These Streets Were Made for Walking

Watch urban planner Jeff Speck discuss the four tenets of walkability, in order to call attention to the literally growing problem of sprawl in our cities:

1) there needs to be a reason to walk, 2) the walk has to be safe, 3) comfortable, and 4) interesting. Typical cities are designed around car use, but with tweaks like narrowing car lane size and reducing lanes, adding bike lanes and street parking, as well as widening sidewalks, cities can become not only more walkable, but much safer and more liveable. Besides, sprawl is an obstacle in the social dimension of cities, too; as Speck points out, being walkable is an essential factor for building communities. 

Video via TED.co