Friday
Dec282012

Snow Falling on Cities

Brent Toderian on the advantage of walkable cities in inclement weather:

In the broader sense, big snowfalls can illustrate how especially vulnerable car-dependent cities and suburbs are to disruptive weather patterns. Is everything you need widely separated — home, job, shopping, your kids’ activities — with driving the only option? If so, snowstorms can really make life difficult or even miserable.

Compact, “complete,” walkable, transit-friendly cities on the other hand might feel the effects of snowstorms, with disruptions to transit especially where it shares the roads with cars, but they tend to be more resilient, with things closer together and more options on how to get around.

There is a beautiful, muffled calm to a city in the snow. I was in Washington D.C. for a major snowstorm in January, 2000. We had no issues with mobility. In fact, getting around may have been easier due to the city essentially shutting down. Our problem turned out to be that almost everything we wanted to do was closed. It is a strange and unique feeling being almost the only ones in the rotunda and walking the quiet, deserted streets had an almost otherworldly quality.

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