Walkable Communities

A client recently thanked me for the link to Walkscore because they hope to buy in an area that encourages walking. High energy costs are making Americans think twice about rampant development, and they want their communities to be less dependent on cars. The National Association of Realtors and Smart Growth America recently conducted a survey of 1000 U.S. adults. Asked to select the best ways to reduce energy use, more than 80 percent said that they favor building communities so that people can walk more, and the same percentage preferred redeveloping existing areas to building new ones. In a similar vein, 75% said that the cure for escalating traffic problems isn't more roads, but walkable communities and more public transit choices.
On the heels of the survey comes an engaging new book by Chris Leinberger...The Option of Urbanism:Investing in a New American Dream. He talks about the growing demand for walkable communities, and describes the zoning and other policy changes we would need to get there.