We are glad to see some discussion of making suburbs more walkable. This teaser of an article might help some of you bring up the topic in your suburb, although it doesn't give you any "how to" details.

For an understanding of the many steps that might be involved in getting more people moving by feet, investigate the menu of policy decisions needed to make Arlington, Virginia, a suburb where walking as transportation or recreation is very popular. Unfortunately the reference article we originally cited is no longer to be found.

For a somewhat more wonky approach, dig into this article about a case study of four suburbs, which concludes that making a suburb walkable is a decades-long process and not something to be achieved in a couple of years.

Since the sum total of these and other articles is that it takes a long time, start in the dead of winter to strategize about how you can begin to make it happen. For further inspiration and information, check out these pages from our website:

Suburban retrofit

Traffic calming

Walkability

Parklets, which are temporary conversions of parking spaces to "parks"

This month we answered a question from a website visitor about transportation strategies for the disabled, a topic that should be of concern in every community.

We will return with the next issue of Community Development Plus on a Thursday in February. Feel free to reply to this email if you have a comment. For questions, please use the public-facing page to ask your question. We answer them on a page that becomes viewable on our website.