Classifying Walking Environments
The Pedestrian Program Plan classifies walking environments according to the degree of pedestrian friendliness:
Pedestrian Place These are areas where people gather, such as outdoor seating, a water feature, or pedestrian-oriented shopping. |
Pedestrian Supportive These are safe environments for walking, where sidewalks are continuous and buffered from the street. |
Pedestrian Tolerant These are areas and corridors where walking is technically safe, but land use patterns discourage walking. |
Pedestrian Intolerant These are areas where walking is unsafe and unattractive, such as near freeway corridors, industrial, or undeveloped areas. |
Sidewalk Design
The design of sidewalks has a direct impact on pedestrian friendliness. Buffers, sidewalk width, and setback of adjacent land all impact the level of pedestrian friendliness:
Through the use of policies that impact street, sidewalk, and setback designs, the City of Redmond will systematically work to eliminate all Pedestrian Intolerant environments within public street rights-of-way. The goal is to create Pedestrian Supportive infrastructure wherever practical and feasible.
Other Blog Postings on Community Studies
Here’s a list of other Redmond Library blog postings on community studies:
Engage: Redmond Library 2009 Community Study |
Communities Count 2008: Social & Health Indicators Across King County |
Sound Transit’s Plans for Redmond |
Redmond Community Indicators 2008 |