We will start by asking why walkability is desirable: most communities support the concept of walkability as a matter of course, but this commitment can waver in the face of countervailing pressures from entrenched interests. You will learn the most powerful economic, public-health, social, and environmental arguments for making a sustained investment in walking, biking, and transit.

The central segment of the program will focus in great depth on the following ten strategies for making better places: Put Cars in Their Place; Mix the Uses; Get Parking Right; Let Transit Work; Protect the Pedestrian; Welcome Bikes; Shape the Spaces; Plant Trees; Make Friendly and Unique Faces; and Pick Your Winners.

Jeff Speck has completed more than 20 Walkability Studies over the past 20 years and will show you how to develop such plans in your communities.

Finally, you will get some hands-on experience. After an always-popular lecture on the role of the municipal planner, George Proakis—former Somerville chief planner and Watertown City Manager—will join Jeff and lead a tour of recent planning successes in Somerville before bringing the class to Watertown Square, the heart of his community. Recently the subject of a public design process, the Square will become the focus of an afternoon mini-charrette. Participant teams will be asked to design potential solutions using the walkability principles they have learned.

The program also includes an optional tour of walkable Boston neighborhoods, led by Jeff Speck, following the first day’s session. The walking tours focus on Jeff Speck’s four steps of walkability: the Useful, Safe, Comfortable, and Interesting Walk.

• Explain the economic, public-health, and environmental rationale for investing in walking, biking, and transit.
• Apply The Ten Steps of Walkability to evaluate streets, districts, and communities.
• Conduct or scope a Walkability Study for your community.
• Brainstorm and charrette the redevelopment of Watertown Square – a community hub currently undergoing redevelopment.

Design professionals, engineers, developers, community leaders, and public officials.

This program includes guided, outdoor walking activities in Cambridge, Somerville, and Watertown. Participants should be prepared for extended periods of walking (or rolling). 

Please contact our office if you are interested in this program and may require assistance.

The central segment of the course will focus in great depth on the following ten strategies for making better places:

• Put Cars in Their Place: Equitable planning around the automobile.
• Mix the Uses: Strategies for getting more housing downtown.
• Get Parking Right: The wisdom of Donald Shoup.
• Let Transit Work: Creating transit riders by choice.
• Protect the Pedestrian: All the details that embody the Safe Walk.
• Welcome Bikes: Current best practices in cycle networks.
• Shape the Spaces: The role of figural space.
• Plant Trees: Monetizing the manifold benefits of street trees.
• Make Friendly and Unique Faces: Active facades and the role of architects.
• Pick Your Winners: Urban Triage as a technique for expanding success.