Pedestrians and Parking

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The cleanest and healthiest way to traverse neighborhoods and the downtown is as a pedestrian. Many European and U.S. cities have made safe walkways to help pedestrians get to their destinations, but other places have become notorious for their lack of amenities for walkers. As people stop walking and increase their use of cars, not only does the environment receive more air pollution but people’s health also declines.

Reid Ewing’s research team at Maryland’s National Center for Smart Growth reported in 2003 in the American Journal of Health Promotion that U.S. urban sprawl contributed to obesity, high blood pressure, hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes—results that seemed to point to the lack of walking done by people in the study. Ewing explained in a 2006 interview published on ScienceWatch.com, “Using health data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, this study
showed that American adults living in sprawling counties walk less, weigh more, and are more likely to be obese, and are more likely to suffer from high blood pressure than otherwise comparable adults living in compact counties (after accounting for individual socioeconomic and behavioral differences). This was the first study to show a link between urban form and the U.S. obesity epidemic.” Ewing’s study highlighted the often overlooked fact that mode of travel affects health and even the country’s healthcare costs.

European engineers have designed walking centers in several cities, including Copenhagen in Denmark, Cologne in Germany, Montpellier in France, and York in England. City planners can either design new car-free zones that admit only pedestrians and bicyclists or close off streets for periods of time to create temporary car-free zones. The sidebar on page 46 “Can
Bicycles Make a Difference?” takes a closer look at bicycles’ contribution to sustainable communities. Of course, roping off streets to exclude cars requires additional steps such as setting up access for business deliveries and providing parking for cars that reach the perimeter of the car-free zone. Redesigning cities to improve transportation is therefore a large task.

Parking availability has an important impact on the environment also mainly because it helps gets cars off the road quickly, allowing drivers to turn off their engines. Conversely, congestion caused by lack of parking spaces creates streets backed up with idling engines that emit exhaust. Multistory parking structures are better than large parking lots, which
cause the following problems:

1. remove large amounts of land from nature
2. contribute to rain runoff and soil erosion
3. absorb oils, fuels, and road salts that then wash away with runoff
4. hold heat and contribute to warming cities

Environmental engineers design new ecologically friendly parking garages to reduce the harm that sprawling parking lots have caused to the environment. The table on page 46 describes innovations for new community parking garages.

In California, the Santa Monica Civic Center parking garage provides convenient parking with many of the attributes listed in the table on page 46, plus additional innovations. Santa Monica’s garage is the nation’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)–certified parking structure because of these innovations: a storm water drainage and
treatment system for use in the sprinkler system; use of recycled construction materials; coatings and paints that produce a minimum of toxic vapor–producing substances; surface
glazing that promotes heating and cooling efficiency and reflects light to reduce electricity use; rooftop solar panels that generate onethird of the garage’s energy needs; and energy-efficient mechanical systems. The CNN reporter Desa Philadelphia noted, however, in 2008, “Those features weren’t cheap: the $29 million price tag for the car park is about $10 million more than for comparable garages. Santa Monica estimates that its parking structure will be profitable within fifteen years [of its construction].” Even parking garages have a place in sustainable communities if planners manage the costs carefully.

Conveniently located parking structures
help ease traffic congestion by reducing
the time a driver spends searching for
downtown parking. Garage builders
often include energy-saving lighting,
architecture that admits daylight, and
recycled building materials. This Ecoplex
parking garage in West Palm Beach,
Florida, included several principles of
green building in its construction and
use. (Tilt-up Concrete Association)