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Comment by DoreenMichele | Hacker News Reader

I'm a big fan of walking. Unless you are literally wheelchair bound, most people can walk.

Most of us don't do enough of it and it's one of the safest forms of exercise. We really should be designing our cities and built environments to be more walkable so more people get in 30 minutes of brisk walking daily just from running errands without really trying to exercise per se.

People would be healthier. Pollution levels would be lower. Studies show that walkable, mixed use neighborhoods foster higher sales for local businesses and are thus typically more prosperous. "Eyes on the street" is a known antidote to crime and you get that primarily by having a pedestrian-friendly built environment.

And I don't believe walking has any track record of fostering heart attacks.

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During lockdown, if allowed, a walk can be really nice. Some fresh air. Not sitting. Its a complimentary reason to get a dog (I don't like dogs, do like walking, so don't opt for one). Also, you can combine it with an audiobook, podcast, meditation (I got taught a mindfulness technique focussed on walking), music, or just the sounds of nature or the city. Or combine it with public transport, or an errand. My daughter is almost 3, she loves walking outside.

While you're right from an exercise standpoint, you're dead wrong from a design one, at least if you want to apply it broadly. A lot of us live in places where summer days can easily top 100 degrees, and the better part of the year it's just too darn unpleasant to walk outside. I suppose it's possible if one works at an office with showers and lockers to allow for changing clothes, but even then it's unpleasant and still unsuitable for everything else.

Historically, Middle Eastern cities were built on plateaus above the desert floor and streets were oriented such that prevailing winds cooled them. That plus other design decisions helped keep streets at tolerable temperatures during the day, even when it was above 100 degrees Fahrenheit out on the desert floor.

We have forgotten how to do that kind of thing, but that doesn't mean it cannot be done. There is a lot we can do to mitigate urban heat island effect and use design to make even our outdoor public spaces pedestrian-friendly in terms of local weather.

I'd like to read more about this, and just wondering if you could point me in the right direction.

I don't really have anything at my fingertips, but a quick google gets me this piece that looks decent on a quick skim:

https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00380121/document

I run r/UrbanForestry. It's brand new and we are likely to talk about passive solar design at the city level as part of what we do there. I already mentioned the thing I stated above about Middle Eastern cities. You are welcome to join us there.

Some terms that may be helpful in a search: Iranian vernacular architecture; desert vernacular architecture; passive solar.

It is something I hope to put more information together on, but one challenge is that I imagine a lot of primary source materials from that region of the world are not in English and I never learned any of the major languages of that area, like Farsi and Arabic.

I do occasionally speak with Middle Eastern planners and the like and ask them questions, but I haven't yet hit pay dirt in a big way. My recollection is that articles about Iranian architecture have generally been the most useful and promising so far. Iran was previously known as Persia and it is one of the older cultures on the planet and has a rich history.

Edit: I threw some more articles together here: https://www.reddit.com/r/UrbanForestry/comments/jhmmuz/the_d...

This is a lot of great information, and I'll check out that subreddit when I'm at a computer. Thank you!

That's a very good idea, until you realize how specialized the modern city is. How many people does a single supermarket serve? How many a bakery, dentist, bicycle shop, etc.? Walkable means about 2-3km away, and that's not as the crow flies. If you really want that kind of city, you end up with something pretty dense. Personally I would prefer a tad more space.

I live in a small town. America used to have a lot of thriving small towns with lively downtown areas. I am interested in seeing more support for that sort of thing.

Not everyone lives in the big city. Not everyone needs to. Even within the big city, there is lots of room for improvement.

And making it possible for more people to run some of their errands on foot doesn't mean "You aren't allowed to leave this 5 square kilometer area and can never drive or use public transit." It just means some of the things you do normally can be reached on foot (for a greater percentage of people than is true currently).

I should have mentioned that I live in europe. By US standards, our cities are extremely walkable. That being said, I have three super markets that I regularly buy from. Two of them are in walkable distance (when carrying few groceries). For the third, cheapest, I have to use either a car or a cargo bike.

If you start adding up how much of that space between you and your destination is parking lot space and not a building/home, you'll realize that you could still have some space in your home but have a business area that is not 70% asphalt with white lines.

There is no parking space between me and my usual targets that can easily be removed. The little parking space there is is part of the roads and removing it would consequently move the buildings far closer together, by about 2m out of 10m to 15m, I guess. I don't want to have the building on the other side of the road be 10-20% closer, I like my sunlight and some privacy.

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