uptown area.

Following are some of my notes from the workshop.

–

People in the community create a sense of place. How do you facilitate it?

He enjoys working with librarians. They seem to have a great interest in creating great public spaces. Libraries are gathering places, sources of knowledge.

Transportation systems are the strongest influence on public spaces.

What would happen if a city had 10 places, each with 10 things to do? “Amenities to make a place are critical.”

Traffic engineer Hans Monderman says, “you can’t have anything less than excellence.”

“Traffic is a social problem, not a design problem.” – Mental Speedbumps

Good public spaces need intrigue, uncertainty and humour – also from Mental Speedbumps.

“Here the road allows us to be oppressive and the oppression of others increases aggression” – Kent

Another participant and Kent commented on how frustrating it is to be spending lots of money on traffic calming trying to get people to slow down in their own neighbourhood, to not tear through their own neighbourhood.

He explained that, often, problems were created by transportation engineers by answering a question that is only concerned, or primarily concerned with accommodating vehicle traffic. “You don’t solve transportation problems with transportation professionals.”

He later said that the time to bring in transportation engineers is after it is known what type of street is desired and have them work as part of a comprehensive design team.

“Iconically designed public spaces that no one wants to use” are a problem. Success is a sense of neighbourliness.

If you plan for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic.

**Note to self: check out Richard Louv**

Over the past 30 years, the radius of children’s play area has shrunk – this is the “antithesis of progress”.

A plaza needs active edge uses. “Blank walls are an end in themselves. They declare supremacy of the building over the person” – William H. Whyte

Involve the community upfront to define the problem, define the space.

“Ignore the parking because parking is a symptom.”

Focus on the details, the “nooks and crannies.”

Signal to drivers that they are entering a pedestrian priority area – that the use is changing – through signage, bike lanes, sidewalk changes, etc. It will result in changes in driver behaviour.

“Parks and public spaces are essential to a city’s happiness.”
**Note to self: check out Enriques of Bogata**

Cities should be more open to testing things, being innovative, trying on ideas temporarily.

Use parks and recreation programming to get people back into the streets.

Parks are not just open spaces, they are gathering places – active gathering places.

Parks need to reach out beyond their boundaries.

The Octopus card in Hong Kong is a transit payment card that can also be used to purchase newspapers and coffee. The convenience of multiple uses encourages public transit use.

**Question to self: what would happen if we had a full time librarian but no library?**

Public parks could have commercial use – more uses in parks gets parks more use, creates more activity, give reason to be there and stay. Most parks now seem to have “shallow use”. The ‘no commercial’ ideology is not working.

–

We took a walking tour of several Toronto streets, two parks, and a few lanes. How the spaces were being used, the weaknesses and opportunities of each were discussed. One thing that was very interesting to me is how dramatic it could be from one block to the next, and especially that the perfect places (meticulously designed and manicured) were the boring streets (and devoid of people).

Sometime soon I will post pictures of some of these spaces.

–

Power of 10:
• A downtown needs 10+ major places/destinations
• Each neighbourhood needs 10+ places/destinations
• Each place/destination must have 10+ things to do

Suggestions:
• Layer uses to create synergies
• Connect places to create a district
• A district needs 100-1000 things to do
• Things/events need to happen simultaneously (I think he actually meant to say “consecutively”) and over time
**Note to self: google Peckham library**

When asked about the significance of the number 10, he admitted that it was arbitrary. He picked it simply to provide a benchmark goal.

Government should not be running (programming) public spaces. Parks events should have funding streams that goes on and on – stable funding and management – not subject to political whims or shifting funding priorities.

This appears to be a contradiction from what they said earlier encouraging City programming to create activity in public spaces. From the context of the conversation, I am assuming that he is now talking about large, significant, recurring festivals and public events.

“Happiness is the ultimate goal.”

Transit needs destinations – routes that are focused on connecting places or destinations – to help shift transportation away from cars.

–

It’s about process. This is about NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING!!

Throughout the day, they repeatedly talked about process – that you can’t assume a solution that worked somewhere else will work the same way here, or start with a particular design goal in mind – that the solution depends entirely on the context, the problem and context is best defined by the local businesses or residents or people who use the space, and that the solution should also be found through a process of consultation. They weren’t advocating any particular design treatment or method, but rather a public consultation strategy for finding urban design solutions.

“Developers will do what we ask them to do. But we don’t ask them to do enough because we’re scared they’ll go away.”