Exploring the Benefits of Urban Foot Traffic: How Downtowns Can Revitalize American Cities, One Step At A Time

rodrigo de la pena: Tiene muchos datos duros.

Mexico on Jul 26, 2023

Amazon Customer: This book is necessary reading for anyone who lives in the US.

United States on Apr 16, 2023

Andrew: .... and want to tear up my towns streets. Very informative book, every facet of the authors views are backed up factually with peer reviewed studies. It will absolutely make you look at transit and living in a city in a new light. I am currently using the knowledge gained here to approach my council about making some changes, and if that fails it will definitely add a layer of complexity to my Cities Skylines game!

Canada on Mar 27, 2022

Amazon Customer: Really interesting read, I have no backgroung in urbanism but I found the book really easy to understand and with great examples
I find myself noticing stuff arount the city that I hadn't notice before
Loved it!

United Kingdom on Feb 11, 2021

Kenting: Great book. Many great ideas documented and a good inspirational read. This is really useful to talk through many examples of tackling todays problems with cities, especially when the city you live is very car centric. It’s great to know that there are ways to change that and make the city more liveable and enjoyable for it’s citizens. It’s not just about walkable, but also bikeable and includes public transport. A must read for anyone interested in improving their own perspective on the witty around them and willing to do something about it.

United Kingdom on Nov 08, 2017

Larissa Martins: Livro imprescindível para quem estuda o urbanismo contemporâneo, já que trata de um assunto muito recorrente hoje: cidades caminháveis e o incentivo ao caminhar pela cidade. Didático, mostra passo a passo como melhor a experiência dos pedestres nos ambientes urbanos. Dá exemplos de experiências próprias, estudos científicos e estudos de caso reais. As vezes é um pouco repetitivo em seus argumentos, mas não deixa de ser essencial como bibliografia para nossos planejadores, engenheiros e arquitetos. Brochura bem feita, fonte e impressão ótimas para leitura.

Brazil on Sep 01, 2017

Reg Nordman: The author, a city planner /designer has written an urban yet very readable guide to helping cities get away from their car addictions. Many of our local public forums return to keeping our city( New Westminster) a walkable city. Specks book is a great first step in seeing what can be and is being done in many places. He does an excellent job of stipping us of the car based blinders and prejudices that we all have in North America. I appreciated that he noted the efforts of Vancouver and Portland in these efforts.

I just completed a journey to Greece and Western Turkey and it is blindingly how much more interesting an old, pre car built city is for walking than one that is car based. And how increased traffic can really bind up these cities. Too bad they look to the West for insight son how to handle this. Kind of like asking a heroin addict how to kick the habit.

Speck also does a great job of showing/ linking our car based designs to increased carbon footprints and how some thoughts in design can ameliorate/prevent self induced issues. That was again brought to me in the Turkish city of Marmaris which had many covered streets/bazaars that were very pedestrian...

United States on Oct 01, 2014

B. Case: I bought this book to help support an independent study project I needed to complete for a college-level class designed around Edward Glaeser's " Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier ." I knew the book would help me develop a strong and effective PowerPoint lecture for the class on my topic of walkable cities, but I had no idea how delightful it would be to read this book straight through from beginning to end as a form of pleasure. Nor did I realize how much I would learn overall about the basics of urban design. Although this book is focused on how to make cities more walkable, it really served the purpose of being an engaging introduction to the whole field of urban and city planning.

After reading Speck's book, I now see my own lovely city and the many thousands that I've visited here and abroad over my life in a completely new light. This book gives me a context within which to understand why certain cities attract me and others do not. It is as if I now have a language to clearly understand cities for the first time. Honestly, you know how good it feels when you get eyeglasses for the first time and...

United States on May 17, 2014

Raoul Picante: I live in Eugene, Oregon where planning is done by bumper stickers and "buzz word of the month."

Our "Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan" has a single goal: "By the year 2031 Eugene will double the percentage of trips made on foot and by bicycle from 2011 levels."

This pathetic statement isn't well-formed; it's a narrow "objective," not a "goal"; and what follows in the PBMP is, not surprisingly, focused on infrastructure to serve mostly a tiny "vehicular bicyclist" subpopulation.

Meanwhile, the City planners have let years go by doing little to help update local planning policies and code to prevent the degradation and destabilization of the older, close-in, grid-patterned neighborhoods. This neglect goes on despite an active, smart and progressive community of neighborhood advocates who love their compact (by small city standards), "traditional" urban neighborhoods.

The local planners still see "being against sprawl" as their core principle and their key task as holding in place an arbitrary "Urban Growth Boundary" line on a map. (A line that when it was originally created was a pretty seat-of-the-pants effort, not really based on much true...

United States on Mar 25, 2013