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  #101  
Old Posted Jun 15, 2021, 11:36 PM
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Walk/bike for me in Stratford is 69/97. I'm just a couple blocks from downtown, but no transit score, which is odd because a bus actually goes down my street. The walk score seems a bit low too, as lots of people around here regularly stroll downtown to get things. There's no major grocery store, but there are two health food/organic produce stores, two butchers and two bakeries. All of them cost a whole lot more than Walmart and don't have things like sugary breakfast cereals, so the clientele walking to them is pretty much limited to those flush with time, financial security and anxiety about their health.
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  #102  
Old Posted Jun 15, 2021, 11:40 PM
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50/65. 50 seems too low as everything is within walking distance except a wide variety of restaurants. 65 for cycling is fair as the closest bike lane is 3 blocks away on a busy road.
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  #103  
Old Posted Jun 16, 2021, 3:24 AM
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I live in downtown London - scores for my address are 94/74/79.
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  #104  
Old Posted Jun 16, 2021, 3:47 AM
Truenorth00 Truenorth00 is online now
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Originally Posted by Blitz View Post
I live in downtown London - scores for my address are 94/74/79.
That is really impressive for London.
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  #105  
Old Posted Jun 16, 2021, 2:45 PM
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That is really impressive for London.
Downtown London is the one "walkable" area of the city, though Wortley Village and Old East also get good marks.
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  #106  
Old Posted Jun 19, 2021, 8:17 AM
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Good thread.

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Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin View Post
The surrounding environment & public realm still do affect walkability in meaningful ways beyond just "proximity to stuff" though.

Walking 5 minutes to do your shopping here is much more pleasant as a human experience than walking 5 minutes here - even though the latter example has a similarly high density of retail. Having a more pleasant, pedestrian-oriented environment for walking (which inherently also means that there is less space for cars) encourages walking, which in turn begets better pedestrian infrastructure.

When the environment centres the use of cars above all else, then naturally, that becomes the default choice to get there even if it technically is walkable to nearby residents. I wouldn't be surprised if urbanites were willing to walk longer distances for services than some suburbanites drive.

I respect what Walkscore is doing, but you've hit on their biggest failing: walkable neighbourhoods are neighbourhoods where people walk. A walkscore based on the amount of pedestrian trips in a neighbourhood would be pretty infallible. Instead, they've worked out a set of arbitrary measures to calculate theoretical walkability.

It's obvious why they've done this. Walkscore is an ad. If you couldn't build a condo tower next to a power centre and advertise its high Walkscore, you wouldn't pay Walkscore for giving you a high Walkscore.

As to their measures, they aren't bad. But they give up some funky results that bias walkscores towards well-serviced suburban areas over actually walkable areas. Smaller, independent businesses are less likely to appear on google maps, and therefore don't register on Walkscore. This means your favourite divebar doesn't count, but the Boston Pizza you'd never go to anyway does.

This gets worse when we think about the cultural ratings. I supposedly only live within walking distance of one cultural institution: a movie theatre. Walkscore, therefore, scores my neighbourhood as less walkable despite all the galleries, street art, and adapted cultural spaces that are in easy walking distance. And that's Walkscore's biggest failure: a walkable neighbourhood has emergent culture in the walking spaces. Buskers, graffiti, people who sell shit on the sidewalk, are all features of real walkable areas and not of suburban areas with a bunch of dumpy restaurant chains around of parking lot.
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  #107  
Old Posted Jun 28, 2021, 8:18 PM
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Until pretty recently the bike infrastructure in Halifax was dysfunctional, disjointed, and utilitarian-looking at best, but the most recent stuff has been turning out really well:


Untitled by Hali87, on Flickr


Untitled by Hali87, on Flickr


Untitled by Hali87, on Flickr


Untitled by Hali87, on Flickr


Untitled by Hali87, on Flickr

(compare to this, this, or this, all of which were considered "maybe-too-ambitious" about 10 years ago. Before that, there were a few trail networks but no real street-aligned bike lanes.)

Last edited by Hali87; Jun 28, 2021 at 8:35 PM.
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  #108  
Old Posted Jun 28, 2021, 8:28 PM
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Love this! Can we make this thread the active transportation infrastructure "porn" thread? hehe
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  #109  
Old Posted Jun 28, 2021, 9:36 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hali87 View Post

Untitled by Hali87, on Flickr
^^ and now all Hali has to do is teach people to read! Or send them to Holland where walking in a bike lane is a "capital" offence.
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  #110  
Old Posted Jun 28, 2021, 9:52 PM
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Originally Posted by adam-machiavelli View Post
Love this! Can we make this thread the active transportation infrastructure "porn" thread? hehe
Agreed. I'll let the mods rename it if they want. It was kinda what my original intention. But everyone got kinda wrapped up in the Walkscore.
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  #111  
Old Posted Jun 29, 2021, 7:01 AM
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This channel always got some interesting perspectives on urban designs. I certainly think we should try and make our cities quieter.
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  #112  
Old Posted Jun 29, 2021, 11:12 AM
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The biggest revelation to me was learning about the growth ponzi scheme and his much suburban developments cost. I have sort of understood it was expensive before. But I never understood just how unsustainable this all was. And now I'm just angry as a taxpayer. We are literally paying for a worse quality of life. That's offensive on so many levels.
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  #113  
Old Posted Jun 29, 2021, 11:20 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shreddog View Post
^^ and now all Hali has to do is teach people to read! Or send them to Holland where walking in a bike lane is a "capital" offence.
It's only a capital offence because Dutch bicyclists are vicious and spare no quarter. Pedestrians in that country venture outside at their own peril...…...
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  #114  
Old Posted Jun 29, 2021, 11:23 AM
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Originally Posted by MonctonRad View Post
It's only a capital offence because Dutch bicyclists are vicious and spare no quarter. Pedestrians in that country venture outside at their own peril...…...
Safer there than here....
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  #115  
Old Posted Jun 29, 2021, 11:52 AM
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Originally Posted by MonctonRad View Post
It's only a capital offence because Dutch bicyclists are vicious and spare no quarter. Pedestrians in that country venture outside at their own peril...…...
The Dutch in general give no fucks about sharing their opinions, I can only imagine being on the receiving end of one you've just cut off in their bike lane
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  #116  
Old Posted Jun 29, 2021, 11:56 AM
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Originally Posted by NetMapel View Post
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This channel always got some interesting perspectives on urban designs. I certainly think we should try and make our cities quieter.
This really struck me recently when I changed my normal running route to pass briefly alongside a moderately busy four-lane road, and couldn't hear my podcast over the road noise, even at max volume.
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  #117  
Old Posted Jun 29, 2021, 7:02 PM
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Originally Posted by jamincan View Post
This really struck me recently when I changed my normal running route to pass briefly alongside a moderately busy four-lane road, and couldn't hear my podcast over the road noise, even at max volume.
For me, I know I can put on my headphone and use its noise-cancelling feature and hear my podcast (though it raises other safety concerns such as not being able to hear my surrounding...). But sometimes I am out and talking to people through the phone and they would said they could barely hear me. Lots of car noises all around drowning out my voice. It really made me notice this issue.
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  #118  
Old Posted Jul 20, 2021, 3:09 PM
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The origin story of Jason Slaughter's (of the Not Just Bikes channel) interest in urbanism and walkability:

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The scenes of London truly get me. What a beautiful city. A crime what has been done to it.
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  #119  
Old Posted Jul 20, 2021, 3:31 PM
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Originally Posted by shreddog View Post
^^ and now all Hali has to do is teach people to read! Or send them to Holland where walking in a bike lane is a "capital" offence.
I fear this is an inherent problem with making bike lanes look very "sidewalky" by placing them at a higher level from the road and at the same level as the sidewalk. Perhaps it's just that it's new and people aren't used to it yet and once people adapt to it and especially after cycle traffic picks up it will be different but I'd think I prefer the Montreal approach. Although obviously it's still significantly better than the first iteration of the bike lanes given that they actually prevent automobile intrusion. If F is no bike lane and A+ is the perfect bike lane, they went from a C- to a B+.
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  #120  
Old Posted Jul 20, 2021, 3:40 PM
Hali87 Hali87 is offline
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Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse View Post
I fear this is an inherent problem with making bike lanes look very "sidewalky" by placing them at a higher level from the road and at the same level as the sidewalk. Perhaps it's just that it's new and people aren't used to it yet and once people adapt to it and especially after cycle traffic picks up it will be different but I'd think I prefer the Montreal approach. Although obviously it's still significantly better than the first iteration of the bike lanes given that they actually prevent automobile intrusion. If F is no bike lane and A+ is the perfect bike lane, they went from a C- to a B+.
When the picture was taken part of the sidewalk was closed due to the ongoing construction. It does seem to still be an issue there though, it does just look like an exceptionally nice place to walk
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