Planning for people who — gasp! — walk

When regional transportation officials gather, the conversation tends to revolve around how to get large
numbers of commuters from their homes to their jobs on increasingly crowded highways. But 80 percent of
the time when people walk out of their front doors, they aren’t headed to work. They’re taking the kids to
school, going to the grocery store to shop, headed for a movie or a local park.

Sacramento Bee

Is there a better way to get them to work and all those other places? Should they always have to drive? Can
we build communities that invite people to walk to shopping areas or to bike to their neighborhood park or
stroll downtown?

We can. We should. And maybe we will.

For the first time ever, the Sacramento region’s Metropolitan Transportation Plan, the blueprint for
transportation spending for the next quarter-century, proposes to spend money to promote just such
communities. The plan includes $400 million to help residents plan ways to make their neighborhoods more
walkable, bikeable and transit- friendly.

A telephone survey of residents from the six-county region found 75 percent support for using 15 percent of
transportation funds on such things as sidewalks and pathways to make walking more attractive; the
redevelopment of vacant or rundown properties in existing urban areas instead of building on the suburban
edge; concentrating future housing and jobs near light rail and bus stops. These are exactly the kinds of
projects the community design funds are meant to finance.

Spending transportation funds to make communities walkable, bikeable and transit-friendly could get a boost
from the state if the Legislature approves SB 1262 by Sen. Tom Torlakson. That measure would set aside 10
percent of state transportation funds provided to counties that promote developments that cut down on
congestion by among other things building housing within walking distance of schools, shops and offices.

The message from the public to transportation planners is the same. People want to be able to leave the car
in the garage sometimes and walk, take light rail or bike. More transportation funds need to be spent making
that happen. The new regional transportation plan is on the right track — or sidewalk.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/1893349p-2000101c.html