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How to Entice People to Walk:
| Make It Safe
We can create safe places to walk by:
* Designating space for people walking
* Making sure we have sidewalks to walk on that are clear of any obstacles
* Create crossings, signals, and signs that are bold and highly visible to drivers
* Slowing car traffic
* Designing our streets to be social gathering places
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| Make It Comfortable and Fun
If a walk isn’t comfortable or enjoyable for us, we’re simply not likely to walk. To create sidewalks and places that are comfortable and interesting we can design them in much the same way as we design our living rooms with places to sit, lighting, plants, and public art. In some cases we can reduce roadway, or do a road diet, to create more space for these needs.
As we do this it’s important to also remember to create shorter blocks with sufficiently wide sidewalks and place the entrances of buildings along the sidewalk. The scale of streets, sidewalks and buildings as well as the orientation of buildings makes a big difference. Scale and orientation can be specified as part of the city’s Community Plan or Specific Plan.
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| Connect People to the Places They Go
Also important in encouraging people to walk is making sure our sidewalks and streets actually connect people to the places they want to go.
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Some Pedestrian Facilities Include:
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| Connect the Transportation Network
This may seem like a redundant recommendation, but many transportation networks lack connections between walk routes, bicycle routes, and public transit lines. To encourage walking, all ways of getting around need to be connected to each other. This creates a variety of choices for us—the very thing that will encourage us to walk again.
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| Crosswalks
Crosswalks designate areas where pedestrians can cross directly and safely. Special crosswalk treatments can increase the visibility and safety of crosswalks; these include zebra-strip crosswalks, raised crosswalks, as well as special signalization, lighting and signage.
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 | Median Islands
Median islands allow pedestrians to rest in the middle of the street before crossing additional traffic lanes. Well-designed islands have been shown to greatly reduce chances of injury to pedestrians.
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 | Bulbouts
Bulbouts or curb extensions extend the sidewalk and narrow the roadway. This makes pedestrians safer by making the crossing distance shorter and by calming traffic.
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 | Traffic-Calming
There are various features that calm traffic, including bulbouts, speed bumps, chicanes, traffic circles and other similar features that reduce excessive car speed. |
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