I have finally opened the book that I have been thinking of reading for months now – Walkable City by Jeff Speck.
Immediately, I have started to write down quotes that need to be shared.
From the Prologue:
1. The Planners were so wrong for so many years that now that they are right, they are mostly ignored.
2. Get walkability right and so much of the rest will follow.
3. … city engineers – worshiping the twin gods of Smooth Traffic and Ample Parking – have turned our downtowns into places that are easy to get to but not worth arriving at.
I’m going to dive further into this, but I’m already enjoying it. If you want to grab a copy, it is available on Amazon for a very reasonable price. Enjoy, I will give a review after I finish it… But that might not be for a year, so I suggest you just buy a copy and read it yourself.
Speck’s book is available at Pikes Peak Library too.
I just left a comment on your “Safe Routes to Schools” entry, then I scrolled down to this one. We had one small stroke of good fortune in battling the proposed loop road in that Jeff Speck was actually here in Albuquerque last week presenting a talk on some of his ideas. He graciously agreed to walk the campus with us and offer his insight. What a guy! A local blogger wrote up Speck’s suggestions. You might be interested in reading the article and seeing the sketches here: http://urbanabq.com/2013/08/19/jeff-speck-jefferson-middle-school-improving-a-problematic-proposal/