Walkable Streets Are Our Greatest Technology

We have the wonderpill in the palm of our hands.

If there were a technology that unleashed economic growth, aggressively improved our mental health crisis, undercut America’s adversaries, and could make a real dent five of the nation’s 10 leading causes of death, you would assume the government along with every bank, VC, and hedge fund would be racing to invest in it.

Instead, zoning and building codes make it illegal to bring about this technology in the vast majority of American towns and cities.

Apart from the obvious - walking is quite literally the most fundamental form of human movement - walkable streets have more potential to reduce vehicle traffic than any other technology. According to a 2021 study by the Maryland Transportation Institute and Center for Advanced Transportation Technology Laboratory, nearly 30 percent of all trips were under a mile, with another 24% coming in under a total of 3 miles.

Currently, the majority of Americans live in places where even a mile trip is either very inconvenient or near impossible without taking their car. Even going down the street to grab that one missing ingredient for the night’s dinner requires putting another vehicle on the road.

But cities can significantly reduce traffic and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by simply making the local elementary school and the grocery store accessible by foot or bike to those who live within a one-mile radius. While eliminating all short-range vehicle trips might be a fantasy in the short term, cutting out even 30-50% of them would see a 10-15% reduction in vehicles on the road across the United States.

As the nation transitions to becoming less auto-dependent, it also lowers the emissions produced by both tailpipe exhaust and tire particles. This also reduces dependence on oil nations, as well as the need to drill domestically, which undercuts a key funding source for many of America’s chief adversaries and also bolsters climate efforts. Lowered dependency on oil/cars also makes car ownership less of a necessity, and can allow municipalities to reduce or eliminate parking minimums, which in turn reduces both the cost of constructing new housing as well as the cost of living.

In all of this is also a reminder that technology doesn’t always mean “new.” Technological optimism can also look like working to preserve and usher in the return of methodologies, tools, and approaches that yielded success in previous generations.

If William Gibson is right that “the future is already here – it’s just not very evenly distributed,” then the greatest technological challenge facing the built environment is not constructing new ways of living, but rather distributing and democratizing access to the ways that have served humanity for centuries.