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Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk

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Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk

#321

Post by deeg »

teucris wrote: post #114

Incredible analysis! As a Seattleite I can say the conclusions here are very close to accurate, with the key additional note being that distance is not the only thing that defines walkability. Seattle has some of the most confounding civil engineering I’ve ever seen, and I’ve lived in five cities and visited dozens more. Here are some things that make a pedestrian life near impossible in my neighborhood: - two high-t…

I lived in Seattle for a couple of years (lower Queen Anne) and live in Boston now. I miss the sane traffic patterns (and drivers) of Seattle.

Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk

#322

Post by kneebonian »

battery_glasses wrote: post #281

This underscores how important small businesses are to the health of a city. I live a in less walkable neighborhood on this map - but about a year ago a small (tiny really, ~700sqft) corner store opened up 2 blocks from me. It sells coffee, pastry, simple sandwiches, but also pantry staples (flour, sugar, milk etc.) and has a really good beer and wine selection. I can't do my normal grocery shopping there, but being…

Shame we decided to shutter all those down across the country, for an extended period because they were deemed "non-essential", leading to many of them to shutter forever. At the same time massive mega-corps were able to be deemed essential, and allowed to continue to operate, turning record profits.

But of course that's just conspiracy theory thinking and only someone who hates grandma would say something like that.

Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk

#323

Post by lph »

jobs_throwaway wrote: post #128

Do any Seattle-ites not have a car? How do you get around? Asking as a NYer who would consider living there if the car-free life wouldn't be too painful

It's possible, but you have to carefully choose where to live. I spent my 20's in Seattle with no car: I lived in an apartment-dense neighborhood close to shops and groceries (Capitol Hill), and relied on buses, walking, and biking for transportation. That was before Uber and Lyft, which would have helped to fill in the gaps. It was a fun bohemian lifestyle, but I wouldn't want to do it now that I have kids and have a much busier schedule. Buses here are really slow.

Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk

#324

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

Dig1t wrote: post #291
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My family lives in the UK and they all own cars. None of them have ever had the experience that you're describing. Either you're confused, or making it up, or there's something happening as an experiment in a few cities that you're blowing out of proportion.

I admit that the way it was described to me was probably exaggerated, but this is what I'm talking about: https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23073992.traffic-filters-w... "People can drive freely around their own neighbourhood and can apply for a permit to drive through the filters, and into other neighbourhoods, for up to 100 days per year. This equates to an average of two days per week." This is enforced with surve…

https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/57869/1/15...

which links to:

https://www.oxford.gov.uk/news/article/2332/joint_statement_...

> If residents in the permit areas are not using a permit or run out of permits, they will still be able to drive to any destination in Oxford or elsewhere, whenever they like, as often as they like. Depending on their location and destination, they might have to use a different route to avoid the filters, which would usually be the ring road.

The reason we have proposed these changes is because – as everyone who lives and visits Oxford knows – the city has had awful congestion for decades. This is damaging both our economy and our environment, and is making the bus network unviable.

Our aim is to reduce traffic levels and congestion, make the buses faster and more reliable, and make cycling and walking safer and more pleasant.

Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk

#325

Post by marssaxman »

loeg wrote: post #295
Gigachad wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you guys not have red light cameras? Australia has them everywhere so running a red light is almost never seen.

We do not have many red light cameras, although there is some recent talk of increasing them (and rolling out speed enforcement cameras). There are a handful.

Too many.

Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk

#326

Post by dweinus »

loeg wrote: post #306
dweinus wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically anywhere in District 5, including some of Aurora: https://www.knkx.org/2015-election/2015-10-23/in-seattles-si...

"And are also unsafe to walk on," though? Most of those are residential streets with low traffic. I lived in that area and ran around somewhat regularly for several years. The street I mentioned as the worst one is in that district. :-)

Unfortunately so. There are some egregious ones up there like that, but also if you step one block off of any major thoroughfare the sidewalk ends, yet there is still consistent traffic. This includes streets that connect schools, libraries, parks, etc. There were 271 pedestrian injuries in Seattle last year, 17 were fatal. Source: https://remoteapps.wsdot.wa.gov/highwaysafety/collision/data...

Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk

#327

Post by marssaxman »

bears-n-beets wrote: post #308
bialpio wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (...) that's not something I would consider a viable walk. Why not? As long as it's truly a 15m walk? The metric should take into account that the speed is going to be reduced when walking on a steep incline, otherwise it's a bad metric...

You might change your mind if you saw how steep Queen Anne Hill is, haha

I used to walk up and down Queen Anne with a backpack on as pre-conditioning for climbing trips!

Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk

#328

Post by dag11 »

marssaxman wrote: post #318
2bitencryption wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And my personal favorite: Street traffic is allowed through Pike Place Market. Every weekend I have a grand old time in the market, watching tourists make the worst mistake of their visit, their rental car crawling at 1mph through probably the largest tourist attraction in the PNW.

Street traffic is allowed through Pike Place Market because the vendors want it that way. The Market is an irreplaceable treasure and I think we generally ought to support the preferences of the people who make it work, for fear of "fixing what ain't broke". How much damage can drivers do at 1 MPH, anyway?

Do the vendors specifically want cars as a whole, or specifically their cars and delivery vehicles? We could allow just the latter, and prohibit cars that aren't in service of the market. Similar to the "Healthy Streets." The rules won't be 100% honored of course, but it'd likely reduce a substantial amount of the traffic there. Especially if towing is on the table for non-Market-affiliated cars parked there.

Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk

#329

Post by dag11 »

fsckboy wrote: post #320
sbierwagen wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seattle's street plan is so stupid it has its own wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_layout_of_Seattle >These three grid patterns (due north, 32 degrees west of north, and 49 degrees west of north) are the result of a disagreement between David Swinson "Doc" Maynard, whose land claim lay south of Yesler Way, and Arthur A. Denny and Carson D. Boren, whose land claims lay to the north (with Henry Y…

my favorite street layout in Seattle is that a part of it got named "Tangletown" (there's a rip in the fabric of the continuum of the big grid right there)

Maps link:

https://www.google.com/maps/@47.6683919,-122.3316273,16.6z

Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk

#330

Post by tantalor »

battery_glasses wrote: post #288
ThePowerOfFuet wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (btw this store is not reflected on the map for coffeeshops or groceries.) Why not fix that? Submit it to OSM, Apple Maps, or Google Maps or all three.

It shows up on all 3, I think it might be a labeling issue. My guess is that its a classified as a "convenience store", but in reality its closer to a coffeeshop and bottleshop that sells pantry items.

The term is "bodega"
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