This election season, I am posting a special series based on Jeff Speck’s “Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places” over on my Facebook page: one post every day will provide a “rule” for making cities more walkable.

I will, in turn, provide some commentary on how the Township of Langley can best utilize this rule, if at all. Some rules may be difficult to apply, while others will hit home. I may also comment on how our current council has succeeded or failed in some of these regards, as well as mentioning some ideas I’ve heard from candidates.

Many rules will not be “popular” with those conditioned to living in a car-based culture. However, I truly believe that we can always do just a little bit better. This is not a “war” on cars. We “need” them. But we NEED to reduce our reliance on them even more.

While I have framed this series within the context of our upcoming 2022 municipal election on October 15, I want to acknowledge that there is simply more to urban planning and walkability when deciding our next Mayor and Council. Advocating for good urban planning should not dismiss other important factors such as fiscal and social responsibility, housing affordability, protective services, and civic leadership.

THE LIST

SELL WALKABILITY

• Rule 1: Sell Walkability on Wealth
• Rule 2: Sell Walkability on Health
• Rule 3: Sell Walkability on Climate Change
• Rule 4: Sell Walkability on Equity
• Rule 5: Sell Walkability on Community

MIX THE USES

• Rule 6: Invest in Attainable Housing Downtown
• Rule 7: Push for Local Schools
• Rule 8: Push for Local Parks
• Rule 9: Fix Your Codes
• Rule 10: Do the Math

MAKE HOUSING ATTAINABLE AND INTEGRATED

• Rule 11: Mandate Smart Inclusionary Zoning
• Rule 12: Encourage Granny Flats
• Rule 13: Leverage Housing with Parking Lots
• Rule 14: Fight Displacement
• Rule 15: Enact “Housing First”

GET THE PARKING RIGHT

• Rule 16: Eliminate On-Site Parking Requirements
• Rule 17: Make Downtown Parking a Public Utility
• Rule 18: Decouple and Share Parking
• Rule 19: Price Parking Based on Its Value

LET TRANSIT WORK

• Rule 20: Coordinate Transit and Land Use
• Rule 21: Redesign Your Bus Network
• Rule 22: Build Streetcars, but as a Development Tool
• Rule 23: Consider the Transit Experience
• Rule 24: Create Bikeshare that Works
• Rule 25: Don’t Mistake Uber for Transit
• Rule 26: Anticipate Autonomous Vehicles

ESCAPE AUTOMOBILISM

• Rule 27: Understand Induced Demand
• Rule 28: Tear Down a Highway
• Rule 29: Congestion-Price City Centers
• Rule 30: Close a Street to Cars – Maybe

START WITH SAFETY

• Rule 31: Focus on Speeding
• Rule 32: Discuss the Time Cost of Safety
• Rule 33: Adopt Vision Zero
• Rule 34: Adopt a Downtown Speed Limit
• Rule 35: Install Red-Light Cameras and Speed Cameras

OPTIMIZE YOUR DRIVING NETWORK

• Rule 36: Understand Network Function
• Rule 37: Keep Blocks Small
• Rule 38: Revert Multilane One-Ways to Two-way for Business
• Rule 39: Revert Multilane One-Ways to Two-way for Safety
• Rule 40: Revert Multilane One-Ways to Two-way for Convenience
• Rule 41: Revert Multilane One-Ways Properly

RIGHT-SIZE THE NUMBER OF LANES

• Rule 42: Challenge Traffic Studies
• Rule 43: Challenge Level of Service
• Rule 44: Challenge Functional Classifications
• Rule 45: Cut the Extra Lanes
• Rule 46: Road-Diet Your Four-Laners
• Rule 47: Limit the Turn Lanes

RIGHT-SIZE THE LANES

• Rule 48: Adopt a 10-Foot Standard for Free-Flow Lanes
• Rule 49: Restripe to a 10-Foot Standard
• Rule 50: Build Slow-Flow and Yield-Flow Streets
• Rule 51: Expand the Fire Chief’s Mandate

SELL CYCLING

• Rule 52: Justify Biking Investment
• Rule 53: Understand the Cycling Follows Investment
• Rule 54: Avoid Common Cycling Pitfalls

BUILD YOUR BIKE NETWORK

• Rule 55: Understand Bike Network Functions
• Rule 56: Turn Existing Corridors into Bike Paths
• Rule 57: Build Bicycle Boulevards
• Rule 58: Build Cycle Tracks
• Rule 59: Build Cycle Tracks Properly
• Rule 60: Use Conventional Bike Lanes Where They Belong
• Rule 61: Build Conventional Bike Lanes Properly
• Rule 62: Do Not Use Sharrows as Cycling Facilities

PARK ON STREET

• Rule 63: Put Curb Parking Almost Everywhere
• Rule 64: Design Parallel Parking Properly
• Rule 65: Provide Angle Parking Where Warranted

FOCUS ON GEOMETRY

• Rule 66: Avoid Swoops, Slip Lanes, and Sight Triangles
• Rule 67: Design Left-Turn Lanes Properly
• Rule 68: Place Neckdowns at Wide Crossings
• Rule 69: Use Roundabouts with Discretion
• Rule 70: Do Not “Fix” Complexity
• Rule 71: Remove Centrelines on Neighbourhoods Streets

FOCUS ON INTERSECTIONS

• Rule 72: Create Pedestrian Zones Properly
• Rule 73: Make Great Crosswalks
• Rule 74: Keep Signals Simple
• Rule 75: Bag the Beg Buttons & Countdown Clocks
• Rule 76: Replace Signals with All-way Stops
• Rule 77: Build Naked Streets and Shared Spaces

MAKE SIDEWALKS RIGHT

• Rule 78: Put Street Trees Almost Everywhere
• Rule 79: Select and Locate Street Trees Properly
• Rule 80: Design Sidewalks Properly
• Rule 81: Disallow Curb Cuts
• Rule 82: Introduce Parklets

MAKE COMFORTABLE SPACES

• Rule 83: Make Firm Edges
• Rule 84: Never Allow Front Parking
• Rule 85: Build Vancouver Urbanism
• Rule 86: Use Lighting to Support Urbanism
• Rule 87: Don’t Let Terrorists Design Your City

MAKE INTERESTING PLACES

• Rule 88: Make Sticky Edges
• Rule 89: Limit Repetition
• Rule 90: Break Up Big Buildings
• Rule 91: Save Those Buildings
• Rule 92: Hide the Parking Structures
• Rule 93: Direct the Public Art Budget to Blank Walls

DO IT NOW

• Rule 94: Do a Walkability Study
• Rule 95: Do a Frontage Quality Assessment and Locate Anchors
• Rule 96: Identify the Network of Walkability
• Rule 97: Rebuild… or Restripe?
• Rule 98: Do Some Tactical Urbanism
• Rule 99: Start Code Reform Now
• Rule 100: Don’t Give Up on Sprawl
• Rule 101: Dream Big
• Rule X: Vote for a Better Langley

Looking for Important election dates? They’ve been reposted at https://betterlangley.com/…/election-2022-important-dates/