Halloween Neighborhood Walkability Test

This is one of the best days to easily see whether a neighborhood is walker-friendly.

Can kids easily spend an hour or more walking from home to home, or do parents have to drive them from place to place?

Can they easily cross the streets, or does it feel dangerous?

Does it feel pleasant and safe to be walking around?

Does it feel like there are "windows on the street," with people inside homes well knit into the fabric of the streetscape? Or are kids mostly see blank walls or big garage doors as they walk in the neighborhood?

If you run out of candy while it's still light out, could you send a middle-schooler out on foot to buy some more?

Could kids walk home from school in costume and trick or treat on the way?

If local stores were giving out candy, could kids easily walk from store to store?

Major Study Outlines How Toronto Can Be More Pedestrian and Bike Friendly

“Toronto is just starting to exchange its ‘car is king’ model for a more mixed mobility culture that includes pedestrianism,” the University of Toronto's Paul Hess, a geography professor, tells the school's news service. However, “So far, pedestrian issues have been left largely unaddressed by existing planning mechanisms.”

Hess co-authored a recently released study, Toronto Streets Report, investigating why road engineering "has such a powerful effect on how Toronto manages its streets while pedestrianism has so little." The conclusion, which I'm sure applies to many other communities as well:

"Toronto is talking about a new vision for its streets but the tools to achieve it are missing. The new vision wants more people out of their cars, on public transit, on foot and bikes. But almost all the institutional mechanisms for making and changing streets in light of those ideals are geared to an older vision, one primarily oriented toward moving cars, not to the new ones. There is little money to work with so creative solutions are needed."

Among the study's recommendations: The city needs a process to "work on the trade-off problem [between goals of moving as much vehicular traffic as possible and making streets more appealing for walkers, cyclists and public transit users] right away" and investigate how to work toward "equity" in designing and maintaining streets.

The study is worth a browse by any planning official who wants to work toward more bike- and pedestrian-friendly streets Until core design and maintenance processes change and planners take a hard look at competing goals, true pedestrian-appealing streetscapes will remain elusive.

Natick Visions of the Future Weekend

This Friday, October 27, 2006, Anthony Flint will speak at the Wilson Middle School in Natick, to kick off Natick's "Visions for the Future Weekend." Mr. Flint is author of "This Land: The Battle over Sprawl and the Future of America." Refreshments begin at 6:30 p.m., and Mr. Flint speaks at 7:30.

Those who live in Natick are invited to sign up for a workshop on Saturday or Sunday to provide their input on the future of Natick. The workshops are part of the process known as "Natick 360," which will develop a Long Range Strategic Plan for the Town of Natick. Get more information at: http://natick360.org/

Building Around a Transit Station: Lesson For Framingham in NorthPoint?

Yesterday's Globe story about the massive NorthPoint development in east Cambridge featured a gorgeous drawing of a new "glass-and-steel NorthPoint at Lechmere Green Line stop, the focal point of a transit-oriented development in East Cambridge." Alas, the drawing isn't posted online along with the story, but it's worth taking a look if you get the paper.

The point here is that developers are shelling out big bucks for "a sleek new $70 million MBTA station on NorthPoint property." The drawing shows an attractive, glass-enclosed station offering a great view while shielding commuters from the elements. From the picture, it certainly appears like a place that you wouldn't mind spending (too much) time in.

Truly successful "transit-oriented development" means more than building apartments or condos within a mile of a grungy train station, with unimproved, pedestrian-hostile streetscapes in between. If you want to attract people to this kind of living, it requires serious investments in an aesthetically pleasing, walker-enticing environment.

Along with new residential and commercial space and a 10-acre park, NorthPoint plans also call for "construction of a street grid for the area ... and a pedestrian-friendly reconfiguring of the adjacent O'Brien Highway," the Globe explains. "The new road network includes an extension of First Street from East Cambridge across O'Brien Highway and north through NorthPoint, passing by the location of the new T station. It will be NorthPoint's Main Street."

Too Busy to Sit Down For Lunch

One of the more depressing "American lifestyle" stories I read this week was the Globe's piece about workers who no longer stop to eat lunch during the day.

"One-third of employees skip lunch weekly, mostly to work, and when we do eat out, it's -- no surprise -- fast food, according to Mintel, a Chicago market research firm," writes Maggie Jackson in yesterday's BostonWorks section. "We also multitask like crazy at lunchtime: 46 percent of workers run errands, 43 percent work, and 47 percent read or watch TV while eating. ...[S]topping and pausing are not part of most people's noontime vocabulary."

Does anyone take things like this into account when we try to measure "standard of living," and talk about quality of life?

A well-prepared, well presented meal eaten with tranquility and full attention is one way to savor a civilized life.

I've become a firm believer that how we eat almost as important as what we eat, in terms of both health and weight control.