How Making Cities More Pedestrian-Friendly Can Revitalize Local Economies

In the United States, we’re really only familiar with one kind of infrastructure investment: adding more lanes to highways. For years, American cities have been widening their streets, adding parking lanes, and disinvesting in public transportation (Abbey-Lambertz, 2015; Dawid, 2016). It is no coincidence that the downtowns of most American cities are in decline (Thompson, 2022). Gray, car-centric cities are uninviting and discourage people from getting out of their cars and spending time (and money) in shops and potential public spaces. Meanwhile, people that live in walkable cities report a higher quality of life (NAR 2020 Community and Transportation Preference Survey, 2020) and emit less carbon. With the realization that green, walkable, pedestrian-friendly cities attract residents and investment, some cities in America and across the globe are attempting to revitalize their urban economies by reversing the American approach and making their cities less friendly to cars.

Figure 1

Lancaster, CA, before redevelopment

(WRLDCTY, 2021)

Figure 2

Lancaster, CA c. 2011, after redevelopment

(WRLDCTY, 2021)

One example is Lancaster, CA, a city near Los Angeles that invested 11.2 million dollars in redeveloping its downtown area from 2008-2011. As you can see in the before (Figure 1) and after (Figure 2) pictures above, the number of street lanes has been reduced, the sidewalks have been widened, and there are more street trees, shade, and lighting. Along with simply transforming the area into a more inviting space, this redevelopment project conferred major public safety benefits, cutting car crashes in half, with injury-causing crashes dropping by 85% and pedestrian crashes dropping by 75%. Pedestrian activity has doubled, and subsequently, revenue from the downtown area has also more than doubled. The redesign attracted 57 new businesses, 800 new housing markets, and 2000 new jobs, and property values in the area have increased by 9.53%. Ultimately, a public investment of 11.2 million dollars resulted in an estimated 100 million dollars in private investment, with a total estimated economic impact of about 280 million dollars (Lancaster Boulevard Transformation | Moule & Polyzoides, n.d.).

Madrid, Spain, has gone even further and banned cars from its city center entirely, reaping similar benefits. When the car ban was first experimented with in 2018, it led to an estimated 9.5% increase in retail activity on Madrid’s main shopping street and a 3.3% increase in spending across the city (Reid, 2019). Furthermore, carbon dioxide emissions in the city center dropped by 14.2% within the first month of implementation (Reid, 2019). This policy is also incredibly popular among the public. When Madrid’s 2019 administration threatened to repeal the ban, they faced immense public backlash, with ten (according to the city) to sixty (according to organizers) thousand people taking to the streets in protest (O’Sullivan, 2019). 

Thus, not only does limiting city access to cars reduce emissions and car crashes, but it also boosts quality of life and economic activity in the area, as studies show that excessive automobile dependency stanches economic development (Litman & Laube, 2002). By simply making their cities friendly to people instead of cars, both Madrid and Lancaster have reaped a variety of economic, environmental, and safety benefits, and other cities can follow suit.

Edited by Jessie Zhu

Works Cited

Abbey-Lambertz, K. (2015, October 16). How The Decline Of Cars Is Changing Cities For The Better. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/car-decline-cities_n_561f34dae4b0c5a1ce620dd9

Dawid, I. (2016, April 7). The Historical Foundation of America’s Transit Disinvestment. Planetizen. https://www.planetizen.com/node/85496/historical-foundation-americas-transit-disinvestment

Lancaster Boulevard Transformation | Moule & Polyzoides. (n.d.). Retrieved November 25, 2022, from https://www.mparchitects.com/site/projects/lancaster-boulevard-transformation

Litman, T. A., & Laube, F. (2002). Automobile Dependency and Economic Development. 20.

NAR 2020 Community and Transportation Preference Survey. (2020). National Association of Realtors. https://www.nar.realtor/reports/nar-community-and-transportation-preference-surveys

O’Sullivan, F. (2019, July 24). In Madrid, a Car Ban Proves Stronger Than Partisan Politics. Bloomberg.Com. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-24/madrid-will-keep-its-car-ban-after-all

Reid, C. (2019, March 8). Closing Central Madrid To Cars Resulted In 9.5% Boost To Retail Spending, Finds Bank Analysis. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2019/03/08/closing-central-madrid-to-cars-resulted-in-9-5-boost-to-retail-spending-finds-bank-analysis/

Schmidt, S. (2021, September 9). Lessons From the Rise and Fall of the Pedestrian Mall. Bloomberg.Com. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-09-09/why-america-fell-out-of-love-with-the-pedestrian-mall

Steuteville, R. (2013, January 17). New streetscape spurs downtown turnaround [Text]. CNU. https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/new-streetscape-spurs-downtown-turnaround

Thompson, D. (2022, April 25). Why Americans Are Leaving Downtowns in Droves. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/04/metro-areas-shrinking-population-loss/629665/

WRLDCTY (Director). (2021, January 5). How to Make our Cities More Walkable | Jeff Speck. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dAckA1Ef-M