I know we're all hearty Minnesotans, happy to walk 3 miles around the frozen lake in subzero temperatures just to see the sun, but 1/4 mile is still considered normal "walking distance" when considering how far a person will walk for goods or services.
The (sad) fact is most people will hop in the car before walking more than 1/4 mile, so we need to plan our city accordingly if we want to reduce car traffic and parking lots. I wasn't involved in planning for the Roosevelt library and I'm sure there were many considerations in choosing a site; I'm just surprised the city isn't using this project as a way to kick-start smart development at a rail station. For those that would like someone else's opinion: "A distance of 0.40 km (0.25 mi) is usually considered the maximum people are willing to walk to use public transportation." (The Connection Between Public Transit and Employment, Journal of the American Planning Association, 1999.) "According to the Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey (NTPS), the majority of pedestrian trips are 0.25 miles or less... NPTS data also shows that land use patterns and population density have a big impact on trip distance. Higher density communities with mixed land use patterns will have higher levels of walking because destinations are more likely to be located within walking distance of homes and businesses." (Walkinginfo.org) "A comfortable walking distance, is widely accepted as one-quarter mile network distance." (Regulating Urban Form at the Metropolitan Scale: A Preliminary Assessment of Portland's 2040 Plan, University of Illinois, May 2002 -- from the National Center for Smart Growth.) John Rocker Calhoun _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
