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<br />Finally, good downtowns are walkable. What does "walkable" mean? Technically you can walk
<br />just about anywhere, right? That is true. But to be truly walkable, a place must be inviting to
<br />walkers and must provide them with comfort, security, and interest. Sidewalks must not only be
<br />present, but they must be sufficiently wide. Street trees and awnings should protect from the sun
<br />and rain. Parked cars should protect them from traffic. Storefronts and architecture should offer
<br />visual interest. The street pattern should be fine grained and interconnected so that pedestrians
<br />can take direct routes to their destination. When all of these factors are in place, a downtown is
<br />truly walkable.
<br />Fortunately, Downtown Redwood City has all of the&e traits and is building on them as we
<br />speak. Downtown Redwood City is already a "park once" environment and effective parking
<br />requirements will capitalize on this quality and enhance it. This is critical, because park-once
<br />environments have many advantages. First, they simply require fewer parking spaces. A given
<br />number of shops and restaurants will require fewer parking spaces if they are clustered together
<br />in a park-once downtown environment than they would if they were scattered about the
<br />landscape in the typical fashion. This saves businesses, property owners, and the City a lot of
<br />money because, as we discussed earlier, parking is expensive. In addition to cost savings, having
<br />fewer parking facilities makes an area much more attractive. Also, with fewer parking lots come
<br />fewer driveways cutting across sidewalks, which adds to pedestrian comfort and safety.
<br />Finally, and perhaps most importantly, by encouraging people to park once and walk to all
<br />subsequent destinations, we add bodies to the sidewalk. Why is this important? There are several
<br />reasons. First, it gives merchants an opportunity for "customer sharing." If people walk by a
<br />business on their way to somewhere else, that business has the opportunity to attract the
<br />customer in and sell them something, too. (Mall designers are keenly aware of this phenomenon,
<br />and that is why anchor stores are located far from each other, with the smaller shops in between).
<br />If the customer parks at each destination and never hits the sidewalk, this opportunity doesn't
<br />exist. Second, it adds safety to the area. A busy sidewalk is a safe sidewalk. Danger (or the
<br />perception of danger) lurks when a street is\deserted, but in the company of your fellow citizens
<br />you can be assured of a good level of security. Lastly, to paraphrase the great urbanist Jane
<br />Jacobs, life attracts life, and dullness repels life. People like to be in the presence of other people,
<br />and by creating a park once environment we create busy sidewalks which are an attraction in
<br />themselves and will encourage more people to visit Downtown.
<br />Shared Parkina
<br />In cities there are many different types of land uses, such as offices, cinemas, shops, restaurants,
<br />and hotels. Each of these uses tends to have differing peak use periods. Offices, for example, are
<br />busiest during the weekdays until 5:00 P.M. or so. Cinemas, by contrast, tend to be inactive in
<br />the morning, mellow in the afternoon, and lively at night and on the weekends. Hotels are
<br />relatively idle during the day and need a lot of parking over night, while everything else is
<br />empty. This all applies to downtowns and non-downtowns alike.
<br />In non-downtown areas, each property acts as a self-contained unit and is usually pretty large.
<br />Walking from one property to another isn't realistic or desirable, because some shopping centers
<br />'Pt}~~ 9
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