A pedestrian perspective.
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WALKABILITY AND REAL ESTATE IN CALGARY
Proximity to amenities – an area’s accessibility – has become one of the key determinants of a residential property’s value, according to the Real Estate Investment Network.
And a neighbourhood’s ‘walkability’ to those amenities is becoming increasingly more important to potential homebuyers.
REIN says the latest research shows that there is indeed an association between a neighbourhood’s Walk Score and the value people place on real estate in that neighbourhood.
“The city of Calgary has seen inner-city neighbourhood real estate prices skyrocket in recent years as people become fed up with long commute times from outer suburbs,” said REIN research analyst Allyssa Epp in a commentary. “Between 2000 and 2012, the 10 communities that saw the largest spikes in average home prices were in the city’s core and surrounding neighbourhoods. Of these 10 neighbourhoods, the average home price increased between 205-260 per cent – a result that the Calgary Real Estate Board says is directly linked to proximity to more amenities and an increase in alternate transportation options.”
However, overall Calgary was recently ranked the least walkable in a top 10 list of Canada’s biggest cities.
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ARE GPS SYSTEMS AFFECTING OUR PERCEPTION?
Yup.
The people who used the digital navigation device demonstrated pretty good route recognition and rather poor survey knowledge. By comparison, the paper map users scored better on the survey test and almost perfect on the route test. … pedestrians who use computer navigation fail to envision, encode, and memorize the cognitive maps they otherwise would have. The cost of convenience, in other words, is spatial orientation.
The study was more or less replicated a couple years later by a group of Japanese researchers. This time people using a GPS navigation system took longer routes, made more stops, walked more slowly, and drew poor map sketches compared to people who used paper maps. The fact that GPS maps undermined spatial awareness half a world away suggests the basic behavioral phenomenon here is a pretty universal one.
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A WALKING REVOLUTION – The Movement Making Americans Happier & Healthier
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The adorable video of the day:
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US Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin announced that she is preparing a Call to Action on Walking, which is being compared to the famous 1964 Surgeon General’s Report on the dangers of smoking. “Walking is easy,” Dr. Benjamin told a group of health, business, education, and government leaders who came together in Washington, D.C. to advance a national walking movement. “Everyone can do it and it’s fun. We have to make being healthy joyful.”
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Stephen Rees expressed some surprise at that video, and it made me feel uneasy too.
Why doesn’t the world outside N.America make these videos? Because walking is obvious by design (mixed use, ped-first streets etc.) Is the solution to what ails N.Am more of these videos, of this cajoling; or is it to fix the street-making protocol, to adopt form-first zoning and ped-first engineering.
The inclusion of the ageds at the end, on trails with their poles, reminds me of the characterisation of cycling as a sport only here in Van. All special routes and equipment: drive, park, walk/ride, then drive home.
Fill a city with all the things the video-people say they see (birds and trees etc.) and everyone will walk. Fill it with car sewers, and few will.