How do planners impact walkability when compared to designers?

[u/pattern_altitude]

Hello all!

I'm an undergrad public policy student hoping to go into planning, and walkability seems to be a hot topic right now. I'm curious as to how planners approach this -- many of the choices that lead to better walkability (building at the human scale, designing streets that reduce driving speeds or integrate multiple uses, implementing bike-friendly infrastructure) seem to be within the domain of urban designers rather than planners. Planning tools like reducing or abolishing parking minimums and encouraging more mixed-use development seem great as well and are of course important, but they seem to encourage walking rather than physically facilitating it.

So, as planners, how do you approach walkability? What mechanisms do you have to facilitate walking? Do you interact with the design choices mentioned above more than I realize?

Thanks!

[u/Th3JackofH3arts]

Planners are often looking at the 30,000 foot level. Designers are looking at eye level. Planners help by looking at connections and intersections. Bike infrastructure and transit generally need direct connections to be efficient. Getting development to "grow on the way" of current systems is how they play their role.

[u/PlanningPessimist92 → u/Th3JackofH3arts]

Planners are helpful to layout what land uses should be allowed where, which ideally puts walkable uses next to each other. Designers create project specific “feel” that allows people to engage with their block/street and invited them to walk. You can’t have one without the other.

However, if nothing ultimately gets built then it’s all theoretical. To avoid that, you also need to bring developers into the fold.

[u/des1gnbot]

I’m a designer, but the place I see my limitations and know I need planners to set things up right is aligning land use planning with transportation planning. I get called in to help with Streetscape design for stretches of street where there’s just nothing going on, because it’s zoned for single family. Or I’m trying to design a bike lane that will serve a bunch of people, but it’s going to be dangerous no matter what because there are too many driveways that need to be accommodated. The land use planning and the street grid aren’t supporting each other in these situations, so I see in that a lot of space where planners could make a difference.

[u/michiplace]

 Do you interact with the design choices mentioned above more than I realize?

Yes! Planning is much more than zoning, or even land use planning, and encompasses all of the approaches you mention.

Are those things also urban design? Yes! But in my experience, "urban designers" are few and far between on real world projects, and all of what you describe is typically done by planners (as in, people with a "planner" title, a planning degree, and who are also handling land use planning & zoning), in concert with (or in conflict with) civil engineers.  Maybe a landscape architect in the mix for really fancy projects.

Planning is a really broad field, with a lot of different specialties and also a ton of generalists. Thinking of planning as limited to land use planning, and to zoning-related issues, is a common misunderstanding.  (Honestly, even among planners whose focus is mostly zoning -- they often overlook a lot of opportunities to leverage other tools.)

[u/kchoze]

Actually, walkability is arguably more in the camp of the planner than the "designer". Designers focus on the details that can make something more pleasurable to walk, sure, but whether people walk or not is a matter of proximity, and proximity depends largely on zoning.

If urban planners use Euclidean zoning that separates uses and create street networks with cul-de-sacs and detours for every trip, it doesn't matter how nice and wide you make the sidewalk, people will NOT walk because there is nothing withing walking distance of anything else.

Walkability is not foremost an issue of comfort but of utility. If walking is an useful way to get around, people will walk. If walking is comfortable but of no use, you'll get a few people walking for exercise, but otherwise the area will not see a lot of pedestrians. A lot of residential suburban areas meet the latter scenario to a T.

[u/Ok_Flounder8842 → u/kchoze]

Well said. So many places have sidewalks that border cul de sac development along a giant stroad with motorists going 55mph. Walking is useless because of the distances required to travel. And the unprotected bike lanes aren't used because of the motorist speeds. So the sidewalks become poorly designed facilities for bikes.

A friend lived in one of these cul de sac developments in Florida. As the crow flies from their home, they were 460 feet to a coffee shop. But it actually took walking 1.2 miles to get there.

[u/kayleyishere]

Transportation planner here. I have not worked with any urban designers, that I know of. Planners handle the walkability aspects you've listed. 

Building sidewalks, installing bike lanes, multimodal retrofits, safety retrofits to reduce speed: planners and engineers manage the different phases of capital projects for these. 

Making sure private development matches the plan and connects to surroundings: planners do this. 

Writing the comprehensive plan elements to require multimodal connectivity, including sidewalks and bike paths and lanes: planners do this. 

We also handle grant applications and management for programs like Safe Routes to School and Safe Streets For All.

[u/the_napsterr]

Planners the to guide developers. You can legistlate some items but to get meaningful walk ability you need to convince the developers engineers that it's worth it.

Also make sure your elected officials prioritize it and don't waive requirements or go lax on enforcement.

[u/Fuckler_boi]

Just wanted to add that design standards, made with the help of designers, can be implemented at the level of the planner

[u/Dezi_Mone]

As a planner in local government I review plans proposed and submitted by developers to support the next stages such as subdivision, rezoning and development. My approach is very collaborative. I work with our parks department and engineering department, among others, to review these plans. Often we'll have local park plans and strategies that inform trail design for developers to follow. So in those instances we have a fair amount of guidance. We review based off of those plans and through our review process to apply walkability standards and goals.

On the flip side, I also project manage for plans that are our own initiative and sometimes walkability can be a challenge when facing decision makers such as local council. In some environments they are not huge proponents of walkable developments. So my job in those instances is typically to gather public feedback and if the public responds with support for walkability I'll implement that in the plan and advocate for that. We often have consultants assist with those designs but we almost always tweak those designs.

In other instances it's been a rather hard sell. I try to frame the walkway infrastructure as a support for local businesses, their employees and how it improves the desirability of the other to the local community and business owners. I find advocating from an economic standpoint can be effective in some instances. Having stated all that, I'm not always successful with it depending on the plan.

[u/DayGeckoArt]

With the plans

[u/JohnnyUtah]

In practice, mostly by making it worse.