Which City In San Diego County Is The Most Walkable?

MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: This is KPBS Midday Edition, I am Maureen Cavanaugh. Lots of trick-or-treaters can do their own survey this Halloween. As you're walking the streets, try to notice how walkable your neighborhood is. Some experts have assembled their own data about how walkable cities are in San Diego. This morning I spoke with Kathleen Ferrier about the walkability of streets in San Diego. Here's that interview. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Halloween seems to be a great time to talk about how easy it is to walk around the community. Do think it would surprise people how difficult some neighborhoods are to get around? KATHLEEN FERRIER: Now, people are experts of their own community. There is no accident that we're releasing the scorecard on Halloween. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: What barriers may some trick-or-treaters find tonight? KATHLEEN FERRIER: The lack of sidewalks is most obvious, and that is something that we've been working on for years. Another one is vehicle speeds. In a lot of our neighborhoods, people travel very fast. It's sometimes difficult to cross the street. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Exactly. We are looking out for trick-or-treaters tonight. What is Walk San Diego? Who sponsors Walk San Diego? KATHLEEN FERRIER: We are a nonprofit organization that has been around for about fifteen years. We are an advocacy organization that works around the region to enhance walkability of communities by making walking safer. We work with residents, local government officials, city staff and school districts to educate about what walk in the walkability is pure we also walk we also work with communities that are passionate about walking. We like to get residents more involved in decision-making. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: How did you conduct the survey? It must be more than just walking around. KATHLEEN FERRIER: Walking around is an important theme. One of the components is a fun app that we developed that allows people to have a say in the walkability of their street. We put the scorecard together following a national model that is a walk friendly community assessment. It comes out of North Carolina, and they recognize cities around the nation for walkability according to standards that they have established. We wanted to use the same assessment to look at our cities ourselves and get the word out. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: That is interesting. After looking at cities around the county which have you determined to be the top three walkable cities of San Diego? KATHLEEN FERRIER: Well, we're releasing those results today. Based on numerous factors, this year's top scoring city is La Mesa. Then National City, and Imperial Beach took. In this process we're not just scoring how walkable a city is, we are also looking at what our cities are doing to improve working conditions. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: You're looking at how much of a commitment cities are showing to the concept of walkability? KATHLEEN FERRIER: That's right, yes. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: The top three may surprise some people. Go through the elements that put these communities on the top of the list. You look for cities that encourage walking. How does La Mesa encourage walking? KATHLEEN FERRIER: Is important to mention that there is a layered approach. The Mesa is judged on it it's excellent job of their studies around transit stations in schools to understand the barriers to walking. They are consistently funding improvements. The downtown area is already very walkable. There is a traditional grid network of streets, and restaurants are all close by. The city is still funding major things like crosswalks and signage and realignment of the streets. In addition they have conducted an intense multiyear education program to learn more about walking conditions and encourage more people to walk to school. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Are the top cities ñ National City and Imperial Beach ñ using the same approach? KATHLEEN FERRIER: They're using very similar approaches. This is important to notice that layered approach where they are doing multiple things. Projects on the ground and looking at longer-term policies that are mapping out the future for the city. A lot of cities are struggling with this because it's a tremendous range. The cities at the top are doing long-range planning and on the ground projects. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: I'm speaking with Kathleen Ferrier. We're talking about the latest results of San Diego regional walk scorecard. One thing that I noticed, having good public transit seems to have an effect on more than just walkability. What does that affect? KATHLEEN FERRIER: When we talk about it, walking health is one of the greatest benefits. There are been multiple studies that have been connecting that people are healthier who walk more. Our ambition at Walk San Diego is to design communities that incorporate walking into daily life, so that people can be walking more for daily trips, rather than just for exercise. When people are walking, on a daily basis they are getting that thirty minutes of exercise that doctors room recommend. In addition, we know that where transit is located can also generate higher density housing, which means more housing in one area so it can become more walkable. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: There was a time ñ that still exists ñ where it was really difficult to walk around because there was no way for pedestrians to safely cross major intersections. How are we doing on that? KATHLEEN FERRIER: That is one of the elements we have looked at. How safe is it, and how easy is it to cross the street? We're seeing a lot of improvement in the region. We know that there is a pattern around the region. Now cities are really trying to make amends, where we have very wide roads. In many circumstances cities are putting those roads narrower so they can be more walkable. Within the existing right-of-way. It just means restructuring the road to narrow the road for cars and make more room for people walking or biking. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: I wonder which cities are at the bottom of the list? KATHLEEN FERRIER: On the lowest scoring city we have Santee and El Cajon. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Why is that? KATHLEEN FERRIER: These cities are not keeping up with the others. We can try and balance the analysis for the cities. There are numerous categories involving policies, walk data from the phone app, and walking conditions today. One of the important ingredients is simply looking at the percentage of trips that people are using by walking, when people choose to get around. How are they choosing to get around? That is part of the scorecard. Cities like El Cajon or Santee may have lower can percentage of people walking and El Cajon and has one of the highest pedestrian collision rates as well. That brings the score down. In the terms of on the ground projects they are doing some ñ this is our second annual scorecard - they are doing more than they did before, but other cities and in the region are doing significantly more. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Where does the city of San Diego fit in? KATHLEEN FERRIER: The city of San Diego ranked number nine, they are kind of in the middle. The city is very diverse, much more walkable than many cities. In terms of the scorecard we tried to take data on a percentage basis to account for the different sizes. We do have quite a range of city sizes in our region, from La Mesa and Coronado to the larger ones larger like the city of San Diego. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: It seems that from what you're saying in addition to the things that you're saying about planning and public transit, making intersections safe, there also needs to be a mental shift. I am wondering if the city can encourage that by their policies. KATHLEEN FERRIER: Absolutely. Policies are long long-term plans in place to change conversation. Just as important are the projects on the ground. We know the policies are good because they make good project standard and not the exception. These projects we are seeing more smaller projects that are changing the conversation. Words on paper are not enough. People need to see real change in the neighborhoods and start to understand that this is one small example of a larger chain. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Besides health, of what benefits benefit does walking have on communities? KATHLEEN FERRIER: I'm glad you asked. The the nice thing about walking is that everyone walks at some point in the day. It's not a divisive issue at all. We know that public officials decide walking is a number one intervention to prevent to create better health. Planners promote walking to return to a higher quality of life and bring back a social quality that we have missed if we are in our cars. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Does it have an impact on real estate? KATHLEEN FERRIER: Absolutely. That is also important. That is an economic benefit as well. We know around the country numerous studies have been done now where areas that are more walkable tend to have higher property value. In San Diego we looked at two communities ñ one more walkable than the other ñ and we also found that property value was higher in a more walkable neighborhood. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: You've done all this walking, you've done all these statistics, what happens with this information, Kathleen? KATHLEEN FERRIER: We want to get the word out as much as possible. So, this scorecard is an education piece for cities around the region. We want to go make presentations and engage in discussion about walkability with city staff and government leaders around the region. We will be doing that through the next twelve months in every city in our region. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Okay, I've been speaking with Kathleen Ferrier. Thank you and happy Halloween.