Ian Lockwood, a specialist in designing pedestrian-friendly cities from the consulting firm AECOM, shared a vision in early November with a joint session of the Hillsboro City Council and the planning commission for making downtown Hillsboro more walkable. A video of the presentation on best practices for accessible, walkable downtowns and main streets is now available on the Metro website.
Lockwood was visiting the region as a follow up to the walking audits that AECOM and Dan Burden from the Walkable Communities Institute conducted last June in Hillsboro, Southeast Portland and Beaverton in coordination with Metro.
Lockwood’s presentation outlined the evolution of city building from ancient settlements clustered around waterways to the automobile-centric designs of the 20th century. He illustrated the ways in which cities have become increasing unfriendly to the first and most basic form of transportation, walking.
The world’s most progressive cities, Lockwood argued, are trending toward “rewarding the short more sustainable trip, rather than encouraging the longer more unsustainable trip.” For Lockwood, rewarding the short trip means designing walkable neighborhoods where people can live, work, shop and play all within one area rather than having to drive across town to reach an office, school or shopping center.
Lockwood urged the city council and planning commission to use the litmus test of asking, "Does the project, policy or initiative directly advance the utility of the pedestrian?" when making decisions that affect the built environment of Hillsboro. Lockwood ended his presentation by proposing that Hillsboro change the streets in the downtown area north of Baseline Street from one-way back to two-way streets. This change, Lockwood said, could be the first step in creating a more vibrant, walkable and accessible downtown area.
Pedestrian-friendly downtowns and main streets help support the region's six desired outcomes by creating vibrant communities where people can choose to walk for pleasure and to meet their everyday needs.