Comments on: What You See is What You Get

By: Cyclelicious » Caltrans Districts and their Walkscores

Cyclelicious » Caltrans Districts and their Walkscores — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:00:18 +0000

[...] Project for Public Spaces did a fun little project in which they looked up the Walkscores for the 50 state Departments of Transportation. Their thesis: transportation planners are completely car and highway oriented in their thinking [...]

By: Family Medicine Doctors

Family Medicine Doctors — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 09:35:00 +0000

Having fun part in life and real time visionary is another section than believe as
“What You See is What You Get”

By: Cyclelicious » Invisible gorillas, guerrillas for visibility, and more bicycle news

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:01:05 +0000

[...] This one’s kind of fun: How walkable is your state DOT headquarters? [...]

By: DOTs and the Walkin’ Blues | Better Roads

DOTs and the Walkin’ Blues | Better Roads — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 21:59:45 +0000

[...] which will work out a number for a neighborhood that reflects just how walk-friendly it is. And, says PPS, “We found the address for each state headquarters office and found that the average walkability [...]

By: Bossi

Bossi — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:55:00 +0000

http://blog.tstc.org/2013/03/28/how-walkable-is-your-state-dot-headquarters/
To copy/paste my reply over at TSTC:

While admittedly lacking on walkable lunchtime destinations or happy hour destinations, it’s worth bearing in mind that Maryland DOT’s headquarters is right at a MARC/Amtrak station. Most of the people I know there pack a lunch, commute by MARC, and spend their evenings back home — where their home MARC stations do have more walkable evening destinations.

By: How Walkable Is Your State DOT’s Headquarters? | Streetsblog.net

How Walkable Is Your State DOT’s Headquarters? | Streetsblog.net — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:37:23 +0000

[...] is, it could have a lot to do with the lifestyles of the state transportation officials themselves. Project for Public Spaces recently looked at where all the state DOT headquarters in America are located, and they found that [...]

By: MC75

MC75 — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 20:52:00 +0000

This message should not be understated, b/c I have found in nearly ten years of planning practice (and longer of working) that people’s perceptions, often more so that facts or analysis, shape their professional as well as personal decisions. I have worked with planners who have never functioned in their daily life (work or living) in a mixed-use neighborhood where transit and walking are not only viable but somewhat popular options, and you can immediately see the difference.

Examples for me come from the world of affordable housing. I’ve worked with affordable housing staff who, even in a smart-growth environment, focus on how many cars the affordable housing clientele can park, and lamenting that if the garage is not attached, the client would have to “carry their groceries.” (When I brought up that in the same city many new houses did not have attached garages, I was told “that’s fine for upper-middle class white professionals, but not for minorities or the working class.” Really??) I was also informed that families with children “can’t use transit” despite this city having a award-winning, safe and attractive transit system. Likewise, I worked in another city where developers could not figure out a good way to fit small-lot affordable (entry-level) single-family homes into their developments. I quickly pinpointed the problem in that the developers insisted “people need a 2-car garage” even though most of the clients in that income range were single-income families …

These statements were all made by professionals who were seeking to solve affordable housing problems exacerbated by land scarcity … the problem being none of the professionals in question had lived in a walkable community (we all commuted in) and could only understand such as attractive to single, white professionals if to anyone at all …

By: Boonified

Boonified — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 19:54:00 +0000

NCDOT’s headquarters building is in the middle of downtown Raleigh but most workers in the area are warehoused in the cheapest cubefarms in the middle of nowhere that the state can find. Those with offices downtown have subsidized reserved parking but department leadership pays no attention to walkability, bikability, transit access, telecommuting or proximity for everyone else. At some NCDOT offices you’ll see employees who want to stay fit walking circuits through the parking lot because there is literally no place else to go.

By: Opus the Poet

Opus the Poet — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 05:38:00 +0000

It’s not just the state DOT that’s the problem, there are all kinds of regional planning offices that are surrounded by walking “deserts” that are impassible without a motor vehicle, like my local regional the NCTCOG at the junction of two freeways in the largest city in the country (and maybe the world) without any form of public transit.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 02:33:00 +0000

67 is not really that bad of a walk score. For anything outside of a downtown it’s tough to break 80. My house is a 58 and I consider it pretty walkable (parks/schools and a few restaurants within 1/2 mile).

By: D.M.

D.M. — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 14:31:00 +0000

To give Maryland credit, the main offices of the State Highway Administration are in downtown Baltimore with a Walk Score of 97.

http://www.walkscore.com/score/707-n-calvert-st-baltimore-md-21202

By: Frank S

Frank S — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 14:14:00 +0000

You should at least give Maryland DOT credit for being less than a half-mile from a commuter rail station and having build a connecting walkway.

By: HamTech87

HamTech87 — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 03:58:00 +0000

You can also do the same thing for your municipality’s engineering firms. I live in a town outside NYC, but it has the same density of many cities around the country like Dallas or Portland, Oregon. So we should use an engineering firm that knows “urban”. Fat chance: the walkscore for the firm’s offices is a 27.