Seattle: Number 1 Walkable City!

Seattle is designated as a Platinum-level community due to top-notch planning and engineering, outstanding outreach and education, and strong enforcement and evaluation practices. Highlights of Seattle’s application include:

• Seattle is a leading example of positive evaluation practices and has developed an outstanding reputation as a walkable city due, in large part, to the understanding of trends in pedestrian travel. This understanding comes from significant pedestrian counts that have been occurring biannually since 2006. Data is collected during the peak summer and winter periods and analyzed for seasonal and time of day impacts on walking volumes.

• One of the main reasons Seattle’s Pedestrian Master Plan is such a successful document is the clear establishment of goals and measurable performance indicators. With the objective of becoming the country’s most walkable city, Seattle established baseline measurements, performance targets, and data collection processes to improve walkability. These indicators fit into the four main goals of the plan: Safety, Equity, Vibrancy, and Health and contain such examples as reaching ten new schools a year with outreach and increasing pedestrian volumes in selected count locations.

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