Design That Changes How We Think About Walkability

“If the American Dream of the Baby Boomers was all about being able to have a car and a house in suburbia, the new American Dream is having the choice between living in drivable suburban places and walkable urban ones.” - Chris Leinberger, land use strategist at the Brookings Institution

I’ve been reading a lot lately about the concept of smart cities and what makes cities work well for citizens and the environment. Getting the mix of urban planning, design, livability and community right seems to be the key to unlocking a city’s true potential,and there are a lot of cool ideas and design sprouting up around the movement.

Walkability is a concept that comes up repeatedly in discussions about sustainable urban planning that I find completely fascinating – partly because I would love to be able to walk to get what I need the way I used to in grad school, and partly because I hate throwing away hundreds of dollars every month on my car.

Great things happen when communities are designed to be walkable – the real estate market is stronger, people spend less on transportation, neighborhoods feel safer, the environment benefits and the overall health of the population increases.  More than that though, there’s something simple and wonderful about living in a local neighborhood where everything you need is just a stones throw away. When you can walk your neighborhood every day to get the things you need, you feel less isolated, you build relationships with others who live near you and you strengthen your connection to the places and community around you – it feels better.

Deep walkability isn’t an easy thing to accomplish, though. A person’s livable, walkable radius is quite small, so getting it right for everyone in the community is a challenge. Good design can help, though, and there are teams of people out there designing new solutions — like the YikeBike — for the urban future. This thing is bit expensive, but it’s seriously cool.

It’s the smallest folding electric bike in the world, it goes around 12 mph and weighs only 22 lbs (my backpack on any given day can weigh 30-40lbs). You can fold it up to take it on trains, buses and cars. It charges in 30 minutes and has a range of 6 miles. It is one-third the volume of any other 20-inch folding bike so it can be easily stored and charged anywhere. YikeBike is the first bike in the world to have electronic anti-skid brakes and also has numerous other safety features like built-in lights indicators and brake lights. Like I said, seriously cool.

What makes me excited about products like this is that it changes the way we think about important fundamentals principals that make cities work. If commuters suddenly have an option to live in more affordable neighborhoods a few miles further away from mass transit, it takes some of the heavy burden away from the government and industry, and allows individuals to take more control over outcomes.

The bottom line is that smart design incorporates important value positions (like those of walkability, sustainability etc), and gives people the ability to change behaviors… and that’s exactly what the YikeBike does. Plus, this thing looks fun. Anyone have $5000?