Phoenix population 1.3 million, Phoenix-Mesa MSA (Metropolitan
Statistical Area) 3.2 million, from the 2000 Census.
Phoenix, like all newer sunbelt cities tends to sprawl. The
city itself covers a remarkable 500 square miles. Other random statistics.
Other cities in the Phoenix metro area are Mesa, Tempe,
Scottsdale, Gilbert, Chandler, Glendale.
The Phoenix area is referred to as the "Valley of the Sun"
for it's many many sunshiney days (some 300+ per year).
In case you didn't know, Phoenix is in a desert and tends to be
hot. But it really is a "dry heat" usually very
low humidity. Staying out of direct sun is advisable -- big
hats, perisols, umbrellas, whatever it takes. There is also
a seasonal monsoon that occurs beginning in the latter part of
July and last through August where the high temperatures moderate
somewhat (around 100 degrees F), but the humidity goes up as well.
During the monsoon, evening thunderstorms are frequent.
June-July, and September tend to be just very hot. The
remaining months, October through May tend to be very pleasant.
It's hot here, and getting measurably hotter thanks to what is
called the heat island
effect. We have just completed the hottest July on record. Average
highs for July are 104 degrees F.
The urban core of Phoenix is not very intersting to me. There are two professional sports venues, and a whole bunch of office buildings. Although there is some effort to change this, most of the infrastructure downtown only serves the office-building trade and it's a ghost town after 5PM on weekdays and all day on weekends (with the exception being a sports event keeps some of the businesses open, but not much).
There is a core downtown in Tempe, which is mainly tied to the
humongous Arizona State University (50,000+ students or somesuch?).
Tempe is considered "hip"; gay mayor, progressive
politically and there is much downtown development (live/work
lofts and such) so we'll see how that turns out.
Tempe is a LAB silver-level "bicycle friendly"
community -- though I believe it has far too much emphasis on
facilities (read facilities as bike lanes). Tempe has a
relatively high rate of non-solo driver commuting (walk/bike/transit).
See Jim Gregory's The
Carfree Database.
The downtown is primarily entertainment oriented and it
definitely has vibrant streetlife. The downside is that not
much in the way of practical goods can be purchased there, no
hardware store for example. Detractors complain about
"chainification", e.g. a tendancy toward mom-and-pop
stores being replaced with Gap and Borders.
There are a handful of other "downtowns" in the valley that I am not too familiar with, though they all have significantly less than Phoenix or Tempe: Mesa (the second largest city in the area), Gilbert, Chandler, Glendale.
Distances tend to be large -- making walking impractical except in some limited circumstances. There is a bus system that does reasonably well, given the enourmous area that it is expected to serve. The area is laid out on a somewhat regular grid pattern whereby there is a major arterial street every 1 mile. There is generally a bus line on every arterial (in the populated and more established areas). Bus trips going only East/West or only North/South aren't too bad. Where it gets ugly is in the general case you will need to transfer one or more times to get where you are going, so many destinations while being theoretically reachable by bus, are infeasible -- figure 75 minutes for a 10 mile trip.
Here's the official transit system website.
By the way, a much fought-over and ballyhooed light rail is
moving forward, it's initial 20 mile run will serve and link the
Phoenix and Tempe, scheduled to begin service at the end of 2006.
Anyway, the bottom line: walking is almost always impractical;
buses are usually impractical.
So if somebody doesn't want to drive a car, that pretty much
leaves bicycling.
I can give the following (possibly trite) advice:
And I can't stress enough -- cycling vehicularly is of the utmost
importance. The streets here are "well engineered"
(long sight lines, and large radius turns, for example) which, it
seems to me, causes traffic to move faster and leave less margin
of error for unexpected cycling behavior (say wrong-way sidewalk
riding, or unlit night riding).
Moving on from the general Phoenix and surrounding metro
areas, to where I live specifically:
I live in a section of Phoenix called Ahwatukee. In city
parlance, Ahwatukee is one of the seven "villiages" of
Phoenix. Although Ahwatukee itself has a population of
around 75,000, it has no discernible center. (the whole area is a
proto-Edge City, see Joel Garreau's book of the same name).
The closest thing to a town center are the power centers located
between the intersection of the two busies arterials, and the
highway (Interstate 10).
The village is rectangular, about 10 miles wide (east and west)
and 4 miles high (north and south). The only outlets
are on the eastern edge where there are 4 major interchanges with
I-10 and continue east to other suburbs (Tempe and Chandler).
All other boundaries are either Indian Reservations or Preserves
and have no through roads. This gives rise to the
reference, used fondly by some residents, that Ahwatukee is the
"world's largest cul-de-sac". Whether that is
good or bad I won't say, but it certainly means there is no
through traffic here.
I live approximately in the geographic middle. This
affords me very convenient access for practically all my trips.
A partial list of common destinations:
Less than 1 mile:
Less than 3 miles:
I simply arrange my affairs to make my trips locally, it's not
hard at all to do the vast majority of trips within my community
by bike. It is only slightly longer than driving a car. (I
have access to a car for the occaisional large/heavy items).
The road system is dominated by the network of arterial streets
which tend to be unpleasant to cycle on -- my area is
strategically located so that I can reach pretty much anywhere
without having to use arterials if I wish. This really
helps for those less experienced with road cycling.
Although I still feel like I can't get rid of my car (and we could never get rid of my wife's car for other reasons), I rarely need to drive.
Transit in Ahwatukee has taken a big step up in the last two
years. Formerly we had only one bus line that was handy for
going to downtown Tempe and ASU. Recently we have gotten an
extension on an east-west line, and our own "neighborhood
circulator" which twists it's way around virtually all the
commercial destinations within the villiage and, according to the
transit planners, within a 5 minute walk of over 75% of the
residents. Ridership
is higher than expected, at almost 30,000 boardings per month.
The majority of riders have been school aged kids, say 13-15
years old -- i.e. old enough to be on their own, but not old
enough to have a car.
The circulator is useful if you live near it (I am a 10 minute
walk from the nearest stop). For me, I greatly prefer my
bicycle.
Additionally, we have a brand spanking new park-and-ride lot and
a new express
bus line featuring fancy "coach"-style buses that
goes to downtown Phoenix. This is good for commuters, but nobody
else. I have a tendancy to feel this is a very expensive way to
get a few bus riders -- though I haven't studied the costs.
Other negatives:
Ahwatukee is very much a bedroom community -- there are very few
"real" jobs here, so most commute out for work.
The Right to Travel by Human Power : Treatise about use of bike, walking, etc. ..
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/carfree/
Bikes at Work / Living Carfree Among other stuff, has a database hookup to Census, commuting info
Ironically, here is a link to info about my car, a Honda Accord, the FAQ for rec.autos.makers.honda
Here's an email i copied off the walkable mailing list -- Dan Burden's 12 point list of things that make a city walkable:
----- Original Message -----
From: DBurden@aol.com
Sent: Monday, November 11, 2002 12:01 PM
Subject: How to Pick A Walkable Town
This is one of the most important, redundant and necessary
questions for anyone to ask. Our web site, walkable.org has
a 12-step program for community walkability, but to find a
walkable town is slightly different. So, I will build a new list
of 12 most important things to rate.
Good towns come in all regions of the country. The best are often
small places like Keene, New Hampshire, Winter Park, Florida,
Flagstaff, Arizona or Los Gatos, California, or they include big
cities like Chicago, Illinois; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Portland,
Oregon; or Denver, Colorado that have many small, well designed
compact, intact neighborhoods. You can live in a town that is
sprawling itself to death, and still lead a healthy life in
several great neighborhoods.
I once lived in Missoula, Montana without a car for nearly ten
years, very happy, healthy and involved. Missoula is a
hearty sprawl place ... but it has and continues to build upon
its walkability, while other parts of the same town and county
attempt to destroy themselves.
Walkability Items to be rated are always on a scale. A 1-10 scale
can be personalized and applied to each of the below twelve
categories. Common sense and powers of observation are used to
make these determinations. The categories are in no particular
order. Never pick a town that you have not visited. Always ask
for second and third opionions.
If I were making a commitment to move to a town I would want the
town to have 6 or more of the following 12categories:
Walkable Communities Have:
1. Intact town centers. This center includes a quiet,
pleasant main street with a hearty, healthy set of stores. These
stores are open for business a minimum of 8 hours a day. The
stores include things like barbers/beauticians, hardware,
druggist, small grocery/deli, sets of good restaurants, clothing,
variety store, ice cream shop, stores that attract children, many
youth and senior services, places to conduct civic and personal
business, library, all within a 1/4 mile walk of the absolute
center. If this is a county seat, the county buildings are
downtown. If this is an incorporated town the town hall is in the
town center. The library is open for business at least 10 hours a
day 6-7 days a week. There is still a post office downtown.
2. Residential densities, mixed income, mixed use. Near the
town center, and in a large town at appropriate transit locations
there will be true neighborhoods. Higher densities are toward the
town center and in appropriate concentrations further out.
Housing includes mixed income and mixed use. A truly walkable
community does not force lots of people to drive to where they
work. Aspen, for example, is a great place to shop and play
...but fails to provide housing for anyone who works there.
Granny flats, design studios and other affordable housing are
part of the mix in even the weathiest neighborhoods.
3. Public Space. There are many places for people to
assemble, play and associate with others within their
neighborhood. The best neighborhoods have welcoming public
space within 1/8th mile (800 feet) of all homes. These space are
easily accesed by all people.
4. Universal Design. The community has a healthy respect
for people of all abilities, and has appropriate ramps, medians,
refuges, crossings of driveways, sidewalks on all streets where
needed, benches, shade and other basic amenities to make walking
feasible and enjoyable for everyone.
5. Key Streets Are Speed Controlled. Traffic moves on
main street and in neighborhoods at safe, pleasant, courteous
speeds. Most streets are designed to keep speeds low. Many of
these streets are tree lined, have on-street parking and use
other methods that are affordable means to keep traffic speeds
under control. There is an absence of one-way couplets designed
to flush downtown of its traffic in a rush or flight to the burbs.
In most parts of the nation the streets are also green, or have
other pleasant landscaping schemes in dry climates.
6. Streets, trails are well linked. The town has good block
form, often in a grid or other highly connected pattern. Although
hilly terrain calls for slightly different patterns, the linkages
are still frequent. Some of the newer neighborhoods that
were built to cul-de-sac or other fractured patterns are now
being repaired for walking by putting in trail connectors in many
places. These links are well designed so that there are many eyes
on these places. Code for new streets no longer permits long
streets that are disconnected.
7. Design is Proplerly Scaled to 1/8th, 1/4 and 1/2 mile radius
segments. From most homes it is possible to get to most
services in 1/4 mile (actual walked distance). Neighborhood
elementary schools are within a 1/4 mile walking radius of most
homes, while high schools are accessible to most children (1 mile
radius). Most important features (parks) are within 1/8th mile,
and a good, well designed place to wait for a high frequency (10-20
minutes) bus is within 1/2 mile. Note that most of these details
can be seen on a good planning map, and even many downloaded from
the web.
8. Town is Designed for People. Look for clues that
decisions are being made for people first, cars second.
Does the town have a lot of open parking lots downtown? Are a lot
of streets plagued with multiple commercial driveways, limited on-street
parking, fast turning radii on corners. Towns designed for
people have many investments being made in plazas, parks,
walkways ... rarely are they investing in decongesting
intersections on the far reaches of town. Towns designed for
people are tearing down old, non-historic dwellings, shopping
plazas and such and converting them to compact, mixed use, mixed
income properties. Ask to review the past year of building
permits by category. Much is told about what percentage of
construction that is infill and independent small builder stock
versus big builder single price range housing or retail stock.
9. Town is Thinking Small. The most walkable towns
are boldly steppping forward requiring maximum parking allowed,
versus minimum required. Groceries and other important stores are
not permitted to build above a reasonable square footage, must
place the foot print of the structure to the street, etc.
Palo Alto, for instance, caps their groceries at 30,000 square
feet. This assures that groceries, drug stores and other
important items are competitive at a size that is neighborhood
friendly. Neighborhood schools are community centers. Older
buildings are rebuilt in place, or converted to modern needs.
Most parking is on-street.
10. In Walkable Communities Ther Are Many People Walking.
This sounds like a silly statement at first ... but think again.
Often there are places that look walkable, but no one walks.
Why? There is always a reason. Is it crime? Is it
that there is no place to walk to, even though the streets and
walkways are pleasant? Are the downtown stores not open
convenient hours? You should be able to see a great
diversity of those walking and bicycling. Some will be very
young, some very old. People with disabilities will be common.
Another clue, where people walk in great abundance virttually all
motorists are courteous to pedestrians. It is true.
11. The Town and Neighborhoods have a Vision. Seattle,
Washington, Portland, Oregon and Austin, Texas are just three
examples where neighborhood master plans have been developed.
Honolulu sets aside about $1M per year of funds to be spent by
each neighborhood. Visionary, master plans provide
direction, build ownership of citizens, engage diverse people,
and create opportunities for implementation, to get past sticky
issues, and deal with the most basic, fundamental, necessary
decisions and commitment. There are budgets set aside for
neighborhoods, for sidewalks, trails, links, parks. The
community no longer talks about where they will get the money,
but how they will change their priorities.
12. Decision Makers Are Visionary, Communicative, and
Forward Thinking. The town has a strong majority of leaders
who "get it". Leaders know that they are not to do all
the work ... but to listen and respond to the most engaged,
involved, broad minded citizens. They rarely are swayed by the
anti-group, they seek the opinions and involvement big brush
citizens and retailers. They are purposefully changing and
building policies, practices, codes and decisions to make their
towns pleasant places for people ... reinvesting in the town
center, disinfesting in sprawl. These people know the difference
between a green field, brown field and grey field. They know what
Active Living by Design is all about. The regional
government understands and supports the building of a town
center, and is not attempting to take funds from the people at
the center to induce or support sprawl. Often there is a
charismatic leader on the town board, chamber of commerce,
planning board, there is an architectural review team, a historic
preservation effort, and overall good public process.
Check out the web site of the town ... if they focus on their
golf courses, tax breaks, great medical services, scenic majestic
mountains, or proximity to the sea ... fail to emphasize their
neighborhood schools, world class library, lively downtown, focus
on citizen participation ... they are lost, bewitched and
bewildered in their own lust and lure of Walt Disney's Pleasure
Island.
.