Walkable City

I think I got this book from a recommendation by Bill Gates’ annual reading list, and it’s well appreciated. Walkable City by career city planner Speck dives deep into what makes a city walkable and the effect that has on the health and happiness of its inhabitants. Its subtitle is ‘How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time.’ While the book is very U.S.-focused, it draws contrasts with European cities and even some from other continents.

The book covers how to make a city (more) walkable in 10 easy steps. Well… okay, the steps are simple to understand, but not necessarily easy to implement. Jeff intersperses the what and why of these steps (with literature references) with anecdotes from his own career, making it both a compelling and a fun read.

I live in San Francisco, a city that is frequently touted in the book as one of the most walkable and bikable cities in the US - losing out only to New York city in both those aspects and its coverage in this book. 😁

The 100+ pages that were added in this 10th anniversary edition were a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand I liked seeing the expanded coverage on more recent improvements in San Francisco and New York (like their successful bike-share programs). On the other hand, this last section feels overly politicized. While I agree with the author on all the points made, the topic would have remained compelling - and more universally accessible - without some of the overt political statements.