Will and Won’t

Stemming from the last Houston Reimagined post: “West Gray Streetcar,” there has been a lot of discussion about walking in Houston. I thought I’d add a few of my thoughts on the subject along with a few photos from a trip that I walked today.

Today my wife and I went to the Houston Zoo. By the way, if you haven’t been, you should. It’s really great! Not only is Houston’s Zoo quite nice, Hermann Park is a fantastic urban park, a truly vital space in the heart of our community.

To get there, I walked from my place at Hadley and Bagby, down Bagby Street to McGowen, and down McGowen to the light rail station at Main St. These are some of the sidewalks you’ll see along the way:

As you can see the conditions vary widely from point to point along the route. Up and down Bagby you have some pretty good sidewalks and buffering from traffic. You’ve also got a pretty nice mix of residences and retailers, and most of the buildings are at least partially oriented toward the street. There aren’t any full-block parking lots, and, honestly, the CVS at Bagby and Gray is probably the most anti-urban building in the area, which is to say that even the worst block isn’t that bad.

McGowen is a different story. That street has some great sidewalk space (around Walgreen’s, for instance), lots of average sidewalks (in front of the newer strip malls), and some downright dreadful sidewalks (like those between Milam and Main).

Now, my contention is that most people in Houston will walk single-digit block distances without complaining too much. If you get into double digits, most people think it’s too far. I’ve told people before, “let’s walk to the train station, it’s about 8 blocks,” and their reaction is, “woah, that’s a long walk!” I’ve told other people, “let’s just walk to the train station, it takes less than 10 minutes and it’s a lot easier than messing with parking.” That gets a more positive reaction usually. It seems that as you get to about 10 blocks distance people think “that’s pretty far.” If you phrase it as time rather than distance, people usually think 10-15 minutes (which is probably more like 12-18 blocks depending on who is walking) is reasonable, and longer than that is “far.”

In my experience, however, once you’re actually walking, people quickly get tired of it if you’re walking on broken old sidewalks or no sidewalks at all. They’ll almost immediately ask “are you sure we shouldn’t just drive?” But on nice sidewalks, especially when there’s retail opening on to the street and other people out walking, most people will go longer distances without noticing.

The real issue here is perception, not distance. Kevin Whited from BlogHouston pointed this out in his comments on the West Gray Streetcar feature. So the question is, what can you do about the perception that walking is either unsafe, impractical, or that things are ‘too far’.

Well, for starters, you can fix the sidewalks.  Fortunately, McGowen is recognized as a vital transit connection and will get reworked sidewalks in the same style as the improvements on Elgin street. The street and sidewalks will be under re-construction very soon. There should be more of that investment all over Houston. Sidewalks are part of the public right-of-way, and are equally important as traffic lanes. Of course, plenty of Houston’s traffic lanes aren’t in great shape either.

After that, the buildings make a big difference. In the best walking environments the buildings are built up to the sidewalk and have storefronts. Non-retail uses should have pedestrian oriented entries and windows. Residences should be built up a half-level and have stoops. These details make a big difference in creating a street front where people feel they belong, and therefore feel that it’s appropriate to walk. These design details could be incorporated into Houston’s existing ordinances very easily if the political will was there to do it. More on that some other time…

Finally, even if you significantly improve the built environment, you’d still need to promote walking. The city could play a role here, hosting events like “Summer Streets” in New York.

Local merchants could also play a particularly vital role, offering special deals and discounts to customers who arrive without using a parking space. In the end, though, it comes down to word-of-mouth from neighbor to neighbor.

So, if you want to see Houston become a more pedestrian-oriented city, start by finding a nice place to walk to, and then invite your friends to walk there with you. When they protest, tell them to try it “just this once.” I do this a lot, when friends are over at my place and we want to go someplace in the area, I suggest we walk. Sometimes people protest, but they’ll usually agree to try it once. I’m always surprised at how many people, having walked to a nearby store or restaurant for the first time, comment to me, “I’m glad you made me walk with you. I didn’t realize how close things were, and I never would have done that on my own. This was nice, and maybe even more practical than driving.”