We assume millennials prefer walkability and urban living for all the right reasons: social cohesion and community, better access to entertainment, services, and jobs. So why do we assume that older Americans and senior citizens, who also value connectivity, community, and healthy living, wouldn’t prefer the same living arrangement?
Thank you Montgomery County Department of Transportation for paving this dirt trail by Pike and Rose! Our Pike District Pedestrian Safety Campaign is getting results because advocacy works…and because the White Flint area truly wants walking in our community to be safe and convenient.
Jay Corablis, Friends of White Flint board member, stands by our #PikePeds sign next to the dirt path that’s getting paved.…
Comments Off on “Walkability” vs. “Ability to Walk”
In relation to many of the discussions from our Friends of White Flint meeting last night, I want to discuss the important elements that define walkability. Many of our residents, local business owners, and property owners and developers are concerned about the walkability of the White Flint sector, which is essential to the success of this sector.…
Comments Off on White Flint Helps Boost Region’s Walkability Rating
A recent study has looked at 558 walkable urban places within the 30 largest metropolitan areas in the United States and has found that the Washington region is at the top of the list! Rankings were determined by looking at how many of these walkable urban places were located within each metropolitan area, as well as how many retail and offices spaces were concentrated within. …
Comments Off on If We Design for Walkability, Will You Actually Walk?
The new street and sidewalk grid that is coming to the White Flint district will bring many positive features to our area. The grid is designed around the beneficial walkability elements that we hope to encourage residents to follow throughout the region. These development projects and road projects use various walkability strategies that work for many areas across the world but the success of the new White Flint district really comes down to the question of whether people will actually walk or bike around the new projects, sidewalks, and bike lanes being built.…
Comments Off on The Power of Walkability: A Town’s Million Pound Loss
TED Talks recently released a video from April 2013 of Mick Cornett, the mayor of Oklahoma City, discussing the healthy transformation his city recently experienced. Mayor Cornett speaks about how his city, once named by Men’s Health Magazine as one of the fattest cities in America, was able to lose a collective million pounds through the use of a few strategies.…
Comments Off on Walkability Can Help Fight Childhood Obesity
We’ve talked about the benefits of making White Flint more walkable, and less car-oriented, for several different populations: for young adults, for seniors, and for young families. Why not close the loop and show that this international trend does, in fact, benefit everyone?
The Atlantic Cities recently published a report highlighting how suburban sprawl is a factor contributing to childhood obesity. …
We’ve written before aboutWalk Score, which quantifies how walkable streets and cities are. Now, you may be able to see how walkable different places are with the new phone app Walkonomics.
Walkonomics was created by UK resident Adam Davies, who rates walkability based on 8 factors: road safety, ease of crossing the street, quality of pavement/sidewalks, hilliness, ease of navigation, fear of crime, the beauty of the street and if a street is “fun and relaxing.”
The Walkonomics app was just recently released, and, probably owing to its UK origins, we couldn’t find too much information on the streets around us.…
Comments Off on Massachusetts Choosing Walkability
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick recently announced an initiative that will move his state toward the concepts of New Urbanism by encouraging walkability, sustainability and being more people-centered. Learn more at the below link from The Atlantic Cities: