Want to Walk More? Move to a Walkable City

A view of Jefferson Street looking south. Photo courtesy of Cathedral Square Friends.

Every day at The Overhead Wire we sort through over 1,500 news items about cities and share the best ones with our email list. Each week, we take some of the most popular stories and share them with Urban Milwaukee readers. They are national (or international) links, sometimes entertaining and sometimes absurd, but hopefully useful.

Fastraks likely won’t be completed as advertised: The 2004 ballot measure that funded a region wide light and commuter rail network in the Denver region won’t be completed says the Chairman of the transit agency’s board. 78 miles of rail have been completed as part of the expansion but there are noticeable absences to the original plan including a line to Boulder. The agency is not allowed to borrow money under state law and doesn’t not have available resources to complete the lines, but partnering with the state on a Front Range rail line could be a solution. (Tony Gorman and Rae Solomon | Colorado Public Radio)

Social housing tax more than anticipated: A tax meant to raise money for social housing in Seattle has generated twice the expected revenue. $115m has been raised by a tax on incomes over $1m and will be used to purchase existing housing stock and build new homes as well. The social housing agency plans to acquire more than 800 units and build 600 more by 2031. (Erica C. Barnett | PubliCola)

Colorado renters get equity: A program called Renter Rewards created by the passage of an affordable housing ballot measure in 2022 is kicking off in Colorado. Developers who wish to participate in the program get low interest loans from the state to build housing and the returns that would usually go to banks or developers get returned to renters. Renter Rewards allows tenants to build their own equity if they pay rent on time and get cash back rewards and matches for creating savings. (Dees Stribling | Multi-Housing News)

Utah looks to preempt Salt Lake City street safety: A new bill making its way through the Utah legislature looks to make Salt Lake City do extra work to prove that bike lanes are working as intended and not “impeding” cars. The bill would also force the city to adhere to building less safe lane widths at 11 feet and would require stakeholder engagement to remove parking spaces. Advocates believe the bill would be a way for well connected people to get crucial traffic safety improvements removed. (Kea Wilson | Streetsblog USA)

Moving to walkable cities increases walking: Using smartphone data related to 2 million people, researchers found that moving to a walkable city increased steps per day by 1,100. The steps also were at a faster pace and amounted to 11 minutes of extra walking which can boost health. People that moved between equally walkable areas didn’t increase their counts suggesting that the built environment influences people’s behaviors. (Eve Lu | Scientific American)

Quote of the Day

The idea that you can conceive of a city that addresses all the ills of the current city is philosophically a wonderful goal. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to understand why most new towns are not very good.

–Richard Peiser, a professor of real estate development at Harvard who co-directs the New Towns Initiative, in the New York Times discussing the idea of new cities.

This week on the Talking Headways Podcast, we’re joined by Dr. Lawrence Frank to talk about how the built environment and the way we get around connect to public health outcomes.

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