Urban planners use the term ​“walkable” a lot. Walkable neighborhoods are good neighborhoods. Walkability improves health. It’s good for the environment. It facilitates urban interactions and social connectivity. It boosts neighborhood economies. It’s even good for your brain. Because of this, planners have focused a lot of attention lately on creating walkable communities. More and better walkable neighborhoods will be a big part of RPA’s fourth regional plan recommendations.

But as urban planners, when we say we’re creating walkable neighborhoods, this needs to mean walkable for everyone. And as Garnette Cadogan explains in the Literary Hub essay ​“Walking While Black,” in practice our cities are a lot more walkable for some than for others.

Equally important to good planning and design is the commitment to everyone being able to walk free of fear, harassment and prejudice. As urban planners, we need to promote policies that encourage walkability for all – not just better policing, but also things that lead to less crime, street harassment, and better walkability for the disabled.

Everyone should have the right to walk, and enjoy, our cities. If we succeed in creating walkable cities for some, but not all, we’re failing as urban planners.

Photo: Nancy Borowick