Pedestrian path movement can be analyzed using video reworked with computer animation software.

More often than not, cars follow the paths prescribed by traffic engineers but pedestrians are a different story.  Many pedestrians venture outside the lines, whether to save time, energy, or take a route for which a path is not provided.  In some cases, these improvised pedestrian routes can be identified by the dirt path that develops through repeated use – this usually a clear sign that there is a problem with the form and paths provided.  But in most cases, we fail to sufficiently understand pedestrian behavior and design in ways that exhibit this lack of understanding.

That said, there are a number of ways in which this gap in the analysis can be filled.  I previously mentioned the possibilities of new gps-enabled handheld phones, which would be suitable for a downtown scale route and origin-destination analysis.  Also, Jan Gehl has a done a lot of work studying pedestrian behavior and developed a process that utilizes teams manually recording a number of important behavior factors.  And here (above image) is one method of tracking pedestrian movement – from pedestrianlevitation.net – that uses video reworked with computer animation software.

It is hard to study pedestrian behavior in cities without an ample supply of pedestrians.  But it is a historic lack of understanding and adequate attention that has created this dilemma.  The more attention we give to an analysis of pedestrians and the way they interact with the city, the more appropriate our design solutions will be, resulting in an increase in pedestrian users over time.

Right now there is very little (i.e. zero) analysis of this type taking place in Oklahoma City.  This is unfortunate but expected from a city that long ago decided to focus only on mobility as it relates to automobiles.  Hopefully, public works will begin to treat pedestrian issues like they matter, developing a process for analyzing circulation at least within active areas where pedestrian-friendliness is a stated priority (e.g. Downtown and Bricktown).  It might even be interesting to do “traffic counts” in the Underground to see how many pedestrians we are keeping off the streets.

But until that happens we can do some rudimentary analysis by identifying where pedestrian circulation problems are shown to exists – dirt paths.  So does anyone know of any dirt paths in Downtown or Bricktown?  I can think of a few, but am hoping you all can chime in with some examples I don’t know.

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CREATE YOUR OWN SUBTITLE

The town’s new pedestrian monkey bars…

me: …not only improved pedestrian connectivity, but have inspired downtown companies to give employees recess!

you: ?

What do you got?  Come on, make us laugh.

Greg Cerveny at urbanmonarch.com emailed today and had this to say:

I’m looking for the pedestrian friendly neighborhoods of OKC.  Something with grocery stores, entertainment, and dining within walking distance.  Any suggestions for places to start?

Initially, I though, “Dang, what am I supposed to tell this guy?.”  I mean, surely we have something to offer, but it is not immediately clear which neighborhood can really provide all of this within close walking distance.  But after thinking through it for a little while, I sent him back this list as my recommendations for the best pedestrian friendly neighborhoods in Oklahoma City.  It definitely not meant to be a comprehensive list (though sadly it might be), but the good news is that nearly every neighborhood I considered is trending towards a more pedestrian friendly future.


PEDESTRIAN FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOODS IN OKC

1. Mesta Park / Heritage Hills / Winans (between NW 13th on south and 23rd on north; Classen Blvd east to Robinson) – These are probably the most walkable neighborhoods.  Midtown is directly south across 13th street providing a growing selection of restaurants and bars.  There is a Homeland at Western and 18th that while not as yuppie-ready as a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s, does handle most of your grocery needs.  Also, there is a solid group of restaurant and retail establishments along 23rd street to the north, including: a just opened market named Market C (owned by the Cheever’s restaurant group) with great take-home dinner options and Cuppie’s and Joe, a new cupcake and coffee shop with outstanding cupcakes.  Plus, I would say that the long-term prospects for both Midtown and 23rd Street are very good.
2. Jefferson Park / The Paseo / Sparrow Park (directly north of 23rd Street) – The restaurants and galleries of the Paseo along with the aforementioned energy of 23rd make a walkable lifestyle a real possibility here.  You will find smaller houses, better values, great parks, and still tons of untapped potential.  Most grocery runs will require a trip in the car, or at least a short bike ride; but the previously mentioned Market C and a few corner convenience stores may make the necessary trips few and far between.
3. Midtown – There lots of new energy and new restaurants, including: McNellie’s Irish Pub, Irma’s Burgers, 1492, Café de Brazil, and Prairie Thunder Bakery (which has wonderful breads).  Great potential and within walkable distance to the 18th street Homeland, but there are still so many gaps in the fabric and there are not enough residents for it to even be considered a neighborhood.  Still, if you want to be a pioneer give it a shot.  The Sieber Hotel redevelopment looks to be a nice place to call home.
4. Crown Heights – This is a wonderful neighborhood within close walking distance to the Western restaurant corridor with lots of great dining and bar options.  Not too many other neighborhood amenities are currently available along Western and the neighborhood DOES NOT have sidewalks of any kind.  I love this neighborhood and was happy to call it home for a couple of years.  You probably can’t practice a fully walkable lifestyle here, but it still has its moments and is a great place to live.  (I would probably put Edgemere Park in the same category.)
5. Downtown / Bricktown / The Triangle – Similar to Midtown, all of the “urban” neighborhoods have yet to really take hold.  Bricktown probably has the best breadth of services, but has only limited living options.  The Triangle is within walking distance to Bricktown, but not much else.  Downtown has some terrific amenities like: the OKC Museum of Art, Civic Center Performance Center, Downtown Library, Ford Center Arena, restaurants, etc; but virtually every housing unit – if not 100% – is sold with a parking spot, which should give you some idea.  In my opinion, these neighborhoods are wonderful options if you have the money, but better values can be found in all of the previously mentioned locations.  Still, I have heard that prices are dropping in at least one new downtown housing development – Maywood Park – so maybe it is worth investigating further.

RESPONSE

What do you think?  After reading it again I am thinking that I definitely should have put Crown Heights at the bottom of the list, but am still pretty confident with the idea that Downtown / Bricktown / The Triangle are not currently the best options – probably #4 – though hopefully they will be at the top of the list sometime soon.  Also, I would be interested to get your thoughts on the neighborhoods I missed.  Perhaps I should have mentioned the campus area of Norman – which is probably the most walkable neighborhood in all of central Oklahoma – but I was thinking only in OKC proper.

One note, I realize that almost all of these neighborhoods (with the exception of Bricktown and the Triangle) are in the northwest quadrant of the city.  This points to a limitation on my own perspective and experience, but also to the historic growth pattern of the city.  So if you have ideas about completely different parts of the city that you think offer something special, please let me know as I would love to check them out.

I came across this article by Jan Gehl – an urban design rock star – in which he discusses the importance of the design of the first-floor of urban buildings in attracting pedestrians and creating active streets. Downtown Oklahoma City has made tremendous gains since MAPS, but we still have very few streets with the restaurants, shopping, and (above all) people most often found in a pedestrian-friendly urban environment. In the article Close Encounters with Building (note: downloads as a .pdf), Gehl explains the importance of the first ten feet of a building and how it can either help to create a street or public space that pedestrians want to visit or conversely, create a place that pedestrians will avoid.

Gehl has done a ton of research, often using teams of researchers to observe 100m sections of street and record measurements such as the number of pedestrians, pedestrian speed, number of stops, number of times they entered/exited a building, etc. Through this he has been able to identify a handful of design attributes that can either attract or deter pedestrians by creating what he calls the ‘urban scene at eye level’. Here is what Gehl has to say about the design attributes he has identified and how they can lead to creating a good or bad ‘urban scene at eye level’.

THE URBAN SCENE AT EYE LEVEL

Scale and Rhythm

Pedestrians experience the urban scene at maximum three mph, with plenty of time to enjoy the surroundings. Small units provide a wide range of experiences, and a large number of doors provide many points of exchange between outside and inside. A scale of three mph is compact and rich in sensory experience. A scale of 35 mph also features qualities worthy of sharing, but rarely are they meaningful to pedestrians.

Transparency

The opportunity to be on the inside looking out – and on the outside looking in – significantly broadens the range of experiences in the buildings themselves and in urban space. If we walk through the city close to the facades, the various display windows and opportunities to share what is happening in the buildings enrich our experience considerably. And people inside the buildings can follow what is happening in the surrounding urban space. Life inside and outside the buildings can thus interact for the benefit of both.

Appeals to Many Senses

We can draw on all our senses when we are close to buildings, and we have sufficient time to look, listen, smell and touch the good things on offer. A wealth of sensory impressions and shopping opportunities awaits. In contrast, a string of orange posters is a poor substitute.

Texture

Good materials and fine details are an attraction for people strolling through the city. There is ample opportunity to reach out and touch the buildings and examine the smallest detail. Attractive ground-level facades offer texture, good materials and carefully crafted details.

Mix of Functions

The functions inside buildings have a major impact on the activity and attractiveness of the spaces outside. The desire for narrow units and many doors in the facade can be echoed in a desire for wide functional variation inside. The outcome is many units, many points of exchange between outside and inside, and a wealth of many different events and experiences. The department store with its ten large display windows is far less interesting than the ten different functions in the street scene opposite.

Vertical Facade Rhythm

Walking along a ground floor fac?ade with primarily vertical rhythms makes the walk much more interesting and eye-catching. We move from ‘column to column’, which makes the walk seem shorter. Facades with primarily horizontal articulation intensify the feeling of distance – a long tiring prospect at eye height.

FACADE MAPS

With these attributes in hand, he creates a map of a city showing the “problem facades” that interrupt pedestrian paths and lower the overall quality of the pedestrian experience. For instance, this diagram compares the street facades of (a) Stockholm to those of (b) Copenhagen. The difference between the two maps speaks to a dramatic difference for pedestrians.

Look at the open plazas and squares in (b) Copenhagen, almost all of which are surrounded by pedestrian friendly (light facades). Whereas (a) Stockholm has block after block of poor facades with few pedestrian-friendly plazas or squares (the exception being the one shown on the lower left side. After creating these maps, Gehl has been able to work with cities in creating urban design guidelines that address the problems and has successfully attracted increased numbers of pedestrians in cities around the world.

FACADES IN OKC?

So here is the question, where do we have examples of each of these facade types in Oklahoma City? It would be great if we could create our own facade map of Downtown Oklahoma City & Bricktown and determine which areas are pro-pedestrian and anti-pedestrian according to the attribute listed above.

Here is what I think might work. Everyone could take some time to assess a street (or seven) – based on memory, by actually visiting, or using streetview- and add their assessment to our very own Google map — creating a Pedestrian Friendliness Map of Oklahoma City!

Here is an example of a green (green = pedestrian friendly) push pin I added for the Bricktown Canal as it approaches Mickey Mantle – click to enlarge.

While this is an example of a red (red = bad for pedestrians) push pin I added for Robert S. Kerr St. just west of EK Gaylord.

Give it a shot. Just use the descriptions mentioned above to assess each of the attributes. Here is the form info I used that you can paste into the pushpin description window:

Good for Pedestrians? (Yes, No or Maybe)

Scale and Rhythm: Yes
Transparency: No
Appeals to many Senses: Maybe
Texture: Yes
Mix of Functions: No
Vertical Facade Rhythm: Yes

Trust your gut as to whether it deserves a or a . It is easy to do so give it a shot!

Here is what you do:

1. click on the link below
2. click the ‘Save to My Maps’ link on the upper-left side
3. then click the button on the left side of the screen

CLICK HERE TO START ADDING TO THE MAP

Here is what our efforts have produced so far:


View Larger Map