Advocacy

Accessory dwelling units or apartments. Mother-in-law-suites. Granny flats. These are all different terms to describe small, freestanding cottages, repurposed garages, or small sheds. Their small size (usually around 500 square feet) makes them perfect those looking for affordable housing in a dense, walkable neighborhood.

According to urban planner Jeff Speck, “when driving is too cheap, roads get too crowded. When parking is too cheap, parking gets too crowded. And when people park too much, a bunch of bad things happen: people circle in search of spots; they double park; or they get frustrated and drive back home without shopping. Next time, they drive to the mall instead."

About 35 percent of all land area downtown is currently devoted to parking...Places that lack spatial definition make pedestrians feel unsafe, and walkability suffers.

In theory, the area around Douglas and Hillside should be one of Wichita’s most walkable.

There are 1,103 bus stops in Wichita. More than 84 percent of them do not have benches. Consequently, riders, who sometimes have to wait over an hour for their bus to come, have to stand the entire time. Such conditions impact the transit experience and undermine the walkability of Wichita.

Is Kellogg as valuable as its continuous investment and repair seems? If it isn’t, then “tear down a highway,” as urban planner Jeff Speck recommends in his book, Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places.

Resist the desire to create extensive, centralized facilities and locate playgrounds within a quarter-mile of all households. Kids can walk to play with their friends. Parents are free from the obligation of driving them to soccer or football games. “Recreational facilities belong in neighborhoods,” concludes Speck.

Wichita’s City Commissioners in the 1920s had an idea, one shared by many other city leaders across the nation. Wichita was going to create a zoning ordinance. It was a decision that would profoundly impact the city’s walkability.

Ugly strip malls and endless parking lots were being constructed, impacting farmland and water quality across the county. Core neighborhoods such as Delano suffered as a result.

Cities should understand that “schools belong in neighborhoods,” argues Speck, and “locate them to be walkable and resist the urge to consolidate them into large facilities.”

“Save those buildings,” argues urban planner Jeff Speck in Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Places Better. Against a landscape of “increasing homogeneity, it is principally a community’s prewar buildings that serve to distinguish it from everywhere else and make it worth visiting,” he argues.

Steps to Making Better Places, argues that lanes should be narrowed to no more than ten feet. The portion between the Arkansas River to Main Street is 85 feet across, and Washington to Hydraulic is only slightly narrower.[6] Such wide roads impact a city’s walkability.

A new paid parking plan has been introduced in downtown Wichita. To a certain extent, urban planner Jeff Speck would agree with it. “Price parking based on its value,” Speck argues in Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places.

When workers are forced to pay for parking themselves, a practice known as decoupling, the share of employees driving to work falls by 25 percent.

We do this through Participation, Advocacy, Collaboration, and Education (PACE). These four pillars guide how we engage with the community, shape our programs, and inform how we push for progress.

“Revert multilane one-ways to two-way for safety,” argues urban planner Jeff Speck in Walkability City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places.[2] One-way, like First or Second, appears safe, Speck notes, because there are fewer chances for head-on collisions.

“Revert multilane one-ways to two-way for safety,” argues urban planner Jeff Speck in Walkability City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places.[2] One-way, like First or Second, appears safe, Speck notes, because there are fewer chances for head-on collisions.

Bike Walk Wichita to launch Walkable Wednesdays, a new blog series exploring what makes a city truly walkable—and how Wichita can rise to the challenge.