The Walking Economy: What You Need To Know
Until the early 20th century, American cities were designed for pedestrians.
Then, the invention of the automobile changed everything.
Before the automobile, people either lived and worked in the city or lived and worked on a farm in the countryside. Essentially everything required to live — employment, food, friends and family — was located within walking distance.
The University of Colorado Boulder’s “History of the Automobile” shows just how much society’s living patterns changed in a matter of decades. Beginning in the 1910s, automobiles began to dominate American streets, providing car owners with a previously unprecedented level of geographic flexibility. During World War II, a shortage of motors, fuel, and tires led to low automobile availability and a brief shift towards mass transit.
When was the war was over, the Golden Age of the Automobile began. A post-war excess of the same supplies required to manufacture and operate cars led the U.S. to become a car-producing machine. In this post-war era, Americans reveled in the freedom and flexibility provided by the automobile. By the late 1940s and early 1950s, society had become automobile-oriented, ringing in the era of interstate highways, fast food restaurants, gas stations, and convenience stores. The Automobile Age benefitted the economy by creating jobs in automobile-driven industries, from steel production and automobile assembly to drive-in movies and drive-through banks. The automobile drove the growth of the suburban economy and enabled people to travel longer distances to work.
Despite the undeniable benefits of the automobile, its convenience threatened a lifestyle wherein people primarily moved around on foot. The automobile made it possible for people to travel from home, to work or school, to running errands, and back home, all while walking only the distance from a parking spot to the door of the destination. This new pattern of transportation greatly minimized the ability of individuals to interact with their surrounding communities in a meaningful way. The automobile, the suburbs, and the network of highways all worked together to fundamentally change society’s transportation patterns.
Now, all signs point to walking as the driver of economic growth. Centering the economy around walking has the power to boost economic performance and, in the process, make all of society better off. Making the walking economy a reality will require the collaborative planning and support of all of the people responsible for shaping a place.
Placemaking — the foundation of an individual’s ability to walk for a better world — is critical for maximizing the economic value of investments in walking and walkability.
Although placemaking encompasses more than the physical characteristics of a location, it can be enhanced by creative urban planning. Placemaking — the collaborative process of creating public spaces that are desirable for people to live, work, play, and learn in — encourages people to spend more time in a location, and as a result spend more money.
Walking is an inherent component of good placemaking. According to Adam Ducker, a Managing Director at the RCLCO real estate advisory firm, walkability has the potential to change transactional experiences into recreational ones.
To test his point, I consider the differences in the way I run errands when I am home in suburban Maryland compared to when I am at school in Washington, D.C.
At home, I hop in the car and drive to the CVS about six miles from my house to pick up a prescription. From there, I drive to get lunch at the Chick-Fil-A drive-thru a mile away from CVS. While driving another two miles to Safeway, I pick up chicken nuggets from the box one at a time, careful to keep my eyes on the road. In the parking lot, I try to park at one of the farther stops from Safeway’s sliding glass doors in order to get my legs moving, but it’s still only a few hundred feet from my car to the grocery store entrance. While I might see a few friendly faces of people from my neighborhood while shopping, I am primarily focused on checking off items on my grocery list. After wheeling the bags of groceries out in my cart, I drive the five miles back to my house. My entire journey clocks in at a little under two hours, depending on traffic and how long my grocery list is.
When I run errands in Georgetown, it’s a completely different story. I make plans to meet up with a friend for lunch at Sweetgreen, a salad shop on Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown. The mile-long walk there from my house takes about 15 minutes. We sit outside for nearly an hour, talking and eating and people-watching. There’s a cupcake shop one block over, so we stop in for a sweet treat. Parting ways with my friend, I walk about half a mile up Wisconsin Avenue to the CVS to pick up a prescription. On the way, I pass by Zara’s window displays and enter the store to browse their selection, inevitably deciding to buy something. I resume my route to CVS, now only three blocks away. After successfully picking up my prescription, I conclude my errands with a trip to Safeway, another half a mile up Wisconsin Avenue. Along the way, I run into a few friends who are headed in the opposite direction, and I stop briefly to chat. At the grocery store, I see even more familiar faces of fellow Georgetown students who frequent this particular location. I load up my reusable grocery bags and walk the remaining half of a mile home, one bag on each shoulder. I return to my house nearly four hours after my initial departure, having walked at least three miles.
While the three core tasks are the same — getting lunch, picking up a prescription, and going grocery shopping — the experiences are entirely different. I tend to spend a lot more money and time during my urban errands, but I also get more exercise and have a greater sense of enjoyment. When I’m at home, errands are a necessary, inconvenient part of my day. At school, however, the errands quickly turn into a full-day experience.
While hopping in and out of my car during my suburban errands is a nuisance, I cherish the chance to spend the day in the Georgetown neighborhood, and I can easily walk from one destination to another in roughly half-mile increments.
“At the end of the day, placemaking means that someone might do the same three things, but they will linger and have a cup of coffee, or browse in the boutique next door, or extend the stay, increase the spend, and decide it was so great they want to live there,” Adam says.
Placemaking is a powerful tool for creating economic value. Still, there are obstacles to sharing that value in an equitable way, which you can learn more about in my book, It Starts with a Step.
Want to join me in walking for a better world? Email me at crc107@georgetown.edu or connect with me on LinkedIn. To read more about how you can change the world by walking, check out my latest book It Starts with a Step on Amazon.
